So, I am trying to do something completely extraordinary, unheard-off, unthinkable: I am trying to renew my driver license but not just that I am trying to do it before my time is up. The darn thing expires smack in the middle of our sabbatical and being a good alien I thought it the responsible thing to renew it before I leave, so when we return in July I come home to a valid drivers license.
Well, that was me thinking - and I thought somewhat logically and coherently - but I run into an unforeseen obstacle.
I called the DMV today to make arrangements for the renewal. I should have been tipped of about the challenges ahead by the fact that nowhere on the DMV webpage do they give any information about renewing your license before you absolutely have to. I ran right into that one - eyes wide open.
After the usual hour long wait in various automated option trees I reached a person, or at least I may have reached a person. The scenario is not unfamiliar to this alien who to this day steadfastly believes to have a reasonable command of the English language. I voice my desire for a renewal and get - some sort of answer - honestly, I do not understand a word the person on the other line is saying. We go through several rounds of "Pardon me, could you repeat this?" "Sorry, I still did not understand what you where just saying." "Unfortunately, I am still not quite sure ..." There seem to be a million polite ways of saying: "Speak up, woman, and stop mumbling, slurring and making an utter mess of your incomplete sentences!" - and I know them all and then some.
What finally emerges is the following: one cannot renew a driver license more then 60 days before expiration. Full stop. It just isn't possible, has never been done, is unthinkable and why the hell am I asking such an idiotic question in the first place. I try to interjet a nice little story about temporary relocation and am then informed of one last resort possibility. I could in fact get my drivers license renewed on say January 13 and therefore a full, daunting two weeks before the 60 day period but - and here it comes - I would have to take a driver test and a written test. "You mean, I would have to drive around, like, in a car?" I ask incredulously and am in formed that, "Yes, Ma'm, you will have to do that and those are just the rules."
Okay, so let me get this straight: That fact that I want to renew 2 weeks before the official renewal period commences makes me by rule, law, decree, or divine intervention such a bad driver that I have to take a whole new driving test (and I have had share my of experiences with that - but that's for another day) and a written test. I cannot even begin to understand what the thinking behind this nonsense is (I hope you realize that I am trying hard not to swear).
That leaves me with the option of letting my drivers license slip, or maybe on our stop over in JFK in february I can use the spare time before flying on to Vienna to quickly log on and renew my license. That is, if they don't want this alien to show up again in person to prove that I haven't forgotten how many inches can maximally lie between a parked car and the curb.
I really wish Americans would travel abroad more often an for longer periods of time!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
we are getting closer
Finally we booked the flights after many adjustments and moving flights back and forth. I don't want to say that the flights are cheap but given the itinerary and all I am actually surprised it isn't more especially given the fact that your average ticket to India isn't cheap these days.
The Mexico - South India leg is truely frightning. We'll fly from Merida to Mexico City and from there to JFK, then on to Vienna and from there to Mumbai and on to Cochin - I have lost track of how many hours that will be but even Max acknowledged the other day when getting the trip explained to him on Google Earth (his newest obsession): "that's going to be tough". We'll have a stopover in Vienna for a night so hopefully that makes it more bareable.
We also have a potential renter for the house in Sunnyvale. A professor and his family from Chile, he'll be teaching at Stanford for six months starting mid-Januray. So far so good, the "little" problem is the size of the man's family: they have seven kids. Granted three are college students and will be staying in Chile for the most part but still - that's way more people than I had envisioned. Even with my European upbringing where a 1500 sqf home for a family of three is considered very spacious this seems, well, a little tight.
Most importantly, though, my camera equipment update is almost complete! I bought another lens this week and now all the expensive items are taken care off.
It's getting real!
The Mexico - South India leg is truely frightning. We'll fly from Merida to Mexico City and from there to JFK, then on to Vienna and from there to Mumbai and on to Cochin - I have lost track of how many hours that will be but even Max acknowledged the other day when getting the trip explained to him on Google Earth (his newest obsession): "that's going to be tough". We'll have a stopover in Vienna for a night so hopefully that makes it more bareable.
We also have a potential renter for the house in Sunnyvale. A professor and his family from Chile, he'll be teaching at Stanford for six months starting mid-Januray. So far so good, the "little" problem is the size of the man's family: they have seven kids. Granted three are college students and will be staying in Chile for the most part but still - that's way more people than I had envisioned. Even with my European upbringing where a 1500 sqf home for a family of three is considered very spacious this seems, well, a little tight.
Most importantly, though, my camera equipment update is almost complete! I bought another lens this week and now all the expensive items are taken care off.
It's getting real!
Friday, October 5, 2007
The big adventure
The big adventure is getting closer!
On January 19, 2008 we will leave for a six month sabbatical. We will visit six countries for 4 weeks each staying in houses or apartments. The destinations where decided upon after much deliberation and some back and forth along the lines of:
"No, we are not going to Patagonia, I will freeze my butt off and be miserable the entire time" and
"Desert, are you crazy, I'll die of a heat-stroke and then what?".
Max's contribution was generally the most even-tempered:
"Max, do you want to go to Chile?"
"Chilly? Okay, ja!"
Chile it wasn't in the end, but Mexico was declared "okay" as well.
So here is the final list:
Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
Cochin, Kerala, India
Frigiliana, Andalucia, Spain
Firenze, Tuscany, Italy
Konstanz, my hometown in Germany
and then a random assortment of places in Austria - Uli still has to figure it out. The list will most likely include a stay in Graz - a beautiful town in Sryria where the now infamous Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium once stood before they renamed it because of Arnie's support of the death penalty.
