Becoming a US Citizen!

It's been a while since I've written a post and I thought the next post I wrote should be this one... because after one visa, a travel permit, a work permit, two (2) greencards, 4 years and a fair bit of money, in September this year, I BECAME A U.S. CITIZEN!

Many people I've encountered since I began this journey thought that becoming a US citizen was as simple as marrying my US citizen fiance (I can't say I blame them... movies and books don't exactly help) so I thought some of you might enjoy a little walk down memory lane with me (headache included free of charge!).

My path to US citizenship included four (4) main stages:

• K1 (fiancee) visa
• AOS (Adjustment of Status) aka Conditional (2 year) Greencard
• ROC (Removal of Conditions) aka Unconditional (10 year) Greencard
• U.S. Citizenship

I'll start with a quick disclaimer: Not every situation is the same, or as easy, or as hard, or as involved. It really depends. So please don't take this as "gospel" for your personal situation.

You can sign up for "status updates" on each of these stages but it's never very detailed. It's usually just something like "acceptance", "processing", "information requested" and "decision" and unless it moved from one of those categories, you wouldn't know anything.

K1 (Fiancé/e) Visa

A visa! Also known as "permission to enter the US". In the case of this particular visa, it is a (non-immigrant) permission to enter the country with the intention of moving there (for example - you can't just move to the US on a visitor visa... that's immigration fraud). If you're a private person who loathes giving out personal information about yourself, immigration is not a process for you! Just from this part of the process they know EVERYTHING about you. There is no hiding. There are no secrets. This is only the beginning...

I wasn't even allowed to apply for the visa until my fiance had first filed for (and was granted) permission for me to apply. He/we had to prove we had the intent and legal ability to marry (so siblings couldn't apply and neither could people who were married etc). We didn't really have to show much relationship evidence at this point, but this stage (permission for me to even apply for a visa) took almost 5 months to approve. Just a lot of waiting, waiting, waiting...

Once I had permission to apply for the visa, I had to send:

• Visa application forms (plus fee) - which including telling them everywhere I had lived (and when) since I turned 16 (thank goodness mum kept a diary 'cause being a Uni student, I moved a LOT!) and everywhere I have worked (some places are better forgotten!);
• Financial support forms - My US citizen fiance needs to prove that I won't become a financial burden to the USA by way of showing they have enough income to support you. So he had to show things like bank statements, tax returns, pay stubs etc etc... There is a minimum that can change every year;
• Fingerprint police check (from every country/state I had lived in for more than 12 months since turning 16); and
• Medical - including a physical, blood tests and immunizations (at the time of doing my medical there were only two doctors authorised to do this particular medical and forms in the state of Victoria, now I'm told there is only one).

After submitting all the information I had to wait to be called for interview... the final step. The only location to interview for the fiance/e visa is in Sydney, so people flew from all over the country to attend.

I had my interview in August and the day of the interview SUCKED! I tripped on the way to the bus and smacked my face on a railing (super sexy), had my flight cancelled once, and the replacement delayed twice. Landed well after my interview was scheduled to start (I had typed a rushed email to them from one of those internet terminals while I was delayed) and while hanging out in the air waiting for a place to land (only one runway in Sydney was open) I thought all our waiting and time had been for naught and got a ... tad weepy. I was bruised, stressed and late... But they knew all about my delay and replied to my email while I was in the air (got it once we landed... yay smart phones!) telling me I could just do my interview whenever I got there.

Once I was at the US Consulate it went well. I waited to be called up to one window to give an officer some items they had requested (envelope to ship my passport back to me with the visa in it for example), and then wait again for another officer to call me to have my fingerprints taken. Then I took a seat in a different section and waited until I was called for my one-on-one interview with an officer who asked questions about our relationship (how we met, where he works.. that sort of thing).

You need to take relationship evidence with you so I took proof of emails, chats but my interviewer didn't ask to see any relationship evidence. There are some instances where the interviewing officer has asked for email or facebook logins and passwords but he didn't ask for any passwords or anything like that. I only mention the password stuff to further explain what I said earlier - no secrets. Approval isn't a guarantee. This isn't just an "apply and you'll get it" process. There is a genuine threat of denial if they don't believe that your relationship is legit. You can try and appeal, you can re-apply, there's another type of visa you can apply (and pay) for... but no guarantee of approval for them either.

