Long weekend!

Since its public holidays in SA until Tuesday, I won't be posting anything until next week. Liesel, Nathan and myself are heading out to family friends a few hours drive from here to spend a "long weekend" with them at Lake Norman. There are no public holidays in the USA, but since I do not have a job, I can take these long weekends so I don't feel left out by my SA friends ;-)

Talking about not having a job, I was the Voith top candidate, but their offer wasn't quite what I was hoping for, so they have moved on to find someone else. They were offering me $10000 less than what the average person with my certifications was paid in 2005! And besides that, the traveling to and from work would kill my budget! So please keep praying for me!

See you next week!

One down - ?? to go......

It was 31 deg C in Raleigh today and I was wearing a black suit during the hottest period of the day! As I mentioned yesterday, I went for my first face to face interview at 1:30pm today (Tuesday). It was at Voith, a German-owned company about 1 hour outside of Raleigh. The interview lasted for 2 and a half hours, and I was interviewed by 3 different people individually. They seemed very happy with the answers I gave and I was pretty impressed with the structure of the company and how it treats its employees. I even spent about an hour with the CEO (a German) and he explained everything about the company to me and told me I look exactly like a guy who runs a restaurant in his home town in Germany! When he first walked in the room, he said "You remember me", and I am thinking "Ummmmmm No I don't buddy - never seen you in my life." He repeated that a few times, and I was sure that this guy spent a bit too much time at OktoberFest! Then he went on to explain about the restaurant owner guy and I figured out that his English isn't that hot and he meant to say "You remind me of someone" and not "You remember me!!!"

I think there is a strong chance that they would make me an offer, only thing is, its not a great offer. Now I don't mind working for the company, but I do not look forward to 2 hour commute everyday!!! Besides that the gas (petrol) prices are going up here all the time and that means I would have to fill up my 70 liter tank once every 5 days!!! So I will ask for a decent salary and will see what their response will be.

So far, I have one more interview up in Ohio next Monday, and it would be good if they also make me an offer and then I can play them against each other. Then may the biggest paycheck win ;-) Of course I wouldn't mind going for a few more "local" interviews - so please don't stop praying!

As I said today was 31 deg C but tomorrow a cold front is coming through and the max will only be 15 deg C! I suppose I will be getting a taste of South Africa's weather tomorrow!
Till later..............

Light at the end of the tunnel???

As I told you yesterday, I had my first telephonic interview today. Thank you to those that prayed because it went surprisingly well! The company contacted the employment agency immediately after the interview and asked them to set up a face-to-face interview with them in Ohio. So, next Monday, I am being flown out to Ohio to meet with the possible new employer! But wait, there's more! Another employment agency called me today and set up an interview with their client just outside of Raleigh tomorrow (Tuesday!)

Now I may be faced with a possible dilemma........ If Ohio wants me, do I move there, where the average HIGH temperature in January is 0C (32F) and live in a place where 1/3 of the year the temperature is below freezing? Or if the one near Raleigh wants me, do I move there where it is considered rural. There are no apartments there (so who knows where I will actually live?!?!) and the closest electronic stores are 18 miles (30km's) away?!?! If you know me, I am not a country boy by any stretch of the imagination!

So nou wat? Just keep on praying that God shows me the place He wants me at! Maybe I will get some more offers..... I would love to work for IBM here and stay in Raleigh.......

PLEASE NOTE: Some people have been battling to leave comments - saying they are asked to log in or sign up for something. You don't need to do that at all.....

Just click on "comments" on the bottom right hand side of this blog. Type your comment - then below the comment - where it says "Choose an identity" select either Other or Anonymous. Then click on Login and Publish OR Publish your Comment and voila - your comment is captured forever in the parallel universe known as THE INTERNET! ;-)

Now leave me a comment!!!! No more excuses (yes mom - I am referring to you!)

A walk in the park

Church starts at 9am, so it was an early start. Also, the Church is over 20 miles (32km's) from where we stay so it takes us about 40 mins to get there! We got there just in time and went to drop Nathan off at the 1 year olds' childcare. After signing him in, they give us a pager to keep - and if Nathan needs us at any time, they will page us in the Church service. You gotta love this place!! The service was good and we started a series in how you can know for sure that the Bible IS the word of God! Very interesting!