With the fun part decided upon and places rented or reserved in most destinations the boring stuff is upon us: of course, my drivers license has to expire during the period away so it needs to be renewed (as well as various credit cards), gym memberships need to be canceled, and who knew exactly how many magazine subscritions we had? I love my Sunset, photo magazines, Newsweeks, Economists, etc but not even I need six months of back issues.
Health insurance - I say no more, nobody ever wants to read about other people's problems with health insurance. The house needs to be rented out, which means the grouting has to be cleaned (baking soda and tooth brush, good thing I got that Ph.D. - invaluable ;-), the aluminum polished, the worst design sins need to be removed/replaced/fixed, that awful carpet with a million food stains - documenting every meal our three year old ever ate and some of ours - needs to be cleaned. I could go on but I spare you the details and myself the agony of thinking about it on this Friday evening as I am writing this.
After that the travel preparations will begin, as in deciding what to take on a six month trip. Do I love any of my t-shirts well enough to want to wear it for six months? (no, not straight but frequently!) Do they have the right kind of dental floss in Spain? How many stuffed animals does Max get to take? How much extra room in the suitcases should be set aside for buying saris while in India and if the answer is none - who of our friends and/or neighbors will have to put up with largish packages arriving from all over the globe with stuff that is (mainly) not for them? Will I be able to talk Uli into taking one jacket or long sleeve shirt or will he insist that is warm enough to get by with a t-shirt everywhere and will that set a bad example for Max who categorically declares "I love cold" and throws a screaming fit whenever I suggest he wear a sweater.
The logistics feel daunting - but I really don't expect any of you to feel sorry for me ....
On January 19, 2008 we will leave for a six month sabbatical. We will visit six countries for 4 weeks each staying in houses or apartments. The destinations where decided upon after much deliberation and some back and forth along the lines of:
"No, we are not going to Patagonia, I will freeze my butt off and be miserable the entire time" and
"Desert, are you crazy, I'll die of a heat-stroke and then what?".
Max's contribution was generally the most even-tempered:
"Max, do you want to go to Chile?"
"Chilly? Okay, ja!"
Chile it wasn't in the end, but Mexico was declared "okay" as well.
So here is the final list:
Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
Cochin, Kerala, India
Frigiliana, Andalucia, Spain
Firenze, Tuscany, Italy
Konstanz, my hometown in Germany
and then a random assortment of places in Austria - Uli still has to figure it out. The list will most likely include a stay in Graz - a beautiful town in Sryria where the now infamous Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium once stood before they renamed it because of Arnie's support of the death penalty.
With the fun part decided upon and places rented or reserved in most destinations the boring stuff is upon us: of course, my drivers license has to expire during the period away so it needs to be renewed (as well as various credit cards), gym memberships need to be canceled, and who knew exactly how many magazine subscritions we had? I love my Sunset, photo magazines, Newsweeks, Economists, etc but not even I need six months of back issues.
Health insurance - I say no more, nobody ever wants to read about other people's problems with health insurance. The house needs to be rented out, which means the grouting has to be cleaned (baking soda and tooth brush, good thing I got that Ph.D. - invaluable ;-), the aluminum polished, the worst design sins need to be removed/replaced/fixed, that awful carpet with a million food stains - documenting every meal our three year old ever ate and some of ours - needs to be cleaned. I could go on but I spare you the details and myself the agony of thinking about it on this Friday evening as I am writing this.
After that the travel preparations will begin, as in deciding what to take on a six month trip. Do I love any of my t-shirts well enough to want to wear it for six months? (no, not straight but frequently!) Do they have the right kind of dental floss in Spain? How many stuffed animals does Max get to take? How much extra room in the suitcases should be set aside for buying saris while in India and if the answer is none - who of our friends and/or neighbors will have to put up with largish packages arriving from all over the globe with stuff that is (mainly) not for them? Will I be able to talk Uli into taking one jacket or long sleeve shirt or will he insist that is warm enough to get by with a t-shirt everywhere and will that set a bad example for Max who categorically declares "I love cold" and throws a screaming fit whenever I suggest he wear a sweater.
The logistics feel daunting - but I really don't expect any of you to feel sorry for me ....
Monday, April 9, 2007
Preparations for the Euro Tour - I
As we are preparing for the next "Grand European Tour" with Max the tool-boy I thought it might be fun (and easier for me anyway) to save myself the trouble of emailing the latest stories from Austria and Germany including all the details of how grandmother Inge is finally getting Max to go potty and how grandmother Monika will once again put me in the impossible situation of being the mother to my son and simultaneously her daughter who better be home by 11 pm - or else.
We are treating ourselves to the selfish luxury of a week in Italy despite both sets of grandparents best efforts to derail this plan. Every possible excuse from imminent natural catastrophes to heart attacks and "strange food" were evoked. The good thing about your parents being 6,000 miles away is that they can't meddle actively with your affairs and so a house in Tuscany was rented anyway. It will be fun to see how Max copes with Italian which is similar to but still different from Spanish.
Anyway, I just set this blog up today and had to write something. Mainly to see whether I like the design I choose. More later.
We are treating ourselves to the selfish luxury of a week in Italy despite both sets of grandparents best efforts to derail this plan. Every possible excuse from imminent natural catastrophes to heart attacks and "strange food" were evoked. The good thing about your parents being 6,000 miles away is that they can't meddle actively with your affairs and so a house in Tuscany was rented anyway. It will be fun to see how Max copes with Italian which is similar to but still different from Spanish.
Anyway, I just set this blog up today and had to write something. Mainly to see whether I like the design I choose. More later.
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