My visa was approved on the spot but I had to wait for it to be generated, stuck in my passport and then mailed out to me, so after a quick lunch at a Sydney cafe, I traveled back to my home town to wait for the mailman.

Once I received my visa I was free to leave, so in early September I packed my life up into 2 suitcases (and 2 carry-on), left what I didn't urgently need in boxes that stayed in Australia and I moved to the U.S.

The visa is a single-use visa that is only valid for 6 months and once I had entered the US I had 90 days to marry (and 90 days of legal status). So in November 2009 we were married in a small white wedding ceremony with his side of the family (plus my sister and her husband who flew over to attend).

Some people complain about the 90 days "how do you plan a wedding in such a short time" and honestly, not many people CAN plan the "big white wedding" while in another country... especially when your entry date is NOT guaranteed (there is no promise you'll get the visa, and by when) and a lot of places charge a fee to change dates or cancel. A lot of people do a courthouse wedding, and then do the "big white wedding" later in the year when they've had time to plan. I organised our wedding from afar with some assistance from my fiance's family, finalised the details when I arrived, and bought the decorations in the week before the wedding. Stressful! I don't advise the same!

Adjustment of Status (AOS) aka Conditional (2 year) Greencard

Permanent Resident Card
Redesigned May 2010

The AOS process includes:

• Adjustment Application Form (plus fee);
• Medical - ensuring your immunisations are up to date and medical still valid;
• Financial Responsibility form; and
• Relationship evidence isn't required to be sent with the paperwork, this early in the "game" we don't really have a lot to show anyway, but many people are asked for it in the interview (if they have one, not everyone does). I sent a small amount of evidence in the hopes of avoiding an interview.

The simple act of marriage does nothing to protect your legal status in the US. Your visa expired on entry (single-use and all that) and gave you 90 days of legal status. After that, you cannot legally work or drive.  If you leave the country at any point after entering on the K1, and without a greencard (or travel permit) you will be unable to easily return to the US (you will need another visa usually) so you need to do something about it.

That "something" is to file for Legal Permanent Residency, most commonly referred to as having "a greencard". So in early 2010 we filed for the Adjustment of Status (AOS). The final outcome of the AOS process would be a 2 year conditional greencard (which includes permission to work and travel and the condition being your marriage to your USC spouse) but given that the process can take several months, it is common to include the application for work permit and travel permit with the AOS paperwork so you can work or travel outside the US while you're waiting to be process for the greencard.

About a month after filing we had to drive to our "local office" (actually it's 3 hours away... one-way) in Des Moines for an appointment to have my fingerprints taken, have a passport photo taken (this horrid photo is the one they used on the work permit and the greencard :S) and to answer questions about height, weight, hair colour etc,. The appointment only took about 15 mins... long drive for such a seemingly small thing (though in reality your case can't progress until it's done).

Two months after filing for the work and travel permit they were approved (no interview is required for these). Some people need the work permit to get a drivers license but I had no need to use them just yet.  It was good to have them though just in case of an emergency (especially the travel permit).

Around a month after that (3 months from filing) I received an online notification telling me my greencard (or Permanent Resident Card) was approved. I was one of the lucky ones that wasn't asked for more relationship evidence or asked to attend interview.

Aside from being approved without interview, I was one of the lucky ones in regards to the relatively short approval time. Some people I know waited well over 6 months. Some people had been sent request to send more relationship evidence and in the year following my approval the waiting time got even worse for some.

The greencard was valid for 2 years AND now I had a "deadline" to worry about (the expiration date). If we missed filing before the deadline/expiration, my greencard status could be revoked and I could face deportation. Stressful!

Removal of Conditions (ROC) aka Unconditional (10 year) Greencard 

Filing for ROC consists of:

• Application form (plus fee); and
• Relationship evidence - a lot of it, spanning the entire length of the marriage

The ROC deadline was a timeframe in which I had to file for Removal of Conditions (ROC). Ninety days before my card expired my "window" opened (I wasn't allowed to file early or it would be rejected) and before my card expired I needed to send in MORE paperwork with A LOT more relationship evidence and again we may have needed to be interviewed.

