After close to 2000 miles, we finally made it to our new home in Ciudad Juarez! We stopped Monday night in Abilene, and then drove in to El Paso late Tuesday afternoon. We spent the night in El Paso, then our sponsor came to our hotel Wednesday around noon to pick us up and escort us over the border.
After about an hour’s stop at border patrol to get our SENTRI passes (sort of like an “easy pass” to go back and forth over the border), we pulled into our new home.
We really like it, and will like it even more once we get our art, dishes, and other things to make it feel like home. It’s a two-story townhouse on a quiet cul-de-sac. It’s old, but nice and spacious.
Our sponsor had milk, eggs, etc. waiting for us at our house, and the Consulate equips the house with a welcome kit that we can use until our personal goods get here (probably in another month), so when we arrived, the beds were made, the kitchen was set up, etc.
We went to the Consulate on Thursday and Friday, and spent most of our time walking around and meeting people. It’s a huge operation (the largest immigrant visa post in the world) and there are hundreds of people outside and inside, waiting for their visa interviews – it’s pretty overwhelming!
Wednesday night our sponsor had us over to have dinner with his family, and Friday night, a classmate from Washington had a party for us – it’s fun to be able to see familiar faces.
Today is Sunday, and we drove over to El Paso to do some shopping – it was a breeze to cross over. We’ve stopped at the public library to use the computer, because we don’t have access yet.
So far, we really like it here! The landscape is like being on the moon – desert, tumbleweeds, mountains with scrub brush – today it’s very windy, which means it’s also very dusty. The temperature is around 80 with wonderful cool breezes.
The cats are adjusting well – they did so great on the trip. I think they are glad to be home, too!
So…so far, so good!