Visa news

Yesterday we had our much awaited appointment to get a US visa at the US embassy in Bern. I had been preparing for this for the last few weeks, gathering paperwork, (bank statements, rent contracts, etc) evidence that we have a home here and that we will return after our visit in the US is over (or more importantly, that we will LEAVE the US, which is what they mostly care about).
Everything was going well, I had all the papers organized, and ready to go. We planned out trip, and researched trains and schedules to make sure we made it there on time (our appointment was at 9:30). We left our apartment at 7:20, to make it to the main station for the 8 am train, to make it to Bern at 9 am, to make it to the embassy at 9:15. Turns out the train was runing 10 minutes late, and that threw the whole schedule off!!! Needless to say I was very upset, but trying to think rationally, there's was nothing I could do, so I had to just let it go (very zen). We arrived in bern at 9:20, and ran to the bus stop to go to the embassy, and arrived at the embassy at 9:35. In the end, there was no problem because we had to stand in line anyways, so we were not "checked in" until like 10:30 (btw, we stood in line outside in the rain!). By the time we were admitted inside, the waiting room was full. So we sat and we waited to hear our names called. And waited. And waited. And everybody else got to go before us, even the people behind us in line. So finally we were the last to be sitting there! And we were called around 11:45. And we were asked a few questions ("do you intend to return to switzerland after your trip?"... duh!) and Gera's current US visa was cancelled (a transit visa he used to come here), and they took away by border crossing card (which i used to cross to El Paso to come here), and then they just said we would get our passports with the visas in the mail. That was it. No more papers requested. None of the papers I spent days putting together were requested. I did not feel too bad about that. We left the embassy aroung 12:00. Had lunch at BK (again!) and were on a train back to zurich by 12:30.
So visa "a---------prooved!"
Now the problem is we dont know the details... multiple entries? (i hope so), duration? maybe a year... who knows. We'll just have to wait and find out next week when our passports arrive in the mail.