For the two (2) years following the approval of my greencard, my husband and I had to ensure that we kept all the evidence of our relationship. This included any leases, bills, cards, bank statements, photos, etc and we then had to send that evidence (not just one months worth, or recent, it needed to span the entire marriage... without being ridiculous) along with the ROC form.  Some people totally overloaded their forms with evidence... which you would *think* was a good thing, but instead just resulted in them being asked for more specific information, or an interview.

Once again around a month passed before we had to travel to Des Moines for the fingerprinting and photo appointment... then just waiting...

This time it took more than SEVEN months to hear anything from immigration. During this time there are numbers you can call, but they read from a script and you aren't likely to learn much except "it's still processing". I also have to admit there's this fear (irrational or not) of rocking the boat too much and ending up with your pile delegated to the "too hard" or "when I feel like it" pile and having to wait longer... so you try really hard to be patient...

As with last time... you can interview, receive requests for more relationship evidence, one, both or neither. I didn't have interview or need to send more information and instead just one day received an update online telling me I had been approved (having registered for online updates).

This time I received a greencard that was valid for 10 years. It looks exactly the same as the conditional card except this time there are no more "deadlines" I need to worry about. Even if the card expires, as long as I haven't abandoned my status (there's a whole bunch of rules about that) then I can just renew it when I can... though I wouldn't have proof of my legal status so letting it expire isn't the smartest idea, but at least I would still be legal (unlike if the conditional one above had expired).

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For many people getting the 10 year greencard can be the end of their immigration journey. Their country may not permit them to keep their home countries citizenship if they become a US citizen so they remain Legal Permanent Residents (LPR's) for life.  There aren't many restrictions, mainly the inability to vote in a Federal Election and unable to serve on a jury. The only other important issues is having to do things to preserve their status (unable to stay out of the US more than staying in for example), some jobs being unavailable to them because they need citizenship for it, and if they're convicted of certain types of crime they're deportable... but mostly life can be relatively normal.

Fortunately I have no restrictions on having multiple citizenship/nationalities. So...

Naturalization Certificate - sample

U.S. Citizenship

Filing for US Citizenship consists of:

• Application form (plus fee) and a few supporting documents (copy of tax returns for example to show we file as married)... that's it.

There are two different ways to be eligible for citizenship:

• Being married to a US Citizen 3+ years AND an LPR for 3+ years (usually at the same time, so after 3 years); and
• Being a LPR for 5+ years

I personally filed based on the first option, being married to a USC citizen and being an LPR for 3+ years. Simply being married to my USC spouse wasn't enough, I had to be in a relationship with them too (sounds like the same thing but for some people who stay married for the convenience, it isn't).

I filed the paperwork in April of 2013 and as with the other processes, we drove to Des Moines for a 15 minute fingerprinting and photo appointment. This time I was given some material to review because I was going to have to learn about America and take a "civics test" at my interview (which was a guarantee this time).

Just over 3 months later I had an interview in Des Moines. After a little up-and-down in the elevator (we had to go to the second floor to be sent back down to the first floor), we took our seats and I waited to be called for interview (my husband was there with me but would not be interviewed).

The interview began with the officer going through the form, double-checking my answers to questions, checking my passports (new and expired) to make sure I hadn't abandoned by greencard by staying outside the US for too long, and then she got to the "testing" potion which consisted of two main parts:

• English (speaking, reading and writing) - I was also asked to read a question written in English off a piece of paper and then I was asked to write the answer (which I was given) also in English; and
• Civics test - consisted of being asking 10 questions out of a possible 100, and I had to get 6 right.

It took a very short time (maybe 1/2 hour max including the time spent going through the form to double check nothing had changed since I filed) and she said I was recommended for approval and I needed to wait for the last and final portion, the Oath Ceremony.

Although I was approved for citizenship, I was NOT a citizen until (and unless) I took the Oath Ceremony. The waiting began again and just almost 6 months from filing we returned to Des Moines for the Oath ceremony and on that day, I BECAME A US CITIZEN!

