(no subject)
Work feels great. The (positive) stress of not-too-near deadlines is good for me.
I'm working and working. Time is passing by and after each day I feel like I have achieved something.
The last few days were filled with preparations for my trip to New Orleans. The secretary booked the flight: Frankfurt - Philadelphia - New Orleans and New Orleans - Charlotte - Frankfurt.
Hotel is not confirmed yet, but the secretary will fix that soon.
I ordered a credit card, because everyone told me, I would need one in the States.
And I wondered if I need a new passport because of those strange biometric-data-rules for people travelling to the US.
The nice lady at Steyr-Land's district commission told me that I won't need a passport with biometric data as long as my passport is older than 2 years (it is). I didn't really trust her and called the Austrian embassy in Berlin. The also-very-nice lady told me the same in other words. But I still didn't believe me. Like "We have bilateral agreements with the United States of America: If your passport's date of issue is older than Oct 26th 2005 (it is), you will have no problems. If your passport is from somewhere in between oct 26th 2005 and october 2006, you will need a visa. If your passport is younger than october 2006, you will have no problems, because then it includes your biometric data."
A-ha. And what if the possibly-not-so-nice customs official doesn't know about the bilateral agreements with a teeny-weeny country somewhere between Europe and Asia?
So, I decided to have a final try and called the US consulate in Frankfurt. A not-very-nice-at-all lady answered "Of course you can enter the States with your passport" with a "you stupid moron"-undertone...
I think, I'll believe her. But she shouldn't wonder about such questions. After all it's not us Europeans imposing all that biometric crap.
Anyway. I'm really happy and looking forward to March. But I'm also a little scared and very very excited.