I'm feeling so sad to leave Waterloo. It's been a wonderful home for us for four whole months. I am so definitely gonna miss it. So I got Hongwu to help me take some photos before leaving.
That's me in my room, which was completely stripped of, well, everything. All packed up.
Suan Tin and I in our backyard. None of us had stepped out before. All that snow made it quite impossible to walk in without getting stuck!
Outside our beloved apartment.
So after taking lots of photos and checking the house a million times to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, our landlord, Donald, drove us to the St। Charles bus terminal at Kitchener. We gave him a framed photo of us - his three Singaporean tenants and him - in the hall when he'd joined us for dessert one day. So it was all very emotional :(
After reaching the terminal around 6.30pm, we met our friends Steven and Ningyin (who've settled in Kitchener. Originally from Singapore!) to bid them goodbye, and Ningyin gave us some delicious home-made cookies! Since I didn't even pack anything for the journey (unlike Suan Tin and Hailin who've brought loads of snacks), the cookies were my only form of sustenance. That, and water.
We started our journey around 1930. Our bus-mates are thankfully very decent. Soon it was time to sleep, lights went out and all that.
But I just couldn't sleep. Was really REALLY worried about Customs. Everyone had warned (and thereby scared) me by saying how they're very particular about showing proof that we would be leaving US at the checkpoint. And I haven't bought my ticket back to Canada since the date isn't confirmed yet. So I just kept thinking the worst and wondering what would happen if they didn't let me cross the border. I have a multiple-entry visa and all that so visa isn't a problem at all. But the return ticket! Aaargh. The other two are Singaporeans - so no visa also - and both have tickets showing them returning to Singapore.
Finally around 2am, we reached the Windsor-Detroit border. All of us got off the bus with our luggage and entered the dingy little office. We were greeted by really mean faces, which definitely didn't help my anxiety. Seriously. A little smile from the Customs officers would have done wonders to my nervous system at that time. So armed with an incomplete address of Hailin's friend who we're gonna stay with for one night, I approached the officer.
She started asking me some completely irrelevant questions. I don't remember most of it. But I'm pretty sure they had no connection to my US trip. Luckily at that time, she had to go off inside, and I was transferred to another guy. Still no smile, but at least he asked decent stuff about what I was gonna do in US and all that. And why I didn't have my return ticket. Thankfully my voice was steady and I just answered everything truthfully. He gave me clearance! :D But the actual stamping of the visa had to be done by that meano woman so I had to wait for her to come back. And she started barking again, but my knight-in-shiny-armour-for-that-moment said he'd already allowed me to go to US :D And meano woman actually looked disappointed! She reluctantly stamped my visa allowing me to stay in the States till 22nd October 2007.
God, I am so SOOOO relieved. Just smsed amma and appa telling them everything is fine. The weird thing is, Suan Tin and Hailin's "interviews" actually took longer than mine! We think it's probably coz of the recent VT shooting which was committed by a Korean.
Alright, now that all that is over, I'm gonna sleep now. Have to wake up around 0630 coz we've got a transfer at Chicago around 7am. Have to be alert for that! I've heard weird things about the Chicago Greyhound station. Will continue tomorrow.