And that's it. It's finally done... well... I still need to update the Social Security Administration and the DMV and get a passport... but I can call myself a US Citizen to anyone who asks (which is odd for me because I've spent years making sure no-one thought I was a US Citizen, it's the death knell for immigration if they think you pretended to be a citizen when you weren't).

This is not a process for the faint of heart. It took quite a few drafts of this post just to get it to a point where it was (reasonably) easy to understand. This process is hard, expensive, and time and thought consuming. It can easily go wrong if you're complacent. Some people sail through, some people struggle at every turn. Such is the price we pay to be together with our loved ones, in the U.S.A.

The Bill of Rights & Amendment to the Constitution - First Amendment

This topic has come about because lately I've heard a few of these used, and some mentioned by people from other countries, and I'm not sure many people *really* know what the Bill of Rights or amendments to the Constitution are, and what these mean for life here, so I thought it was a good topic for a blog.

We get enough American TV in Australia (and other countries) that I'm sure all of us have heard some of the amendments for the Constitution already: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, "I plead the 5th" etc, but what do these really mean?

Well firstly, the Constitution is the law of the land in the United States. Every rule eventually leads back to the Constitution and people take the Constitution, and the rights it conveys, very seriously (as they should). There are 27 amendments to the Constitution and the first 10 are referred to as the Bill of Rights. Because there are so many amendments, and because they're not just small phrases, it's not as simple as just listing all 27 rights so here's the Wiki article for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution#The_Amendments but in short, amendments to the Constitution, such as the Bill of Rights, explains some freedoms not fully explained out in the Constitution.

The First Amendment is the one I wanted to talk about for this post. The First Amendment deals with "individual rights" such as (the titles are hyperlinks to Wiki articles for more information):

1. Freedom of Religion - the right to practice any religion, or none at all
2. Freedom of Speech -  the right to communicate opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them
3. Freedom of the Press - the freedom of communication and expression through mediums including various electronic media and published materials.
4. Freedom of Assembly - the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests
5. Freedom of Petition - the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Contrary to popular belief, Freedom of Speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want and there should be no consequences. That is an extremely popular misunderstanding of what it really means and you will read it anywhere someone is fired for posting stuff about work, or posting public opinion being held against them at work, or people being sued. People crying out that they shouldn't be fired/sued/held accountable because it's "Freedom of Speech".

As you can see from the explanation, the term "to anyone who is willing to receive them" is extremely important. There are limitations, such as: defamation (saying something false to damage someone's character), or libel (accusing someone of something they didn't do), racist remarks or copyright violations.

Likewise, with "Freedom of the Press" it doesn't mean they can say whatever they want either. Certain information such as private/classified information is off the cards.

Basically, these rights are here, these freedoms are here, but all with moderation and respect.

Wiki about the Bill of Rights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
Wiki about the Constitution:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today (almost to the day) I made my first post so this is quite the anniversary for me!

This blog started off like most probably do, with people asking questions about my life here and wanting comparisons to life in Australia. I don't know all the answers (surprisingly :P) and it led me to researching and later, to blogging about my findings. Sometimes I'll see something funny, or tell someone something they find funny or strange and I come here and leave little drafts/notes for myself of things I could/should write about.

You have probably noticed by now that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to my post dates and to be honest, it's because sometimes I struggle with finishing off posts.  I have many posts sitting in draft form just waiting for me to get the drive to finish them. Some might say I'm a bit of a perfectionist but it's probably more that I babble on too much and it's hard to cut it down to make sense! I will work on a post for a week. This one for example I actually started 5 days ago and am now just finding the time to work on it...

Hopefully though you guys don't mind the random dates of my postings and will continue to read on anyway :) I would also like to involve you in my blog and in the spirit of my One Year Anniversary, I would like to encourage my readers (if you're out there and so desire to) to ask me questions or suggests topics that you would like me to give my two cents on or look into.

Thank you for reading! I do read all your comments and thank you all for your feedback :)

Easter - Holidays, Candy & Toys

Large Aussie Easter Eggs

You read that title correctly... candy and toys, not chocolate, is how Easter is celebrated here in the US, that is IF they celebrate Easter at all. (Again please remember this could be specific to my area so no offense to anyone who celebrates differently!) It's not only candy/chocolate that's different either, it's also the manner in which it is celebrated, and the Easter holidays themselves.

