"Green light" for us

We had a big celebration last weekend: our “Green-Card” Party!

From now on we are permanent residents of the USA. We thought this would be a good reason to get all our friends (from both NJ and CT) and all the people together who make our life here so enjoyable. Our whole family is in Germany, so we are more than thankful to have people around us who love, support and care about us, so we do not miss our far away family so much. We are lucky. The party was in one of our favourite restaurants and went late into the night. Obviously, everybody had fun. And the party was a real “American thing”. There were cupcakes with small American flags, a sign with “USA loves you”, a lot of red, white and blue… and we got our first American flag as a gift from our friends. This was really something special.

Later in the evening, after a few drinks we were even brave enough to sing American songs.

My best friend asked me what do I like most about the USA. I said, I like most that you can put the American flag next to the Irish or Italian or even German flag in front of your house and nobody ever would question your patriotic feelings. This is what makes this country so special and easy to adapt to for foreigners.

The best way to describe it was from the man working at the emigration office, who said to our son: “Buddy, here in this country we are all aliens somehow.” I love to think this way about my new home.

"Globe trotter"

Our second year in Connecticut was definitely the year of traveling.

We made our big Arizona trip, went to California, to Vermont for skiing and visited many new cities, for example Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco.

This country is so huge, you have to travel as much as you can, to get at least a small impression of it in the time you have. I think that I do not have to mention that I love, love traveling. For me there is almost nothing what is more exciting than exploring new areas.

So I did a lot of it in Connecticut, too. During the week just with my son and a friend (Jakob had vacation) and on the weekend with my husband. I would say we got to know Connecticut very well, especially the coast. It was funny when I talked to our American friends and told them what we visited and they never heared about these places before. The Thimble Islands was one of our best discoveries, just gorgeous.

So at the end I could give people some tips for places to go. But this is probably not so unusual, that we all know the area close to us, our city (sometimes even country) less than a foreigner who comes for a visit. (Every American tourist probably knows better the churches in Cologne than I do.)

At least at this point I was sometimes ahead. How satisfying!

Help!!

What do you do if you need a plumber and you have to explain in very poor English what the problem is?!

First of all you have to know that what/who you need is called a “plumber”. Managing phone calls is very difficult at the beginning anyway, and even more if you have to describe to a very impassionate man on the other end that the toilets are plugged. He finally arrived and charged me $300 for 15 minutes work, because the toilets were on two different level. Otherwise it would be just $150. Since then we have always had a snake in the house. No, not the slithering kind…

I felt similar helplessness visiting the pediatrician office with Jakob for the very first time.

He needed to do his check-up before starting school. They tested his vision, so he had to say what he saw in the picture. But how? He did not speak English. So I tried to translate everything as good as I could, knowing that we should not make any mistake. Visiting offices and doctors was not easy. The only thing what helped sometimes was a good portion of humour…and just using my hands.

Our first Thanksgiving

We had to learn a few new American Traditions, for example Thanksgiving.

We never celebrated it before so we needed some help from our friends who explained to us what it means and how you celebrate it. What a great tradition: a holiday without gifts and big expectations, it is just about being with family and friends and…food. The last one was kind of difficult. I never made a turkey before, not even for Christmas (It is not a tradition in Germany). I got almost a heart attack looking at all this huge (!) frozen turkeys at the grocery store. And what are “sweet potatoes”? And how can you put marshmallows on top of it?! To like this you have to be American. I feel the same when I see a root beer-float, our friends favourite desert. Of course, I did not know about cranberries and pumpkin bread ( I discovered it is actually a pumpkin cake), stuffing… and so on.

Fortunately my friend arrived in the morning and helped me to make my first turkey. It was a big success. We celebrated with a few friends.

And I learned also what black Friday means.

The day before Thanksgiving my friend said ”Let`s go shopping on Friday. I pick you up at 5”. “Great, should we go out for dinner after?” I asked. She looked at me concerned “I mean 5 am”. I thought she was joking. I could not believe that there are people shopping in the malls at 5 am! But there they were: holding their coffee cups, waiting in long lines and looking for the best bargains, especially for Christmas gifts. How strange! How crazy!

Ps. I almost forgot to mention my absolute favorite thing to do in the fall: going to all this beautiful farms in our area for pumpkin- and apples picking!

"The Big Apple-vitamin"

I will never forget visiting New York for the first time.

It was amazing, overwhelming: I can just describe it as “feeling alive”.

To see the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Museum and to imagine how the people arrived here many years ago and watched the same view I just watched…To walk the streets I knew just from tv, to watch the people (still my favourite thing to do) was so much fun. I enjoyed (and still do) to be in the middle of this busy, crazy city.

This is probably the best part when you live in a foreign country: to explore new area and to meet new people! Something I never get tired of.

I go to New York as often as I can and it still feels the same: as if somebody would give me a “life-injection”. I need it from time to time, like an extra vitamin.

Do not understand me wrong, New Jersey life can be pretty exiting too (ha, ha…)

A great teacher

(Connecticut, September 2006)

His Kindergarten teacher told me recently that she was a little scared too, when Jakob came to her class. “Wow, I will have a boy in my class who does not speak any English ” was what she thought. And it was tough at the beginning. Especially since his class mates did not show any interest in helping him or including him.

So she did a small experiment: She talked to her class for 10 minutes just in Spanish. She asked them questions and they did not understand. They asked her something, she answered in Spanish. After a while they got very frustrated and mad. And then she stopped and said “ And this is how Jakobs feels the whole day”. The kids in Jakobs class were wonderful and they understood. From this moment on, he did not just get help, but real friends.

They watched him speak his first English words and reported to the teacher every improvement immediately. For example when he built his first simple sentence it was a big deal in the class. They learned many German words, by the way.

I am a teacher myself and I know how difficult it is to have a student in the class who does not speak the language. But sometimes if you have a good and involved teacher and interested students it can be a great experience for everybody.

Once even a reporter from the local newspaper came to school to write about Jakobs amazing progress and to show how kids can work together.

Jakob was lucky. He came to the right school at the right time (and age), got the right teachers and class mates. This coincidence happens just once. Maybe if his school start had been different then all things would have worked out different for all of us…Who knows if we would be still here…and happy. Jakob, by the way, always went jumping and joyful to school.

Yes, unfortunately, things change when they get older…

Scary days in the school

(Connecticut, September 2006)

There were a lot of tears, on Jakob`s first days in his new school.

I got a call from school around lunch time on the first day already. Jakob was on the phone: “Mommy, pick me up. I do not want to stay here!” He was crying. I tried to talk to him, but he did not listen. He just cried. I wanted to pick him up but his teacher told me to wait. If he does not calm down, she would call me again. I was sitting in my chair at home and like Jakob…crying. What did I do to him?! He was so happy before, with all his friends in the Kindergarten in Germany. I imagined how hard it must have been for him: new school, new kids, and nobody understands him (and he does not understand the others…). I knew it from my own experience.

On the next day they called me again. This time I went to school. Jakob wanted to have a “Shark ice cream” for lunch but could not say it. They gave him the wrong one. He was upset and desperate. Not even his favourite part of the school life (lunch time) functioned! After I explained to the teacher what the reason for his crying was, from this day on he always got his “Shark ice cream” (Now, when we see one we just laugh.).

The school called me a few more times to see if I could come and translate something for Jakob or explain to him what he has to do.

And then …one day I arrived at the school again and my son welcomed me with the words “ Mom, why are you coming? It is so embarrassing, nobody’s mom is here. Please, go home .” And I did.

After two months his English got better than mine..