Great News and Wonderful News!!!

I'm so happy to write this blog because I have loads of good news!!

First, I GOT CALLED BACK FOR A SECOND INTERVIEW AT BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC!!! As a reminder, the position I applied for is International Applicant Advisor, and I would advise international students on their application procedure as well as how to obtain the proper visa and entry into the U.S. 

So, my interview is this Thursday and I am already writing new questions and answers to prepare myself for the next round of interviews, as well as trying to think up great new questions to ask such as, "What are the departmental goals, who sets them, and how do you work together to ensure you achieve them?" and "What is the ratio of applications to acceptances?" and "How long have you been in this position, and what gets you excited to come to work every day?" and "What makes a "good hire?"

The SECOND piece of good news is that Erdem and I have the green card interview scheduled---about three months earlier than I expected!!! We received the letter from immigration today, and we hopefully will have green card in hand on January 16th 2009!! Yippee!!!

Also, our Thanksgiving turkey--the whole dinner, actually---turned out beautifully. We had a great time with our guests and are still giving thanks for all the joy in our lives!!

Kisses!!

Preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner

For my birthday in September, Erdem got me a subscription to Cuisine at Home magazine. The October/Thanksgiving edition just came in the mail yesterday---just in time!

So my Thanksgiving menu is all set and I'm ready to do my first Thanksgiving dinner for Erdem and our friends. I'll be sure to post pictures of dinner!

The Simple Things In Life

Although we don't think about the importance of little gadgets in our life, they are life savers. Since we got our internet we had been connecting to the internet by wired connection (the ethernet cable is just about 3 feet away from television screen), which makes us not able to use the computer all around the house.  Honestly, it wasn't very comfy to sit on the floor long hours in order to use the computer and caused permanent butt pain and crooked spine. As a matter of fact, Sierra  was constantly complaining to me about getting a computer desk. However, someone invented the wireless router and saved us from puting one more furniture to in our tiny living room. Thank you so much Maidie for sending us the router. We can not express our happiness by words. And also i want to thank to the Linksys technical support team . They supported us even at 2 am in the morning, with their sleepy sound (i could hear their yawning)

Sierra's interview at berklee college of music

Yesterday I had an interview in Berklee College of Music's Admissions office. I am very hopefully. I was very nervous at first--could hear my own voice shaking when I was telling them about myself--but then I calmed down and I think I did very well. 

I practiced a lot of questions I was anticipating, and that really paid off. I didn't have to think of creative answers on-the-spot, but had I had well-thought out ideas that I was eager to share. It's the first time I've actually written down and recited what I would say in an interview, and I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Some questions you know are coming: "Why do you want to work here? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What were your responsibilities at your last job. Why did you leave your last job?"

I was even prepared to answer specific questions (demonstrated knowledge) about F-1 visa procedure. What would I tell a student who has been accepted to Berklee and needs a visa to enter the U.S.? I had been to the Berklee website and knew everything for these types of questions, but they just asked simple questions like: "What tasks have I performed in the SEVIS database?" I didn't want to be too pushy and squeeze it in there. Got to leave something for the next interview, right?

I probably won't hear anything until after Thanksgiving, but I'll keep you updated. Sent my thank you note same evening!

We caught the robbers!

Last Saturday was really warm, so Erdem and I had our living room window open as we played the card game "Set." We heard a cracking sound outside, then another right outside our window. Erdem rushed to the window to see what it was, and found two guys kicking and breaking all the side view mirrors of the cars parked on the street. Erdem yelled out the window and I called the police!

The guys ran away (not without stumbling and falling to the ground first), but we watched through our open window carefully, and they actually returned. The police came, chased them down and handcuffed them! There were two other neighbors who had also called the police and so we all came down and I.D.'d the guys and off they went in the back of the police car. Besides vandalizing random cars, the guys were also breaking into cars and stealing electronics. Our other neighbors did witness that!

Our car was also parked along the same road, between other cars that were broken into, but there was a cement road block left over from recent construction alongside our car and made access from the sidewalk impossible. If it weren't for that, we might also be victims!

Allston is Danger City, but The Koral Superheros are here to defend and protect!!