This Easter, like the ones before it, I was jealous. Posts all over Facebook, people talking about their four-day weekend in Australia and me, I had work both Friday and Monday. Easter is supposed to be four days of relaxation, family time and chocolate comas... not in the US!

I was talking to a friend on Friday morning as I was getting ready to work and she asked me why I was up so early on a day off, that she would be sleeping in. When I told her I was getting ready for work she was confused and asked me if it was Friday here. When I told her yes, but it's not a Public Holiday... well... she had some choice words to say so I thought it would make a good post to explain WHY :)

I'm sure a lot of you are aware that Americans in general tend to be quite religious, so you would think that the US would have a religious holiday such as Easter as a public holiday... BUT the US is also big on separation of church and state and also Freedom of Religion (the freedom to pick any religion or none)... so having a religious holiday as a public holiday is a no-no because that would be "forcing" people to participate in a religious holiday.

Now, don't think that means you CAN'T have those days off, you can tell your employer that you are taking that day off as a religious holiday and they cannot refuse you (discrimination issue and all that), and apparently quite a few people do this. Some government agencies (like the court house near where I work) elected to close on either Monday or Friday, businesses can choose to close or not close, but it's not "mandatory" like some holidays are (there will be another post about the different kinds of holidays to come).

I asked my work colleague about schools as well (as she actually has kids, I do, but just the furry and scaley variety :P) and she said that as Spring Break is around the time of Easter, some religious schools will time Spring Break to start on Good Friday so that they have the Easter weekend off as well as the regular time off for Spring Break (which varies by school, no set period), which averages about a week off.

Easter basket for young kids

Easter Basket

Easter Basket for the older child

So now we come to candy and toys. I was able to get a few photos of Australian chocolate (many thanks to friends and family!) but because I don't really know that many kids here, I didn't get any of Easter baskets  (so I borrowed some pics from online) but in short... kids don't get chocolate like we do. No chocolate comas for them. No giant chocolate bunnies and giant eggs about the size of your head. That's just unheard of. Here in the US, you get an Easter basket. Quite literally a basket (usually in Easter colours - pastels) that has toys in it, and often with some candy (skittles, M&M's etc) thrown in.

Large Aussie Easter eggs!

 The Easter candy/chocolate here does not even compare to what is sold in Australia over Christmas. Here they have themed items, like Easter coloured M&M's, or the shapes of bunnies or eggs in regular candies (like egg shapes Reeces Peanut Butter Cups). You'll get skittles, or pop rocks, peeps (they are little chick shaped items) and a whole slew of other candy, just Easter themed. I believe it's around now that you start seeing chicks and ducklings for sale in some farming stores too.

It's not that Easter here is BAD or anything. It's just one of those holidays that for 26 years I was used to celebrating a certain way and was, quite honestly, disappointed that I couldn't get my head size eggs and other Easter chocolate like I could in Australia, it just did not seem to be as big an event as it most definitely is in Australia. I know a lot of ex-pats feel this way their first Easter as well.

One of the things that a lot of these differences do is make me wonder when the time comes, if we have kids, what sort of traditions are we going to pass on? Would our kids appreciate having Easter treated more like the Australian Easter where they only get Easter Eggs (lovingly imported from Aus that is :D)... after all, they get candy on Halloween, and toys on birthdays and Christmas... or will they hate that they're "different" from their friends? The same goes for any of the other Australian holidays. Should we celebrate Australia Day? Should we tell them what the Melbourne Cup is? Should we explain that Thanksgiving is an American holiday (and Canadian but a different date)? Where is the line between TOO different, and just different enough? Maybe just having a mum that talks funny will be enough :P

Money!

Exchange rate Feb 20, 2013

I think we've all seen enough of American money in the movies to recognise it when we see it, but I thought some of you might enjoy a quick comparison to Australian money, and also to learn a little bit about money here in the U.S.

To start I thought I would address a few quirks about Australian money, for those readers who aren't from Australia so you know exactly where I "came from".

