rs-forever's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cheap Ticket Story In the last entry I was trying to explain how a perfectly nice evening turned sad. I was "Facebooking" and somebody posted a status message saying they could not believe that a round trip air ticket to India costs only $568. R and I have been planning to go to India for a while now. He even got his start dates such that we would have the last two weeks of December off. Everything seemed good so far. Except for the ticket reservations. For which we were getting an excellent deal. Except for one problem. My Visa. My student visa expires as soon as I graduate. After which I am supposed to apply for an "Optional Practical Training" or OPT. If my OPT is accepted, I may get an "Employment Authorization Document" or EAD. This will finally let me work off campus, in company, and gain some work experience. Twenty nine months of work experience, if I do have a proof that I am training withing the first three months of acquiring an EAD. I will graduate in December, and I was hoping to get an EAD for the mid of January. Banu's warning to apply for a late EAD (not as soon as I graduate) stayed with me, I suppose. But now if we go to India in December, then I would have graduated. But I would not have an OPT. In short, I would be stopped at my port of entry and be sent back to India. So inspite of having worked out R's work dates, and having found cheap air tickets, we would be unable to go to India. This was crushing news. I was extremely disappointed. I felt trapped. Like I could not go to Bombay, when I wished to, without having this fear of not being allowed back into the United States. Of being separated from R, even if I were back in the familiarity of Bombay. My parents would have been in the United States though, if I were to get stuck in India. And without R, or them, my life would be miserable. This feeling of being trapped lead to a mild claustrophobia. We were lying down on the carpet, me very upset about the trapped feeling, and R upset too because he thought he is responsible for giving me this trapped feeling. Poor honey, he makes me feel nothing but happy all the time. We had some Sake and mochi ice cream. R read the Lord of the Rings to me in bed. (We are reading the part about Treebeard). And I drifted away to sleep. I slept well apart from dreaming a violent dream about martial arts in Haiti. We recently watched the Serpent and the Rainbow, and that has shaken me on the inside, perhaps? Also, it may be the Curry Laksha creating martial arts in my stomach. The Curry Laksha is my latest find at the India/Asian store that is run by a Cambodian couple. It is indeed delightful, I am just making up a story for the crazy martial arts dreams. This morning I found out on Facebook, and some deals forums that the cheap air ticket incident was a bug with Orbitz, and they were canceling people's plane tickets. This may sound extremely mean, but I felt happy that those tickets were canceled. I know it is mean, but this is how I felt. Meanwhile, another international student told me that you can travel on an OPT/EAD (I was afraid I could not). This still does mean I will have to apply for an early (as opposed to late) OPT, but think about poor R. He finally will be getting two weeks off, and he really wanted to go to India, and I am being a jerk and complaining about an early OPT. Really the only reason I complain is because I want us to be together, and I need more time to look for a job. And he understands this. But I feel like a jerk anyway. The tickets now are for over $2000 each, so we cannot go unless another bug-miracle (big-miracle) happens. R works so hard. He is working even now as I am writing this diary. I really want to spend the best two weeks off, we ever will. We are graduating with our Masters Degrees after all. It does call for some celebration, and some time off :) I love R very much. I know he tells me I do, but I hope with all my heart that I can give him all the happiness he deserves. He is my lucky angel shining star :) Love, 4:05 a.m. - 2009-10-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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