A good two days at Immigration

My wife is not an American citizen.She was born in Philippines and has been in the U.S.A. since April,2004.I've been dealing with the Immigration Service (USCIS) since early 2003.I can't even begin to say the number of times I've been on the phone with them.Likewise,I've been to three different USCIS offices in Atlanta countless times. Most of those visits could be called "neutral" at best, though I have had negative experiences there too.

My wife received her permanent resident card this past September.Someone in the USCIS location in California made an error in making the card by putting in the wrong birthdate.We had to send the card to Lee's Summit MO. so it could be made right.Without that "green card" she is unable to work or travel outside the country.

We made an appointment to see an Immigration officer yesterday AM.There is a public parking lot across the street from the Federal building where we managed to get a spot almost immediately upon entering.There were very few visitors ahead of us and we were able to talk to an especially helpful man right away.He told us that if we returned today with my wife's birth certificate he would stamp her passport so we'd have prove of her residence status until her corrected "green card" arrived.

He didn't make us wait in line.....we could see him as soon as we arrived.Now, she can work and we can go to Dumaguete to see our son's "Lola and Lolo".
We were even able to take advantage of an "early bird" discount at the parking lot this AM.(on the way home we cashed in a $2 winning scratch off ticket and won $28)

Over all,I'd say it's been a very nice day.

The Red-headed stepchild tries to step out

If blogs were living beings with emotions and feelings then,I suppose this blog would feel like the red-headed stepchild of my Dumaguete blog.As I mentioned in my previous entry,although I have used this blog to write about my adventures in Dumaguete,I want to be able to write about other things.This blog has never been as popular as the website blog and it's ironic to see my "escape" entry making the relevant area on a Dumaguete blog search.Of course,with a title like "sorry all the clever names are taken" I guess it's not easy for the search engines to find a category for this.

This entry isn't about Dumaguete

When I started the Dumaguete Website blog, I decided that I would try to limit the entries to things that dealt in someway with the website. I had things I wanted to write about concerning Dumaguete but, these were not related to my work on the website, so this blog was created, in part, to handle that. But sometimes I want to write about something other than Dumaguete and this blog can do serve that purpose as well.

Placing restrictions on the other blog has actually made it easier for me. There’s always something going on with the website so I can write something nearly every day. It’s a different story with this blog. The lack of boundaries and limits has made it more difficult. In a small way, it is analogous to comparing Mozart to Hip Hop. Classical music in Mozart’s day had a certain structure. By remaining within that structure, Mozart was able to explore a wide variety of musical ideas.
Conversely,there are no structural limits to Hip Hop….the “artists “ can do whatever they want. However, with it’s lack of structure, Hip Hop is boring and monotonous.

The entries came easy for me when they were limited to my experiences in Dumaguete. I want to branch out and it’s not so easy.

Thoughts on the food in Dumaguete

With such a wide variety of places to dine out in Dumaguete, I can't pretend to be an expert on all the restaurants, cafes and eateries in the city. I can, however, write about the few establishments with which I am familiar.

I've eaten at the Jollibee on Perdices a couple of times. They have a burger which is, surprisingly, comparable to a McDonald's Big Mac. The mango fried pie is pretty good,too. I've been to Chow King and I'd say the food is typical Chinese fast food. Cathy and I had a pizza from Shakey's delivered to our hotel room. It was some kind of pepperoni pizza with something crispy on top.......which turned out to be shredded potato.

Our food of choice was from D&C Manokan. I can remember the first time we had their chicken. When it arrived at the room, there were no forks or spoons included. I wasn't sure how we'd eat the rice. This was my first time eating rice with my fingers. Being a Southern boy, I'd eaten chicken with my fingers all my life so, that was no problem for me. As a matter of fact, I'll still eat rice with my fingers when I'm eating bony fish.

The Swiss steak from Don Atilano is wonderful.

I guess the most last effect of having eaten in Dumaguete is my new-found habit of eating everything with a spoon and fork-Philippine style.

Coffee, me or Dumaguete?

My original plan for today was to write an entry on the food in Dumaguete, but it's early Sunday morning and my thoughts run towards coffee.

Being a typical son of the South (as far as beverage choice goes) my 2 favorite drinks are coffee and iced tea. I had a pretty good idea before going to Philippines the first time that it would probably be difficult getting iced tea........you can't always find that here in the U.S..

I was proven right on that score. I thought it might be a different situation when it came to coffee. But, I'm sorry to say, Philippines (or at least the Visayas) is not a coffee lover's paradise. During my first two trips to Philippines, I spent a total of six weeks on the island of Siquijor without ever seeing (or tasting) brewed coffee. As far as I can remember, the only instant coffee I found was the 3-in-1 with creamer and sugar in the pouch with the coffee.

Yuck.

During that 6 weeks, I was forced to survive on hot tea ..... a poor substitute. The situation was a little bit better in Dumaguete. You can find brewed coffee in places like the food court in Lee Plaza or Dunkin' Donuts; the problem with that, however, is that I don’t wake up in the morning at Lee Plaza or Dunkin’ Donuts and the hotel where I normally stayed didn’t serve brewed coffee. So, when I woke every morning, my first cup of coffee was the instant coffee that came with the free hotel breakfast. At least I did have a choice over the 3-in-1.

During my last visit I was able to try brewed coffee from beans grown in Philippines. I wish I could say that it was delicious but, it spelled and tasted liked burnt wood. I love Dumaguete, but I would have to make an adjustment in my beverages of choice should I ever stay there very long.