Australian Coins

First, in Australia we have done away with 1c and 2c coins. This was many moons ago while I was still a kid. The smallest coin in Australia is now the 5c coin BUT you can still sometimes see prices as, say, $1.88. Now we don't do the 1c or 2c so we can't give coin up to 88c but neither can the cashier give 2c change. If you pay with card (EFTPOS in Australia) you will be charged exactly $1.88 BUT if you pay with cash, you will pay $1.90. It gets rounded down or up depending on whether it's closer to the next 10, the previous 10 or 5. At first people were worried they would be cheated out of money with the rounding up but really it most likely evens out, plus, you can just use card (which is VERY prevalent) instead of cash, problem solved :D

Australian Notes

Australian notes are made of a polymer so it feels very plastic. You can cut it with scissors but getting it wet doesn't damage it. A bad thing is though that when wet it's possible for them to stick together, and sometimes even if dry by static, so you could accidentally give someone more money than you intended! The notes also have a few safety features, mostly watermark type things, so you can tell if it's real or fake.

The best thing about Australian notes, in my opinion, is that they're colour coded. So when you look in your wallet you can tell by looking at the colours how much money you have in your wallet! A lot of people call Aussie money (and UK money) "monopoly money" because it's so multi-coloured and to them, looks fake.

American Notes

American money is basically paper (though a special kind) and very easy to tear and if it gets wet it can destroy it (however it's not uncommon to see notes taped back together!). Occasionally you will hear someone refer to American notes as "greenbacks" and this is of course because they're green, or rather they used to be. Like Australian money, American money is starting to become coloured, just not quite as BRIGHT as Australian notes! I still find it hard to identify how much I have in my wallet though, and I'm sure I'm not the only person to open it up to see a few notes and think I'm rich, only to find out they're $1 notes :P

American Coins

Similar to Australia, America has coins that are being used less often to the point you may never see them (unlike Australian 1c and 2c which are now totally obsolete), these are the 50c (half dollar), $1 coin. They also have the $2 note which you won't see too often either. You can still find some of these, but they're not common.

Both Australia and America have slang terms for particular notes. Not everyone uses the slang (me for example :P) but you might hear certain things from time to time like "redder" for a $20 note in Australia (because it's red) or "Benjamins" for $100 notes in America (because Benjamin Franklin is on the note). This wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slang_terms_for_money has more examples (though I'll admit some of them must be old because I've never heard some of them! Like I said, personally I don't use the slang terms, not when "10" is so easy to say but doesn't mean you won't hear them some time!

Both countries have security marks/features in their of course, BUT here in American there is a special marker/texta! The first time I saw someone take out a marker and scribble on a note I was confused when nothing came up. I wondered why they were testing if a marker worked, on money! That's when I asked and found out about the "counterfeit detector pen". Here's a "How Stuff Works" link to explain: http://www.howstuffworks.com/question212.htm  Basically if the money is fake, the marker will show, if it's real, nothing happens :)

It did take a while for me to get used to the differences. It's still weird to me to have so many ones ($1) in my wallet but I know other people that find it odd to have "big money" (anything with "dollar" after it being "big") as a coin, especially as they're not light! A lot of American men carry the "change" in their pocket as well and someone I know went over to the UK and ended up carrying a fair bit of money in their pocket not realising they had $1 and $2 coins in there! It's also still weird to me that the American 5c piece is the size of an Australian10c piece, and the 10c piece is the size of an Australian 5c (roughly)... not to mention all the pennies!

** I'm sorry this one took so long to get out! I'm actually working on a few at the moment, and the Health Care one specifically is difficult to make sure I make sense (when sometimes the healthcare here doesn't make sense!). So stay tuned! I'm going to try and get some of the "easier" ones out first and continue working on the Health Care one :)

Seasons - Weather & Shopping

01/21/12 - Temp in F

01/21/12 - Temp in C

This is a post I've been thinking about for a while because it was of course one of the first things I noticed, the difference in weather!

In my area of Australia (I'm just gunna say "Australia" for this post to save time but yes, I know it's hotter in QLD, NT and WA than in Vic :-P) it was basically HOT (Summer), warm (Autumn & Spring), and cold (Winter)...  Cold was anything under 20C (and I don't remember anything under 0C) and sometimes at night it would get down as low as 1C and that was just the world ending! But most of the time it basically felt like we only had two seasons... either warm, or kinda cold.

