Well, there you are at the other end of the world and still you can watch television.. the internet is a beautiful thing when you think about it. We, of course, have no Dutch channels but we can still watch almost every show thanks to the internet.. we watched Yacht Vision from RTL4, for example, the other day.. here are two pictures to prove it:

I did think it was something that I was able to watch Dutch television here… it’s pretty cool

And here are, finally, the last Christmas pictures.. well, for now haha, I got some more but yeah, it doesn’t stay Christmas And next to that I also left some other pictures out of this collection since they were a bit blurry, probably because Michelle moved a bit hehe.. (it wasn’t me, I was filming lol). Anyways, here they are:

And that were the Christmas pictures for now… probably not when it is about New Yerar since it will be soon Chinese New Year and we will most likely go to a parade with a 150 feet long dragon, kungfu practicers and more of that kind of things.. I am looking forward to it

I know, I know… I promised to post the pictures of the other two (Christmas)parade’s but we were so busy lately with all kinds of things that I didn’t had any time any more (or I just forgot about it on the other days lol) to post those pictures..

excuses, excuses..

Right, here are the pictures of the boat parade:

And that was the parade.. nah, just kidding hehe.. We took these pictures while we were waiting for the boats… here are the real pictures

I will post the pictures of the other parade soon.. I hope

I had to go to the USCIS in town today where I had a biometrics appointment for my adjustment of status. It sounds like a really big thing but it really wasn’t.

I had my appointment at 3 PM today and since we didn’t want to be late, we left early and, of course, we arrived way ahead of time.. apparently it didn’t matter much because there we’re not much people, there were not even much employees haha.

When they called me, I think after about 5 minutes of waiting, they first took my fingerprints of both my hands and fingers, Some more than once, I guess to make sure that everything was ok.. after that they took a picture of me and I had to sign my autograph. And after this it was all done again haha. This really was not a big deal and I can only hope the rest of my adjustment of status will be just as easy

So now we wait again.. according to the messages that I heard here and there, and according to the different timelines that can be found on the internet, I should be receiving my employment authorization somewhere at the end of February or the beginning of March, after which I can make some money (which is a good thing since there are a few things waiting for me to start on it) and hopefully, after the summer, I will get my interview for the greencard. I hope more soon (or even without an interview lol) but I do not think that is realistic. And, well, then the interview itself, I hope everything will be ok

The best wishes to everyone for the new year!! I have just celebrated my first New Year in Hawaii and that was, like expected, a bit different than they celebrate it in the Netherlands..

It was on the last day of the year pretty noisy outside, lots of fireworks went up into the air, a bit like you can see in the Netherlands. It was not allowed to light any fireworks before 9 PM but nobody really cared about that. It didn’t matter to me either, I was too busy with other things, such as making ‘oliebollen’ (Litteral translation would be ‘oil balls’, these are Dutch pastries, similar to doughnuts but round and also called ‘Dutch doughnuts’).

It was the first time that I made oliebollen myself but fortunately it all worked out ok. The basics are very simple, especially when you follow the instructions To prove it, here are some pictures of Dutch oliebollen in Hawaii:

They look good, don’t they? I thought they did and they were really tasty also. Michelle loves oliebollen so she was also happy that I was going to make them. Her mother also ate one and she liked it too. So this can be done another time and so we will. Who knows, there might come a new tradition of eating oliebollen on New Year’s Eve haha (by the way, a nice detail: it is believed that the current doughnuts are originally taken from the oliebollen which the Dutch settlers brought to the USA hundreds of years ago).

I thought to be smart and lay down on my bed for an hour at around 5 PM.. yeah right.. well ok, I have laid down on bed for an hour but it was like everyone decided to start with their fireworks at 5 PM so I came out of bed at around 6 PM again since I wouldn’t get any sleep anyways and we went downstairs about 10 minutes later since there was another BBQ and because everyone was lighting up their fireworks. We practically lighted up fireworks for the entire evening, this mostly because there were more people and it was a bit like taking turns.

Today we went with others to the beach and had a picnic there. After the picnic, Michelle and I went towards the graveyard where her father is burried. She already told me that there would be lots of people who would BBQ, light fireworks and drink. A bit like celebrating the new year with the people who passed on. I had seen this before in some Asian movies, that people brought food and drinks to graveyards but I never experienced this before in real life, until today.

We also went to the graveyard during last Christmas and I already thought it was such a nice view to see that almost every grave has had or would get a visitor, there were flowers everywhere. She told me that it was basically a tradition that people did this. The trip to the graveyard today wasn’t much different. It is a tradition which, I think, is really here because of the Asian influences on the island. I think that there’s nothing wrong with that. I really think it is beautiful that the people here really have a place in their heart for those who moved on, this is in Europe sometimes different, unfortunately.

Anyways, Michelle and I took a few pictures today so we could give you an idea of how the place looks like:

It may look on the pictures like it was cold here but that wasn’t really so.. it was about 85 degrees Fahrenheit here today (29-30 degrees Celsius) and it cooled down later in the evening to about 73-74 degrees fahrenheit (23 Celsius) (this may look warmer than it really was, especially compared to the summers in the Netherlands). The smoke that you can see is no fog, it is smoke coming from BBQ’s and fireworks.. the smoke stays here on the island a bit longer than on other places. We also lighted some firecrackers at Michelle’s dad and at some other people that she knew. It was something unusual for me as we don’t do this in Europe but I have to admit that I think it is very beautiful that the people do it like this and remember like this

But ok, I am quite tired from last night so I think I am going to make an end on this post for now.

Happy New Year wished to you from Michelle and Jeroen!