quality of characteristics

Friday I got a large manila envelope in the mail with this return address.


I was psyched. My background check was back and it had only taken 3 weeks!

Wah. I was wrong.



The lovely local police station clerk didn't do my prints well enough, so now I have to get them redone and send them back to the FBI. I'm going to go to the same place, so I don't have to pay again (they better not make me pay again!) but I'll try to get a different person to do it this time.

I do see it as a good sign, though, that I did get some sort of response in only three weeks.

police

For the first time, um... ever, I didn't procrastinate! Since the girls' paperwork arrived, it was time to start working on my own. Thursday night I went to the official New Zealand immigration site and downloaded all the necessary forms and guides I'd need. The first step I noticed was the police background check. According to this page, in the US I have to request it from the FBI. And according to the FBI it takes 16 - 18 weeks to process! Good thing I didn't procrastinate.

So like I said, Thursday night I downloaded the forms. Knowing I had Friday off it crossed my mind that I could go to the local police station and get the required fingerprints the very next day and be done with it. But then it crossed my mind that I know myself pretty well, and realistically I was going to put it off. But then by the weirdest coincidence, Friday morning my mom suddenly needed to go to the police station! I don't think in my 32 years of life my mother has ever needed to go to the police station. Here's why she had to on Friday.

We live very near (about a mile and a half) Boston College, which is a decent New England liberal arts college (what New Zealanders call University). What they are more known for than academics, though, is football (American football, not soccer). College football is HUGE in the US, and when games occur, whole cities have to shut down. This sign is directly outside our house.



As you can see, every year they have to update the sign with a sticker, and this year they haven't yet updated it. Boston College has a home game today, Saturday, September 8. My mom also has a dinner party scheduled for today, Saturday, September 8. Many of her guests are driving, and our driveway won't fit all the cars. So Friday morning Mom called the city parking bureau to ask for special permission to ignore the parking ban. They told her to immediately bring a signed letter with her request to the police chief. And that's why she had to go to the police station Friday, the same day I was planning on putting off going to the police station.

So we went. For $5 I got these.



Another act of providence helped me avert a major shanking of the process. I had filled out the forms, put it all together in an envelope, stamped the envelope, and ran to the door to catch the mailman. I had only JUST missed him, by about a minute. (Kiwi culture note: In New Zealand mail carriers don't pick up outgoing mail from your house like they do here in the US. They only deliver.) I contemplated driving to the post office to mail it, but decided that a day wouldn't likely make much of a difference, so I could wait till Saturday for the mailman to pick it up. Well, later that night I was online, I had a bunch of web browser windows open to many different sites, and so I started reviewing the pages and closing the ones no longer needed. One of them was opened to the FBI page I linked to above, with the instructions for requesting the background check. I quickly reread it and was about to shut it, when I noticed that I had not filled out the fingerprint form entirely! Yikes. I can only imagine the delay if it had actually gone out in the mail incomplete. I opened up the envelope, finished filling out the form, and resealed it. It went out in today's mail. Whew.

looky looky

Check out what arrived last week!



Two big folders with goodies inside.





My girls now have proof of their New Zealand citizenship, and they can move to the country unhindered! Interestingly, since their citizenship is by descent, they cannot pass on their Kiwi citizenship by descent to their children, unless after living there long enough they apply for a grant of New Zealand citizenship. I guess that means until then they're second-class citizens?

Now it's really time for me to apply for my permanent residency.

north

We're on holiday in Canada right now. In a lot of ways, our neighbor to the north reminds me of New Zealand. They use the metric system. Uhhh... maybe that's the only similarity. It's the only one I can think of right now, at least. Oh, and parts of it look like parts of New Zealand. We're out west in Alberta, and the Rockies are lovely stand-ins for the Southern Alps.