Foliage wise too, nothing really changed. I didn't noticed the plants really obviously dying off then "springing" back to life like I do here in the US. I noticed Autumn of course but we must just have a lot of evergreens near my house because I never noticed an extremely large amount of leaves. Everything basically stayed green all year round until it went brown in the heat of summer.

In a lot of towns here there's a "dumping" area for plants, lawn clippings etc so this past Autumn (okay it's called "Fall" more often in the US) we scooped them up and dumped them there. SO many leaves, about 4 truck-bed's full and it was a lot of work and I definitely felt it the next day!

Here in Iowa we definitely have all four seasons. Summer is HOT, Autumn is warm with the occasional cool breeze (and the leaves falling etc), Winter is FREEZING with snow, and Spring is warm but wet with all the snow melting then all the grass comes back green, and flowers bloom.

Summer gets ridiculously hot here in Iowa, but a humid hot which I personally think is worse in some ways and better in others. The dry heat in Australia is good in that you can often stand in the shade and not feel as hot, but this also means the risk of bushfires is greater. Here in Iowa there's no hiding, it's hot EVERYWHERE. The good thing about that though is window unit air conditioning units are really reasonably priced and actually really efficient. We have central air-conditioning as well (very spoilt) so our house is basically climate controlled which is wonderful :-) My husband once told me that it gets so humid because of all the crops (corn and soy) that boosts the moisture in the air.

It was only after my first full (and proper winter) when I finally realised what "Spring Cleaning" was and why it was necessary. Over Winter the house is all shut up of course and sealed with the heater running (in our case central heating with a humidifier running because the dry air from the heater makes me so itchy!), that's a lot of recycled air. When Spring hits you open all the windows and let the air circulate. You clean EVERYTHING to get rid of that "sealed up" and stale feeling and you throw out stuff you'd just been storing because you really don't want to go out for longer than you have to!

With the weather came another realisation, I don't own enough clothes! Well.. okay I didn't own enough variation of clothes, not to contend with the weather anyway :-P

I have to admit back in Australia I basically wore the same thing year round (only adding a jumper when cold) because the temperature didn't really alter all that much... pants (jeans) and a t-shirt... so I didn't really understand in movies how they would "pack away" clothes or buy clothes in seasons ("this is my winter wardrobe"). Why would you pack them away? Why would you buy multiple seasons of clothes? Seems a little pointless and expensive... WELL, now it all makes sense! I store my heavy winter coat, snow boots, beanies, winter gloves, long sleeved undershirt and all that because you only need it for 3 months of the year. As it starts to get cold you get those clothes out of storage, move your colder weather clothes to the front of the wardrobe and the summer clothes to the back.

That of course leads to SHOPPING for seasonal shopping. My jeans broke last summer and I went to go buy a new pair from a store I like to shop in and all I could find were capris or shorts or skirts but not a good range of full-length jeans. I had to wait until they came "back in season" before I could get proper new ones. I had to get cheap jeans that I hate but at least did the job.

I broke my sunnies last week and found out that those are seasonal as well, and found out my favourite shopping store (Kohls) is a seasonal shop so NO sunnies :-( Ended up located my sunnies (same as my broken ones) at Wal-mart. Thank goodness for Wal-mart hey!

They talk about times of the year in terms of seasons too. "I'm going to college in the Fall", movies are "out this summer"... I have to admit it takes me a second or two to calculate that :-P

Pop Can & Bottle Recycling... For Money!

Okay so I found it hard to find a heading that didn't just make it sounds like I'm talking about typical bottle and can recycling that we do in Australia, so hopefully you guys were attracted by the word money as something interesting/different and read this post! It's only going to be a short one (you all probably have realised by now that "short" is a relative term!) but seeing it's something I did today I thought I should get it out there before I forgot! As a heads up I'm probably going to use the term "can" a lot but assume I'm talking about bottles as well :D.

