Visas - A New Headache Every Time 011006

Santa Barbara, CA
Hi!
Just wanted to give everyone some updates. I am currently in Irvine, CA again. I talked to my contact in the UK this morning. Apparently, they are now having Russian visa issues. This is going to delay my trip to Europe probably by at least a week. This means that I will be leaving around Jan 28. I am hoping to fly into London and go from there rather than flying into Moscow. I still haven't heard anything back from Russia about my visa though! Man, do I ever hate visas!

I will now also be going to Cyprus! Yea! Bring on the tropical beauty! I contacted my friend, Charis, from UMBC. He is now living in Cyprus. We are going to try to get together while I am there. I am excited to see him! He lives in the same city that I will be auditing in.

The busy season has started for external audit. I'm currently working on an external audit team, and the hours are crazy! It is going okay though. I really like the team.

I have started two blogs. One is an archive of these e-mails that I send. It is located at http://amandastravel.blogspot.com/ I also included pictures. The other is a chronicle of Flat Stanley's adventures. I am completing this for a school project for Chris Moody. This is located at http://stanleysadventure.blogspot.com/

I was at home last week. Claron and I went to the beach almost every day. I got to collect tons of shells that washed up in the storm. The beach is recovering well. Already some of the sand has come back. Also, the inlet is now unblocked again and is looking much better. I took some nice pictures but I haven't put them up on the picture site yet, but I promise to do so soon. That site again is: http://community.webshots.com/user/asarnoci **The picture above is of a Santa Barbara sunset.

Claron started back to school. He is teaching again and taking classes. His classes are as always ridiculously difficult. He says he really likes his new professors. He has almost decided on a research group. I will let everyone know once he has made his final decision.

Claron's dad will be out in California this week. We are excited to see him.

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I hope all is well!

Love,
Amanda

P.S. Let me know if you want anything from UK, Russia, Sweden or Cyprus! (oh, and maybe Hungary or Czech Rep. as well.) I need to start a list.