A day to remember...

Took the weekend off from work and blogging because... yesterday was my birthday! We celebrated on Saturday though. My hubby planned a day trip for us to a mysterious destination which he wouldn't tell me beforehand. I had to guess where we were going as we were driving there. We stopped by a small town diner for lunch and then went on to our destination - a wildlife/safari park! We drove our car through the park and these wild animals just come up to the car and greet us (of course it's b/c we have food for them). Some were kind of scary/odd looking but some are just adorable. We got to hand feed a giraffe! That had the be one of the coolest experience EVER.

The ostrich poking his head into the car to check out what was in the feed bag (nothing - we were out of feed by this point).

On the immigration front - no new development. I'm waiting for the biometrics appointment letter but no sign of it as of today (day 17). They did update ("touch") my application a few times last week though with the last one on 3/25/2010. Must... be... patient...

[GUIDE] How to check your case status on USCIS website

Once you receive your notice of action (I-797C) in the mail, you can use your receipt number to check your case status online on USCIS website. The receipt number can be found on the top left-hand corner of the notice of action: "XXX-00-000-00000" (with X being letters and 0 being numbers).

Or alternatively, you can sign up for electronic notification by submitting form G-1145: E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance. They will e-mail you your receipt number (I think - I didn't know of this form when I submitted my applications!).


How to check your case status
 
1) Go to USCIS website: http://www.uscis.gov/

2) On the left column on the page, under "AFTER I FILE", click on "Check My Case Status (red arrow below)."

Day 10: Notice of Action Received in the Mail!

Wheee! We received four envelopes containing I-797C: notice of action (or lovingly abbreviated as "NOA") for all our applications today! The received date on the form says 3/12/2010, while the notice date is 3/19/2010. So it took about a week for the NOA to be generated and sent out. Pretty good so far!

One of the added benefit of receiving our NOA is that now I have the receipt numbers (top left hand corner of the NOA). I can go online and check the case status AS OFTEN AS I WANT!!! I'll write a separate post about how to check your case status and how to sign up for notification if you have not already done so (i.e. send in form G-1145: E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance with your package).

In other news, I gave my talk today. It went well - of course it could always be better, but I'm just happy and relieved that it's over with. I have another talk to give next Tuesday for the other program that I'm in. I'll be giving the same talk but just a bit shorter so the preparation should be much easier. As always, I wasn't hungry before the talk so I didn't eat (one of the symptoms of me being nervous). Halfway through though, I suddenly became very hungry and somewhat light-headed. I still have a stomachache now. Urgh.

Whoa... USCIS cashed our checks!

They cashed our checks! They cashed our checks! Yay! We had to transfer money to our checking to make sure we don't go into the red, but this is the first sign that they are doing something with the package I meticulously assembled! Yay.

P.S. The $1,010 is for form I-485 ($930 for the form + $80 biometrics fee) and $355 is for form I-130.

Winter delight

NYTimes: Taiwan’s Steaming Pools of Paradise

A college friend (a through-and-through New Yorker living in Taiwan) posted this. Hot springs are just so wonderfully wonderful in the winter times. So if you've never been to one, I recommend that you try it out the next time you're in Asia (Japan or Taiwan - I'm not sure what other countries are fans of hot springs).

I'm keeping this short because I'm meeting with my adviser in the morning to go over some slides for a talk I need to give next Monday. Off to bed to give my brain a break from science.

Numbers, contrary to popular belief

Study Finds Cohabiting Doesn’t Make a Union Last

Stumbled upon this article in NY Times today (I get my news from nytimes... well, more accurately, from the most e-mailed list on nytimes):

"The likelihood that a marriage would last for a decade or more decreased by six percentage points if the couple had cohabited first, the study found."

 "In general, one in five marriages will dissolve within five years. One in three will last less than 10 years."

This is interesting because the logic of my generation goes that if you've seen the good, bad, and the ugly BEFORE you marry, then you're making an informed decision. Well, the numbers tell another story, and I happen to be quite a fan of statistics. I think what it comes down to is that love is a commitment - me deciding to love you no matter what - rather than a contract where I will love you only if you do such and be such. We're a selfish generation. Everything is about me. Even loving someone else has to be on my terms. For my benefit. That's where everything goes wrong. That's not what God had intended love to be and that's not the love that He has shown us.

Anyways, another quote:

"Couples who marry after age 26 or have a baby eight months or more after marrying are also more likely to stay married for more than a decade."

We meet criterion #1 so I guess our prognosis is happier. We're working on criterion #2 as well - much to my mother's dismay.

Where to begin?

Well, since I'm waiting on words from USCIS and based on what I've been seeing on visajourney forum (great resource, btw), I won't be hearing from them for at least another week, I figure I might as well go back in time and fill in some background.

Let's see. Where do we begin?

I'm Taiwanese. Born and raised in downtown Taipei. Had a pretty average childhood, I would say. Went through the public school system for elementary school and middle school, and then got into a public magnet high school that's also nearby. All three schools are located within a 10-minute walk from the apartment I grew up in. Then when I graduated from high school, I moved 8,000 miles away to the US for college (more on that later). What I didn't know then in my naivete was that I was leaving the only home that I had ever knew, that I would slowly become used to this new country's way of life, and that one day, I will come to call this new country home.

Safely in Chicago!

I sent my AOS (adjustment of status) package off to the Chicago lockbox last Wednesday (March 10th). Someone signed for it Friday morning!

Yay. Now the waiting begins.