Today I took 240 cans to the "can center" and in return I was paid $12. Now you'd be forgiven for thinking I actually got paid to recycle, but that's not actually the case... not entirely anyway. I'm not profiting, I'm actually breaking even.

How's that you ask? Well, I can't remember whether it's the same in Australia, but cans and bottles here have this weird looking writing on them that usually includes a monetary amount like 5c or 10c. It's actually state codes with how much of a deposit you pay for the bottle or can. See pics below (p.s. the can one was a really hard photo to get clear!):

Soda Bottles Deposit/
Recycling codes

Codes on the cans

Receipt Showing Deposit Paid

So you can probably see that there are only a couple of states that are listed (CT, IA, HI, MA, ME, NY, OR, VT for 5c, MI for 10c and CA says CRV explained here http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/bevcontainer/ ). This means that if you buy a bottle or can in those particular states, you will PAY a "deposit" when purchasing the beverage (see my receipt above).

In order to get that deposit back you need to take the bottle or can to a redeeming center. Apparently legally the place you bought it from is supposed to accept the can back, but not all places are equipped to deal with it so will only take a 12 pack or a small amount, if they take any at all. That's why they have the "redemption centers".

Rules for Redeeming

There are rules for redeeming cans and bottles as well. The place I went to today gave me a list of rules (to the left). Every place probably has different rules. The place I used to go to (that has since closed down) would take 240 cans or 300 cans. You were paid 5c per can. Now here's the thing. They never actually counted the cans while you were there (that would take too long because it's by hand) so instead some places will go by the "height" of the bag (because the can bags are pretty standard in size/width and yes we usually pay for them, 75c at this new place). I actually found at the old place they didn't pay me for the 300 cans but I didn't know that at the time, it wasn't until I got home that I was told I should have been paid more ($15 as opposed to $12) which isn't a lot but can add up over the years!

At the new place they don't count them either but the lady told me they will only take 240 cans (or rather only pay for 240 cans but you can give them more, just won't be paid more) because people were cheating them and saying there was 300 when there was less. They trust you to have the right number of cans in the bag until you prove to be untrustworthy. She also told me that the companies who make the pop are the ones that pay them for the cans. They are paid 6c per can, they pay us 5c per can so their profit is 1c per can. Apparently since the old place closed they've been EXTREMELY busy handling the cans and have needed to hire on someone new to help (she told me that earlier that week in one day they had well over 70 people come in so $138 profit assuming all the bags were exactly 240 cans and not including bottles etc).

Processing the cans at the can center consists of people opening all the bags and sorting them into bags for their respective manufacturer to collect (and people don't tend to wash them so it's really sticky) . When I dropped off my bag there were 2 people sorting cans and there were a LOT of bags to sort. It'd be pretty good repetitive arm exercise though... I know because I had to sort through my cans into bags of 240. Fun fun!

On doing some research for this topic I actually came across some posts that talk about "can counting machines" that you empty your bag of cans into and it spits out a receipt that you take to the cashier who will give you the money for however many cans are on the receipt... of course I also read that homeless people camp out near some of those places and beg people for their receipt (but homeless people is actually a whole other post for another day)... so maybe counting the cans myself is better than dealing with the guilt (misplaced or not).

A friend asked me where I stored the cans. We have a breezeway and in that breezeway we have a cardboard barrel from my husbands father that a can bag fits into perfectly... other people have other methods of course). It's taking up a bit of the breezeway now only because I sorted the cans into separate bags but when those are gone it doesn't impede movement at all.

So there you go. Not everyone collects the cans and instead just throws them out (whether they don't have the storage space or they're above it). Some people actually collect the cans from other locations (bars, outside apartment complexes, if they're cleaners at businesses or schools) and actually add to their income in that way. Given I have collected 720 cans (or $36) in the last year+ (yes I was lazy redeeming them) that's actually, over time, a fair bit of money you're throwing in the trash. I know it drives my husband nuts but hey, I have $12 right now that I didn't have yesterday, and when I take the other 2 bags I sorted that'll be another $24. PLUS it saves space in the regular trash can :D

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little post. Now I'm off to spend my $12... nah it's bedtime, but thanks for reading :)

P.S. Here's a wiki page explaining the reason behind it for some states and countries if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_deposit_legislation.