Antony’s Life Blog

(Picture courtesy of stock.xchng.)

About 8-9 years ago, I was dreaming about living in the US. Their high-tech industry grew very fast at that time. There are a lot of opportunities there.If many Chinese and Indians are able to migrate there, why can’t I? That’s why, I tried many different ways to migrate to the US.

• I applied for Master program in 7 universities in the US. Yes, it’s not a typo. Seven universities! One of them is Maharishi University. Guess what… all of them rejected me!
• I joined Green Card Lottery in year 2000. Since the lottery is purely based luck, I didn’t get it.
• Not to forget about job application. I submitted my resume to many US companies, including job agencies. I was quite lucky because one of them finally contacted me. We started H1B visa application. It was approved! Unfortunately, the company collapsed right before I came, almost at the same time as dot com crash.

Since I had no luck in the US, I went to Germany to pursue my Master degree. The rest is history. I forget about my dream of migrating to the US.

About 2 weeks ago, someone from Silicon Valley contacted me about job opportunity there. The job description is just great. I flew to Silicon Valley for an interview last week. The interview went quite well. They seem to be interested hiring me although no written offer yet.

I am questioning myself now, is the US still my dream land? Should I relocate there? It WAS my dream land but…. many things have changed. Right now, I would prefer living in Canada much more than in the US.

I have now become a “special alien” if I visit the US. What does it mean? It means each time I enter or exit the US, I have to go for secondary security check. Why do I become a “special alien”? Honestly, I don’t know. The officer said: “Because you are on ‘the list’. I cannot tell you more. It’s confidential”.

This “special alien” thing has caused problems to me. Last Thursday, I was planning to fly to the US; but I missed the flight. I was stuck at the registration area because the line-up was so long.

Yesterday, I went to the airport for the second chance. I was lucky this time. The line-up was not that bad; and finally I arrived in the US. The problem came on the way back to Vancouver. My flight was from San Francisco to Vancouver via Seattle. I went to the registration area at San Francisco airport. They rejected me because my last port is Seattle. I have to register myself in Seattle.

Arriving in Seattle around 9 pm, I ran away to the registration area. Guess what…. the office closed at 4 pm. What did I do? I just knocked the door. An officer opened the door with angry face. He asked why I came there. I said I need to register before going out from the US. He said the office has closed already. I know it is closed; but how can I register then?

Isn’t it ridiculous? They asked us to register in person before departing from the US; but some registration offices, like the one in Seattle, are closed at 4 pm. What should we do if we have a connecting flight, like my case? I have asked this question to the officer and he just said, “You don’t understand. This office is closed at 4 pm”.

Oh boy….

Yesterday, I went to St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Vancouver. According to Wikipedia:

Saint Patrick’s Day, colloquially St. Paddy’s Day or Paddy’s Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa 385–461 AD), one of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on March 17.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by non-Irish people (usually in Australia and North America). Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the color green.

The parade was located at the downtown of Vancouver. More than 2000 performers, ranging from marching bands to clowns, participated in the event. I took some pictures from the event. The complete pictures are available on my Picasa Web Album.

The first picture is the traditional bagpipes performance.

The second picture is beautiful ladies performing Irish dance.

The last picture is a girl playing violin… look at what is written on her forehead… “Kiss me… I’m Irish!”.