On Our Way to the USA
“We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.”
It’s the final countdown to our US of A trip! It still feels unreal to me. 🙂 I’m excited but also a bit nervous… Not only is America the number 1 hotspot for alien abduction, it’s also the last place you want to be if the apocalypse or armageddon happens to begin. (According to the movies, world disaster always strikes America first while Africa is usually untouched.) Realistically though, the flights to America are really long and California is on an unstable tectonic plate. And with the rand being so weak, will we be able to afford anything without going way over our budget? Even with all the minor worries, I’m still really, really excited to experience America first hand!
The decision to take a trip to the USA all started when Babak casually suggested it to us when he and Donnè were here in South Africa earlier this year. My brother raves about the place after working at a summer camp in the USA for the past two summers and my sister has attended a work conference there in July. Good friends of ours have also recently immigrated to the US and are staying in Texas. So when we decided that we need another traveling adventure there were quite a few reasons why we decided on America.
We got our American visas at the American Embassy in Lesotho so luckily for us we didn’t have to drive all the way to Cape Town or Joburg. We filled in an online form on the American Embassy’s website and made the interview booking online. We had to take a few supporting documents and R2000 cash per person on the day of our interview at the embassy. The visa is valid for 10 years so hopefully this won’t be our last trip to the States.
We will be flying with Virgin Atlantic to Los Angeles with a stop over in London. So it’s going to be quite a long journey! We plan to explore California, see Vegas, travel up to Seattle then also see Washington DC and New York City.
I’m excited to leave the Free State’s winter behind for summer in the USA! When we return home the worst cold will be over and I can start planting tomatoes and herbs in our greenhouse. Although, according to Meryl, we’ll still have many freezing cold fronts up until November. (Meryl works at a nursery in town and never wants to sell any seeds or plants to me because of the ever-pending cold fronts.)
Most of all, I’m going to miss our cute doggies! Fortunately I know they will be well cared for and that they have each other to play with.
We fly out from Joburg in a few days time. Let’s see if the USA is really as great as everyone says it is. USA, here we come! 🙂
“In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take.”
Explore. Dream. Discover.
