April 1, 2006
Very sleepless in Seattle
(TrackBack)So Seattle is Vancouver crashed into Victoria. Nice place but I have to admit Whistler has really blinkered my life. This is basically the first time I've left a perfect, clean, small town populated by the youthful, energetic seasonaires, the rich sophisticated visitors and illusive locals and I must admit the number of angry looking individuals, weird hobos talking to themselves and general bustle and hustle (I had to walk within 10 yards of someone else today!) is kind of overwhelming.
Sirens, trucks, ghetto blasters (who knew that we were back in the 90's and people actually walked around towns with these blowing in their ears, I hope the life of D-sized batteries has improved over the last decade) is really distracting. The drive down here was a real test of my willpower, I wanted to read every sign I passed, look at the inhabitants of every car, Whistler has literally made me lose sense of the bigger picture. And to be honest, it's nice. In the last 6 months I've never once felt threatened, never kept my eyes open walking around at night and actually miss the place already.
I scored about 2 hours sleep last night (after 5 hours driving) due to the snore-lord Mark. Earplugs, pah. Two pillows glasped around my head, pah. To make up for it today was food-action packed. We scored crumpets for breakfast and fish and chips for lunch which pretty much fulfilled the biggest bits of England I've missed since being here (family and friends excluded, of course) and also fulfills the "what I had for lunch" part of this diary.
I musn't forget to extend thanks to US immigration for relieving me of $6 on the border for a finger print scan and photograph. The prices of stuff around here is incredible in comparison to "home", however, and I'm going to stock up big time on pharmicuticals and other various crap.
Moving along (I'll have more on Seattle and Vancouver soon), I got my files back from the lawyer, the one I was going to update about. I'll reserve total judgement until I see whether I get a visa of not but it's been quite difficult... So far I've told my contact twice that I was told by one of her colleagues (who you thought she might just get up out of her chair and talk to) that the visa should be processed under "arranged employment" category, she can't seem to grasp it. Then... the documents she has checked over and "amended" have my surname spelt incorrectly in half of them! Edmonston!
Posted by Mark at April 1, 2006 9:59 PM
Comments
So... you're saying I should use these lawyers of yours for everything if I find myself in Canada eh?
Posted by: Greg at April 3, 2006 10:37 AM
Use them for EVERYTHING nevermind if you're in Canada or not... wait no that's wrong.
Posted by: Mark at April 8, 2006 4:36 PM
Hiya, I was just googling immigration times and your site came up! I'm doing the same, applying with AEO (arranged employment) cos I love Whistler so much! I was just wondering if your lawyer told you how long the application processing time would be with the arranged employment option? Thanks! Hayley
Posted by: Hayley at April 8, 2006 7:43 PM
Yeah I'm apparently looking at 6 months, processed through the Buffalo office, which is considerably quicker than the normal 27 months...but we'll see what actually happens. Good luck!
Posted by: Mark at April 9, 2006 7:42 AM