Back in October 2018, we applied for Permanent Residence (Green Card) in the USA. We initially did not include the medical examination (Form I-693). The form said that we can submit it at a later time, which, I thought, made sense.
So in June 2019, I sent our Forms I-693 to the USCIS. It had a cover letter and included the receipt numbers for our application, as well as our A numbers.
As it turned out, we should not have done that.
Continue readingWhile waiting in line for security at the Nashville International Airport, I noticed something unusual.
You need to take your laptop out of your bag, empty your pockets out, remove your shoes, and try to be patient as you go through security.
For a lot of us, we don’t want to be caught dead doing anything out of the ordinary.
But there is this one guy who had mismatched socks.
It got me thinking about all the possible back story of why he picked the wrong pair of socks.
Maybe he didn’t get enough sleep last night. I certainly did not. My flight was at 7:20 am and airports recommend arriving there 2 hours before the flight. On top of that, our 8-month baby was awake between 1-2 am so I definitely got little sleep.
But I still got a proper pair of socks–matching brown ones!
I didn’t get a chance to ask him. But maybe it is a statement. It’s just a way for him to deviate from the norm.
Who said that socks needed to match anyway?
I am no stranger to moving to a different house. While I was growing, my father, who was an itinerant preacher, moved from one church to another every 1-3 years.
The longest time we spent at a parsonage (a house assigned to a church’s pastor) was six years. By the time I turned twenty, we have stayed at about 10 houses.
In 2015, my wife and I reduced our belongings, packed the essentials, and moved from Manila, Philippines to Nashville, TN USA as I started a new job.
So I do know about moving and packing things.
Coco’s school is close enough to our apartment. It’s a little over 2 miles away. When we were preparing him for Kindergarten, we talked about the transportation situation. Metro Nashville Public Schools a school bus for kids who live within a certain distance from the school.
For the first month of Kindergarten, we told him that I will drop him off at his school in the morning. And in the afternoon, he will ride the bus home. He agreed.
Every time he gets home in the afternoon, he rides with a bunch of other kids from our apartment complex. He has made some friends, and so the bus ride is pretty enjoyable for him.
It was perhaps a little too enjoyable that he said he wanted to ride the bus in the morning, too!
That presented a bit of dilemma for us.
He tends to wake up in the morning and being the 5-year old that he is, he would dawdle. He wanted to spend an extra 5-10 minutes lying in bed, half-asleep, when we try to wake him in the morning.
And then, he would spend another 25-35 minutes eating breakfast. Then, another 30-40 minutes to take a bath, brush his teeth, and prepare for school! That pretty much ensures that we leave home just in time for us to arrive about 10 minutes before his class time.
For him to ride the bus, we needed to adjust our morning routines at least 20 minutes earlier! That would be even tougher in the winter!
It just feels like yesterday when Coco started attending Pre-School! A week ago, he started attending Kindergarten! Thankfully, I had a full week of vacation before he started school. I came from a 2-week long work trip to South Africa. So we caught up a bit, played a lot, went on a picnic by the lake, and before we knew it, we needed to buy school supplies!
The Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) provide the list of supplies we needed. We logged on to the web page of his school and downloaded the list. The supplies he needed include the following:
Strongly Encouraged Items:
We were starting to get the hang of this process.
It was Tennessee’s tax free weekend. We ended up saving at least $20 on taxes for our son’s school supplies! In addition to the school supplies, we bought a couple of shirts (with collar) that will serve as his daily uniform. This school thing can be a bit expensive. At least we don’t need to pay for any fees for him to go to school!
Before moving to Nashville in the USA, I experienced the coldest natural temperature in Baguio City and Tagaytay City during the month of January. It must have been 14 degrees Celsius, which is about 57.2 degrees Fahrenheit. A lot of Americans would probably say that that is great temperature!
But for Filipinos, that’s sweater weather! It’s great to huddle inside the home and sip a good cup of Kalinga brew.
When we came to Nashville, though, I realized that 14 Celsius or 57.2 degrees Fahrenheit is nothing compared to the cold winter here. I mean Nashville is located somewhere in the Southeastern part of the continental USA. It doesn’t get too cold compared to the Midwest and Northern cities and states such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Wisconsin. But it still gets cold.
Heck, our Filipino bones can get frozen below 10 degrees Celsius.
Here’s what winter is like in Nashville.
I moved to Nashville about 2 years ago. While I drive to and from Nashville every morning and afternoon, I am curious about the stories and histories that come from this city. A lot of office mates are not Nashville natives, themselves.
I read a bit about Nashville online. I also tried finding some books about this city. Thankfully, I listened to Nashville’s NPR station one morning on the way to work and discovered a podcast called “Curious Nashville.” Continue reading
Just a big disclaimer. I am not a foodie. I like eating, especially the food that my wife prepares. I’m also the guy who could eat just about anything! Obviously, I am not Anthony Bourdain or Gordon Ramsay. I’m a guy with simple tastes. Every now and then, I post reviews of restaurants that we visit. You’ve been warned. 🙂
I took a day off on my son’s first day of school. I helped prepare his things, and then my wife and I took him to school.
Ever since we had a child, we have not had a lot of opportunities to go on dates just by ourselves. Almost always, our couple dates have become family dates. Because it was our son’s first day of school, we took advantage of our chance to go on a lunch date.
We looked for a nice Korean restaurant and decided to try Korea House. It had an overall rating of 4.6 stars on Google Maps. I also search best korean restaurants in nashville and Korea House was listed by Nashville Eater first in a list of 5 Should Not Miss Korean Restaurants. We’ve been to Hai Woon Dai, also recommended by Nashville Eater (located in Antioch), so we decided to give it a try.
Korea House is also rated by Nashville Scene Magazine as the Best Korean Restaurant 11 years in a row! We saw that on the menu and on display inside the restaurant.