While here, I got an email from Felicity in the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, saying they had received my huge pack of applications (whew!), but that my credit card was declined (suck!). Turns out that my credit card company flagged my account because of the suspicious attempt to rent a car in Calgary. Annoying. I cleared that up and sent Felicity an email telling her to try the charge again. Done. So now you can see on the update in the side bar table of expenses. NZ$581.95 ($21.95 of which is for the international courier). With the kiwi dollar almost 80 US cents, the final charge came to US$458.59. When I return home, it's time to start my NZ residency application.

sent and received

With their heights duly entered on the passport application forms, I finally was able to compile all 4 applications (2 citizenship registrations and 2 passports) in one big stack and mail them off to the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. I sent it USPS priority international for $11. Hopefully it gets there. I have doubts, because the US Postal Service SUCKS. I have to call today and issue a complaint about a domestic priority package I sent with delivery confirmation over 2 weeks ago that still hasn't registered as arriving yet.

Something that did arrive in the mail yesterday was a cute little box that had Homeland Security tape all over it indicating that it had been opened and searched by customs. Must have been because the box had no indication whatsoever of where it came from (other than that it came from New Zealand) and what was in it and the x-ray would have showed it containing nothing but a mysterious brown powdery substance. Not to worry though, we weren't the target of a chemical or biological attack.



Yes, despite being able to purchase Milo here in the States at certain stores that specialize in foreign food items, Aidan doesn't like the Jamaican made Milo as much as NZ made Milo, so he ordered it from New Zealand online. For American's not in the know, Milo touts itself as an "energy drink" but it's really just a slightly malted version of Nesquik (formerly Quik). Drunk mainly as a hot drink, because it doesn't dissolve well in cold. A good alternative to coffee or tea in cuppa obsessed Kiwi culture.

what's the opposite of procrastination?

2' 9" and 3' 6".

Aren't you proud of me?

:)

procrastination, part 2 - the beet burger

Yes, I have been seriously remiss in posting updates here. Reason? Because I am seriously good at procrastinating. I've slooooowly been filling out the citizenship and passport applications for the girls. Like, filling out a line or 2 per day. Ha. The hold up now is that I need to get their heights for the passports, and I usually work on the apps while they're asleep and can't measure them. Totally lame excuse, I know. But it's all I've got. ;)

So how about a silly photo to pass the time till something productive actually happens?


It's a half-eaten burger. But not just any half-eaten burger. It's a half-eaten Kiwi burger. What makes it a Kiwi burger? (It's half-eaten because I ate half of it.) Look closely. There's a slice of beet (known as beet root in NZ) on there. New Zealanders love to put beet root on their burgers. I'm not a fan of beets, but we joined a vegetable CSA this summer, and we've been getting some beets. I thought I'd better start getting used to Kiwi cuisine. It was okay.

procrastination

I don't know what's wrong with me. A week ago, my teacher friend Marya filled out the witness forms for the girls' NZ passport applications (as I previously noted she would) and I still haven't put them all together and mailed them yet. I'm such a procrastinator. I obviously have also not started yet on my residency app. Gotta get on that.

Oh, helpful tidbit of information... A biro pen (the writing implement required for filling out the NZ passport application for) is just a ballpoint pen.

happy independence

Well, it's the Fourth of July, an American only holiday. Weird to think that after the next one, we won't celebrate one for a long time. Another thing I'll actually kinda miss - the patriotism here. Don't get me wrong, I cringe over and mock the "USA! USA!" chanters, and I abhor the whole "America is the best country in the whole wide world" attitude of so many here. But I am actually pretty patriotic. I get choked up every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner (the US national anthem). I vote. I watch baseball and American football (the Red Sox and the Patriots no less). I support our troops (though not the war in Iraq).

From what I've gathered, New Zealand is not so patriotic. Kiwis are proud to be Kiwis, but there isn't the same feeling of belonging as I sense here. It's probably a good thing, because at the core patriotism is just a "we're better than everyone else" attitude. Oh well, I'll let you know after I live there what the difference really is.

other things to miss

Big Sister Bou turned 4 years old on Friday, and on Saturday we had all her mates from school over for some cake and ice cream. And some beating on a Buzz Lightyear piñata. They had such fun. The families from her preschool and the teachers are so great, the preschool itself is high on our list of things we'll miss when we move (see sidebar). Big Sister will complete the 2 year schedule, but Little Sis Nys won't be old enough to even start before we move. Hopefully we'll find a place for her in Wellington with a similar quality environment.