Comes rain or shine

What a week! Quite a lot happened this week.

Volunteering

Last week, I had two interviews for volunteering work. One at the Blood Center where they were looking for a host at their canteen. After a blood donation the host would make them feel comfortable with a drink, snack and kind conversation. The second one was at Boys2Men-Girls2Women office. This is an organization that helps teenagers with their study. Fresno has one of the highest student dropouts nationwide. Most of the students grow up in one parent families and lack love or discipline. The organization helps them in providing these needs. I offered the organization to help them by volunteering for office work.

The intake took a while. After some paperwork, my fingerprints had to be taken at a specific company in town. Because the organization works with children, all employees and volunteers are required to register their fingerprints. So I did.
After I came back at the main office, I had a nice conversation with the president of the organization, Mr. Perry. He would discuss my abilities with the team and let me know what I could do for them.

In the meanwhile I received an email from the Blood Center to inform them which hours I would be available. I replied immediately, happy that I was able to get something to do next week.

But then unfortunately Tom got a message from our immigration lawyer that I wasn’t allowed to do any volunteering work. At least, she strongly advised against it, because the government could see volunteering work as a ‘disguised’ way of normal paid work. And you don’t want to get into trouble with USCIS (Immigration Department) and risk a ten year ban to visit the USA.

So, I had to cancel my applications. That’s such a bummer.

DMV drama continues

Thursday was an exciting day because my Behind-the-Wheel-Test was scheduled for this day.
Tom and I checked the blinkers, brake lights, high and low beams, wipers and finally the honk. Yes, everything worked properly! Last check on the paperwork: drivers permit, insurance policy, car registration and passport; I was good to go!
It’s a 20 minute drive to the DMV office and I left early to be sure I was right on time. You want to keep your examiner in a good mood, right?
It was pretty crowded at the DMV, not to say packed. But that’s usual, snake queues everywhere. So it took a while before I found the desk to check in. Luckily no line over there.

“Yeah?”, said the official (I hear you thinking, Roy skipped a part of the conversation; they at least say a good morning to their long waiting customers, but no.)
“Good morning sir!”, a happy excited Dutch youngster said (that’s me!), “I want to check in for my Behind-the-Wheel-Test.”.
“Insurrance papers!” (I guess you know who said this, right?)
“There you go, sir. This is the insurance policy and this i…”.
“Who’s with you?”, he cut me off.
“Uhhh, nobody, sir. I have a Dutch driver license, so I can drive legally in California, even when I fail the exam.”, I answered.
“But their should be a second driver with you.”
“But I already have a valid drivers license, so there’s no need to have someone with me.”, I replied and already felt I was losing this argument.
“Sir, sir …. it’s Californian law that a second driver must be with you who is 18 years of older and has a Californian drivers license. You can reschedule your exam. Bye!”.

And that was that. Standing outside again, flabbergasted and quite frustrated.
But at least, I can still drive with my Dutch driver’s license. The only challenge was to find somebody with a Californian driver’s license who’s willing to go with me to the DMV next time.
And luckily, we have a nice personal fitness trainer who is so personal that he’s willing to go with me next time.

🎵 It’s raining men 🎵

Like The Weather Girls sang 40 years ago.
It rains a lot these days. I got a lot of questions about the weather here in Fresno.
We don’t have issues with the weather yet. We have days full of sun and we have rainy days.

At this moment, most of the power outages and flooding are in the Northwest of California. However, this morning a warning was posted that tomorrow (Monday) the Central Valley (where we’re living now) should be aware of the risk of flooding and squalls of 150 miles/hour.
So we’ll hold on tight the coming days. Comes rain or shine 😉