Quantico Sentinel, Vol. 1, Issue 1
The Quantico Sentinel is actually the real name of the local paper, but I thought I would take some creative licence and use it as the title for my dispatches from the brink of insanity.
Mike and I have now been in Virginia for one week. The trip down here was fairly uneventful, minus a small snafu at the border. Nothing too serious, but to make a long story short I am here on a visitor permit for 6 months while the embassy here sorts me out with a passport and visa, which I will then have to leave the country to validate upon my return. Once we crossed the border, however, things went relatively smoothly. We drove from the Thousand Islands to Syracuse, then from Syracuse to Philadelphia (which we plan on visiting again... one day wasn't enough), and then from Philadelphia to Springfield, VA, where we remain to this day.
It seems that some of the paperwork required to cross the border was misplaced by our moving company after they picked our stuff up on July 6th, and they waited until July 16th, the day before our expected delivery date, to ask us to send them new copies. And so we wait. We took possession of the house already, which is a nice, roomy 3 bedrooms—all the more roomy since it is currently standing empty. Dexter is enjoying the free space though, and is contenting himself with playing frisbee in what will hopefully become the living room.
The new neighbourhood is quite nice, too. Lots of playparks and green space, and a local family resource center that seems more like a country club, with a private gym, pool, and internet cafe (where I sit while I write this). All in all, things could be worse. They could definitely be better, but they could seriously be worse.
To fill in the time we should have been spending unpacking, Mike and I have tried to familiarise ourselves with the area. On Tuesday we took a trip to Manassas, where the Battle of Bull Run occurred, and explored the battlefrield where Stonewall Jackson earned his nickname. Yesterday we went in to Pentagon City and D.C. Pentagon City boasts one of the biggest malls I've ever seen (Jane and Tracy: you need to check this place out). In D.C., we visited the International Spy Museum, part of the Smithsonian. They even had a teeny tiny section describing some of the things CSIS does. It wasn't quite as spectacular as the parts that talked about MI-6 or the Rosenbergs, but it was nice to see Canada representing... After that, we went out for a lovely meal at a little "Freedom" bistro downtown. I don't think they got the joke when we referred to it as such. Too soon, I guess.
Comments
Did you order fries too?
Glad you made it across the border; and even when you do have all the appropriate paperwork and visas, expect 20 questions every time you cross into the US. I've been here 13 years and I still get it. Moreso for travelling with an American husband and an Americanadian child. (If she had been born in Canada I'd call her Canadiamerican ;-)).
If you get bored waiting for your stuff, go out and rent some rollerblades for the day and play some indoor hockey. Unless, of course, you have wall-to-wall carpeting... won't work so well then ;-)
Posted by: heather at July 22, 2007 02:46 AM