First steps in USA

So we've arrived here almost 3 weeks ago, on the July, 17. We are very lucky since one of my husband's best friend Pascal and his wife Nadja have moved here just about 4 months before us for Pascal's postdoc or something like that (it may seem strange for non-russians but for me these kind of concepts are not natural to use since in Russia we have a bit different educational and science system and names of levels and tasks in this system). But, at least I know that he's working in Stanford. After all we were lucky since they've even pick us up from the airport and brought to our temporary apartment which is till these days in the Marriott residence in Sunnyvale. The environment in the residence is like in a hotel. We have breakfasts and dinners here, we have a cleaning service, wifi.... So, until this days we haven't yet tried a real life, I would say:) During these first several weeks we've had to deal with several main tasks. The biggest were to buy a car and to find a permanent housing. The smallest (in terms of time used to fulfill them) were to buy sim-cards and to apply for my EAD. EAD is employment authorization document which will allow me to obtain an official work in US. That's why it was the matter of the highest priority for me. It was not completely smooth proccess. First of all they needed a US paying card to proceed the payment and we had to rush to the closest bank office which appeared to be Citibank to open an account. Here we both were surprised. I have only seen the cheques in the movies. In old american movies. And they exist here! And are being used a lot! Neither in Russia nor in Austria we don't use any cheques! But on the rest Citibank in US works similar to Citibank in Russia:) That's nice when you find something which is similar to you living in a foreign country. There are already so much different things which you are not used to and which you have to adjust yourself to that any of simple familiar things makes you feel a bit more sure that you still keep your sense of mind and still understand something about what's going on around you:) Going back to EAD - the story didn't end happily with the Citibank card. After about a week when I was already peacefully waiting for a mail from USCIS (the authority which is responsible for all this stuff) it appeared that the payment was declined and my application has been suspended. Nobody nows what has happened and it took me half of a day and some of my nerve cells to make the new payment including additional fee and return into status of peaceful awaitness of the next step. Though I'm checking the online status of my application several times a day now in order to be ready for any urgent measures in case something goes wrong again. For now I have an appointment at USCIS office at the 16 of August where I'm supposed to submit my biometrics.

By now we've already bought a car and rented a permanent apartment (means that we've signed the contract but haven't moved yet, we have about 10 days in the hotel more which makes the moving proccess very smooth, we are just starting to look for some furniture and other households). The details of each I will describe in some later posts.

After the car and apartment rush is completed we are gradually starting to have much more normal life than it was before. Now while Johannes is at work my days consist mostly of fitness (I've signed into a great fitness network 24hour fitness. They are really open 24 hours a day! It was my dream in Moscow where I was working all day long and it is not at all useful for me now but still it's somehow nice:) Anyway they are just a great fitness clubs, they have lots and lots of equipment and different classes as well. And a great instructors, at least I've really liked the one who gave me 4 sessions already. His name is Byron, he's around 70 and he was working out together with Arnold Schwarzenegger! I couldn't stand to try to work out under his supervision:) He found my deadlifts perfect by the way....:) ) and internet surfing in order to find what to do here on a permanent basis. I'm looking for volunteer, internship, job options. I'm looking for different areas - HR being my main occupation in Russia, social/charity work being my strongest desire, IT (testing) being somehow related to my education, math teaching being kind of in my blood due to my family history..... And anything other. I'm trying to use any opportunity that comes across my point of view since I'm already starting to feel very uneasy about this after 4 months I've left my job in Moscow. I don't loose hope and am sure that it will work out this or that way.

At the same time we're making some acquiantances here. Mostly it is the russian community represented at Russian ladies in SFBay area Facebook group and SFBay area livejouranal community. People there are extremely helpful and I've really learned a lot from them even before we moved and also after we've moved. Some of them has already became a friends which really makes us feel here comfortable. It's very nice when you already have somebody in the foreign country to call to, to invite for a cinema or for a dinner. The area which is not clear yet is if we will succeed to make any friendship with locals. Let's see:)