I'm finally here. I'm finally 'home' in Tempe, Arizona. It's been 8 long months, an invasive medical, and a 5 hour sit at the U.S. Embassy, but I finally arrived home to my husband and two dozen roses on Tuesday 14th August. At the airport immigration I seemed to cut in front of all the other people in the 'special little room' due to my flawless papers (thanks for this one thing lawyer - and this one thing only), and I'm all ready to do anything an American can do...except vote...and claim benefits...and be treated at a hospital without surrendering a kidney for payment. So first things on the list were:
1) Get a Social Security Card - Fortunately this thorn in my side was pretty easy to extract. All American bureaucratic institutions remind me of 'Argos'. You go in, tell them what you want, and they give you a number. You are known by that number henceforth. When it's called you go to the right 'booth' and you are greeted by a pleasant yet vacant, 'welcome number five-zero-three-zero, how can I help you?'. I got my card after only a 30 minute wait, which apparently is phenomenal. I hope I don't need to visit again.
2) Get a drivers license - I passed the theory test this morning ('Welcome number three-zero-three'), and the driving test shouldn't be too hard. I've seen people drive here with a burger in one hand, lipstick in the other and a bucket of Pepsi between their knees. When I was asked this morning if I wanted to take my driving test right away I told her I had only driven my husband's car once, and she said, 'you should be fine to take your test then'. I'll take it in a few days no doubt.
3) Get a mobile - Mobiles here are extortionately expensive, so my other kidney was trembling. I bought a pay-as-you-go for $10 (yeah, I wonder how long that will last).
4) Get a job - We all know how marketable a psychology degree holder is - luckily I can do a wonderfully posh English accent. I have registered with a staffing agency (who can't seem to work out what 'alien registration number' to put in the box...doesn't bode well) and have sent scouts to look for jobs for me. But at present I am still a lady of leisure, all be it a poor one.
Despite all the above formalities that needed attending to, more pressing than anything when I arrived was the burning of the contents of the kitchen. Rod had done a lovely job of cleaning the apartment to my standards, he just hasn't cooked a single meal since I've been gone and thus has had no reason to check the cupboards. Most impressively - there were 2 onions in the fridge that I had left there 8 months ago. They we're surprisingly white and firm, the only noticeable difference was the 30cm green shoots coming from their crowns and winding around the fridge. Everything in the fridge was mopped straight into a black bag, and at least 1/2 of all the tinned and packaged products in the cupboards had to go too. We went for a 'big shop' after that.
There's also a dog to get used to. Many of you will recall the 2 parakeets that Rod bought to talk to him while Wifey was gone. Unfortunately they talked too much. So they had to go. Rod found a family with 2 little girls at Church who wanted birds, and that's the end of Ikit and Tinky. Rod also found that the dog was allergic to birds (only in my world does this happen). Yuki (YOU-key) is a 2 year old female, she's 3/4 Shiba Inu and 1/4 pug. That means that she has the proportions of a large dog but she's barely bigger than a large cat. She's also very well behaved...for Rod. When he commands, she sits, lays down, jumps, goes to her bed, fetches etc. When I command, she stares for a while with an air of 'and what authority do you have exactly?' and rolls over. You'd think she'd have more respect for the person who picks up her poo with only a thin layer of plastic between sweaty palm and steaming turd. Nice dog, well behaved, cute, very mellow. I'll warm more as I get used to her.
A few days after I arrived back Rod and I took Yuki on a trip with us to Flagstaff for 2 days, not only so I could get to know the dog, but so Rod and I could get to know each other again! It was lovely and cool up in the North of Arizona so we spent the time hiking and letting Yuki run free in the dog park. It was really hard to return to Tempe, where the temperature is still 110 degrees and will remain there until early October. It took me longer to settle in than before, possibly because it was a week or 2 before I saw people again. I've managed to catch up with many of my old friends now, and our Ward have arranged a 'Welcome Home Carla' party for this coming Tuesday, so I'm beginning to feel like it's all real now. Oh, and I was asked to give a 15 minute talk in Church last week, so that threw me back into normality pretty swiftly.
I think that's all I need to update you on now, except to say that Rachel and Ben are dropping by to see us for a few days next week (Ha! We see them before you!) as part of the final leg of their world tour.
I hope you are all well, let me know how much it's raining in England. (Ha!)All my love, (our love?)
Carla (and Rod?)
xx
