Ground breaking news! The FBI has charged Amanda's credit card for the sum of 18 American Dollars. The amount is equivalent to the cost of an FBI background check, the last piece needed to enable Miss Hill in obtaining her Belgian visa. The assumption made is that the charge to the account means the FBI background check is in the mail.

The visa is needed for stays greater than 90 within a 6 month period. With the visa, Hill will be able to get her Belgian Identity Card and as a result the bank will NOT freeze her account. Hill states to the associated press, "I was starting to get nervous. The FBI report had not shown up in Eau Claire, and I already spent 600 dollars for a plane ticket home to get my visa. To top that off, I was getting letters from my bank here threatening to freeze my account if my file was not completed."

Hill is one of the Fulbright grantees in Belgium. The group attended a piano recital last Saturday in Duffel, which is in the northern part of Belgium. There, Hill conversed with fellow Fulbrighters who had faced other bureaucratic challenges. They ended the evening in Brussels at an Irish Pub, bragging proudly that Wisconsin destroyed Minnesota in an American football match.

Hill will be flying to the states on October 25th. Before her departure she plans on attending a Hawaiian Soiree this Tuesday and a Beer Festival in Diksmuide, Belgium on Saturday. She will then be in the states for two weeks where she plans to get her visa, spend time with friends and family, and eat at El Patio.

-AP