El Salvador.
Savoïr faire a blessing and curse,
Outcome by either serendipity or design.
The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end,
A sunset.
"When was the last time you were at a wedding that had a death defying hike, rogue waves, a luau, ultimate fighting, a presidential candidate and a budding bromance?" asks Papi Chulo. For most of us, the answer is never, but luckily, Papi Chulo and Secret Agent Scotch took the time to Vox all the amazing moments during their unforgettable Hawaiian wedding on 08.08.08 so we could all take part in the festivities.
The story began last February, when Papi Chulo popped the question and Secret Agent Scotch said yes! Since then, they've kept us in the loop about all the details, from the bride's veil to the wedding song to the final To-Do List. And throughout it all, they inspired us with their love for each other. (I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than knowing your future husband thinks you are The Perfect Girl.)
It's an amazing love story and we are thrilled they shared it with us. Watch the video of the ceremony and please join us in wishing Papi Chulo and Secret Agent Scotch the fairytale ending they deserve.
And What's a Team Vox Post without New Themes?
Spice up your Vox blog with one of our latest themes (found in the design area under "New") or any of our hundreds of themes. From shopping to sushi, comics to cycling, there's something for everyone.
Can't get enough of the wedding? A few lucky Voxers - Krissy, djchall, and Beau Smith - made the trip to Hawaii to take part in the celebration. Check out their Vox blogs for more pictures and stories.
Congratulations again to Secret Agent Scotch and Papi Chulo! Enjoy the Honeymoon!
I have student visa, do I need return ticket to enter?
Do I have to book my return flight, in May, now?
So this was the question I was researching when I hit upon the visa problem.
Here is my first reply (from Courtney):
OMG just stay in your country please! America does not need another damn mexican or whatever you are in this country. And please if you come don't take any American jobs away. That is really annoying!
So I edited the question, and added:
1st answer is unintentionally funny.
I wanted to know whether I need to have my return ticket - back to the usa - in order to enter the uk.
(Though, Courtney, the Brits are trying to be sure that I'm not trying to sneak in and steal those good uk jobs, the ones paid in fiscally-healthy British currency.)
So does anyone actually know about this?
I still haven't gotten a clear answer on the return ticket thing.
And OMG indeed.
We fly out Tuesday morning.
To add to the jolly mix of tasks below, there is a new one.
Just when I thought I had at least gotten all the travel plans solid...
We booked our trip to London via Dublin, to visit Tom's relatives.
(The ones who are relatively nearby in case Sair has some kind of awful emergency whose nature I cannot even comprehend.)
And they are lovely people.
Then we take the ferry across to Wales (cos I love ferries), a full day in Wales (cos it's Wales), then the train to London, hotel in Bloomsbury, near Sair's college, and five days to hang out before dropping her off.
Sounds great.
Anyway, yesterday I was Googling around with other questions, and
ACK
it appears I have messed up Sair's student visa.
It's a UK visa, so the customs people at the Dublin airport don't entry stamp it, because they are the Republic of Ireland and not the UK.
They went to some difficulty to achieve this, and aren't going to undo it now.
But even so, apparently British Isles, all of them, Skye and the lot, are inside of some kind of free travel group, so going from the Republic of Ireland to the UK doesn't provide an entry stamp either.
So they are separate, but not all that separate.
Who knew?
I've been madly phoning and emailing people on the question.
It may be that we can find some guy in an office in London who can see that she is there and stamp it.
Or if nothing else works, I suspect she could grab a cheap flight to Paris, turn around and come back and be entry stamped over the weekend.
But it may also all be moot.
We applied for her Irish citizenship back in January, and we told to expect it to take at least 18 months, or more.
Fine.
It came last week.
We can now apply for an Irish passport, and are told that one will take 4-8 weeks.
Apparently when one has a dual citizenship like this, what happens is that the US passport is for entering and exiting the US proper, but for traveling within, and staying endlessly, legally, in the EU the Irish passport is used.
So I think she can just stay happily in London this fall (though I mail her the Irish passport when it arrives here, as insurance).
She can come home for Christmas on her US passport, leave in January on the US passport, but use the Irish one on arriving in London again, to enter the UK.
And it won't matter whether The US one was entry-stamped in August or not, because she can be in London on her Irish passport perfectly legally.
I think.
Samantha
I LOVE you!
I mean, OMG, she doesn't even know me but she loves me.
I am honored to call you both my friends.
Here's to you on your special day.
Aloha,
xoxo
Hi folks!
Just wanted to let you know that as of 3am this morning, BitchBuzz is LIIIIIIVE!!!!
While this is just sort of the bare bones of the design and functionality of the site, I'm still very, very proud of it.
Sair has homeschooled since kindergarten.
We went through lots of permulations of this - from charter schools to completely unstructured.
And last fall we had to pull the whole act all together, and do the college application thing - SATs, transcripts, letters, AP testing, financial aid aps, and the lot.
Having actually gotten Sair into the school of her choice, now we're in the last leg of things, getting her all packed up and otherwise readied for her freshman year in London.
Much sorting of clothing, acquiring of xl-twin sheets, and hunting out used copies of books.
Normally my position would be to travel light, and just track down everything there, but the exchange rate sucks soooooo very badly that instead we are bringing everything we can pack.
I know she'll have to spend a lot of those weak dollars, but I'm hoping to limit it to specifically London stuff - theater tickets, food, travel - instead of essentially paying double for things that we already own.
And there's been getting Sair herself ready.
Passport, yes; student visa, yes.
And, of course, as soon as we'd done all that paperwork, another long-term project came through.
Sair's grandfather was born in Ireland, which makes her eligible for Irish citizenship, and we sent off that paperwork in January.
(Because applying for colleges really wasn't enough busywork, you know.)
They said it'd take a year and a half to process, but dang it, it just turned up last week.
So, YAY, she's an EU member now.
We will get the paperwork for her Irish passport going too, before she leaves.
Of course, if we'd had this is May, she wouldn't have needed to do the whole UK visa thiing, and we'd have missed all that lovely paperwork.
Sigh.
She also had two sets of health forms, the regular one for the university itself, quite short, and one for their global program, which ran to ten pages and required an actual physical exam by her doctor.
Who had to be a new doctor, because Kaiser had just kicked her out of pediatrics into adult medicine.
But it all went well, and now her shots are caught up.
It's not that they think London is that much of a health threat, but rather that they have programs all over the world, and one form for them all,.
So now she is pretty much prepared for anything
We were all set to get her last two wisdom teeth out as well, but the surgeon decided at the last minute that they really weren't quite ready yet.
So at least she's not spending her last week at home with massive holes in her jaw.
So I'm off now to rent off Tom's aunt's house.
(Because sometimes I wear my landlady hat.)
I had a tenant set up since July 20th, visiting faculty from Norway who had a slight issue with the availability, but took it anyway: "We're committed to renting your house, and will work out some place to stay for the week before it's available."
Sounds fairly solid, yes?
But when I emailed them the lease on Saturday, they said they'd found a place, sorry.
They could have told me, instead of just sitting on it.
It isn't that I will have hurt feelings, or try to hold them to their word.
It's just that we leave on the 12th, and my summer tanants leave on the 15th.
Slight panic.
But I've found some nice graduate students, also from Norway, but I don't hold a grudge.
So all is well.