This afternoon, we headed down to Raleigh's equivalent of New York's Central Park. Pullen Park is a fun place to go with children - they have a train that goes around the park, a 1911 Carousel, a lake with Pedalos and plenty of playgrounds. Nathan enjoyed his swinging there and we all had a good time there!





Tonight I am reading over some of my Lotus stuff because tomorrow morning at 9am I have my first interview with a company. It's a telephonic interview with a bank in Ohio. Please pray that God will open the right doors and shut the other ones so that we will know for certain what He wants us to do.

AND REMEMBER - you are all welcome to leave any comments by clicking on Comments.

Lazy weekend

Today was a lot slower than normal. It started out with a visit to the Raleigh Farmer's Market. We punched the address into my GPS and set off to find it. Unfortunately, my GPS decides not to work when the sky is overcast. So every now and then it would find a satellite and blurt out a direction or two. However, as we say in SA, she doesn't wek lekker. So Liesel and I managed by some educated guesses and the grace of God to get to the market and back home on a completely different route.


The market in itself was quite nice. A place we would definitely take our folks when they come visit us ;-) Also a good place to get fresh fruit and veggies, and plants for a garden. Once we have our own place, and if its still in Raleigh, we will definitely come back here for flowers to stock our garden!

This afternoon we had a few thunder showers so we couldn't take Nathan to a park. That meant we had a lazy afternoon indoors. I went shopping for a few things for the PC and came home with a DVD writer. I needed this to access all my files that I had backed up to DVD in SA, because Liesel's laptop only has a CD-ROM. Now I have access to my files and I can go through some of them during the week. I was also looking for a cheap printer. You can get a printer for around $30 - $40 here, but I then found out, that you need to buy a USB printer cable as well! That little cable costs $34.99!!!! How do they justify that the simple little cable costs the same as the printer which has hundreds of moving parts and electronic components?!?!?!?!

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning we are off to the Summit church again (See link on the right) for the 9am service. That's it for now! Tune in again soon.

Variety is the spice of life....

If variety is the spice of life, then the USA must be New Dehli!! The reason I say this is that there are so many different varieties and option's for everything, available to us here... Today we went to Babies R Us. In SA, there is a tiny section at the back of Toys R us (In Westgate) that they made a Babies R Us. Now this is a store about the size of Sportmans Warehouse in SA (bigger than the Westgate Toys R Us), but this is just baby and toddler stuff. It is amazing!!! Liesel showed me an entire aisle of Nappy (Diaper in Americanese) Bags. I remember when Liesel was pregnant, you may find 2 or 3 Nappy Bags in Woolies! Then there were entire bedroom sets for toddlers, including bed (or cot), matching drawers, bedside table etc. etc. There was an entire rack of baby sunglasses!!! Don't even get me started on the toys!!! Unbelievable..... we can't wait to get a place of our own so we can start setting up Nathan's room! (Click on the Babies R Us link on the right if you don't believe me!)

We also paid a visit to the bank here as we received our Social Security numbers (SSN)yesterday!! That means we are finally on the "system" :-) So we gave the bank our SSN's and they gave us access to Internet Banking.

And the best news of all so far, is that our Green Cards arrived at Jacqui and Andreas' house yesterday!! SO now they are in the mail on their way to us!!! This is our first official form of US id!!

Now all I need is a job and then I will be a happy camper! Please keep praying that God will open the right doors for us and that we will be in His will!

Life for a South African in the USA!!

Friends, Romans and countrymen (South Africans) - take me to Sears!

I have decided to start this blog so that you can get a glimpse into what it's like as South Africans who have moved to the USA. I hope to let you know what's good and not so good about George W Bush's back yard. I will try my best to be honest and open with my observations, and try and keep it light-hearted wherever possible.

We are missing our South African (and Botswanan??) family and friends dearly, and hopefully this blog will let them feel more a part of our lives as we settle down into a new life, culture and mindset here in the land of chocolate chip cookie dough!

As they say in the classics --- watch this space!