Archive for March, 2010

Yes, it is finally official: We are flying to San Francisco in May and will activate our Greencards on May 8. Finding the right flight took us about a week, because it is really hard to find affordable flights, which do not stop over in the US. Why we didn’t want to do this? Because you have to activate the Greencard at your first stop in America. On the internet we read that the activation process can take something between a half and three hours. At the most stop overs you only have like two hours in between your flights, so this was way to risky for us. But we found flights and are very happy with the affordable price. And now that the excitement of finding the right plane is over, I become more and more excited of the journey ahead of us every single minute.

Last time we went to the US the officers at the airport were anything but nice to us. We were very excited back then, because we were visiting our future home country for the first time as a married couple, and we were on our honeymoon, but that didn’t impress the officer a bit. I am very afraid of having an uninterested and bored officer like him again when we land in San Francisco, because that would be kind of scary. I so don’t know what will happen at the airport! The only thing I know is that we have to give them our passports, give them the sealed envelopes, which I by the way would so love to open, and bring our lung scans. But what will happen then? Will those guys ask us questions like they did at the consulate? Will they congrat us on being future US residents? Or will they just be pissed, because we’ll cause them more work than other tourists?

Normally I board a flight and fall asleep just after I finished off the last bite of my meal. But this time I guess I will not close my eyes for a second. And not take my eyes off the mysterious envelopes for a second. Because this mysterious papers contain my future, my dreams and hopefully my luck!

I am totally excited, because tonight my husband and me will finally book our next trip to the US. We will leave the second weekend in May and stay for about two weeks. I am not only excited, because I am really looking forward to a vacation or because I will visit my new hometown, but because we will activate our Greencards on this trip! We actually postponed this trip again and again, because of our jobs, and now we will use our visa last minute. But better late than never!

Out last trip to the US was in October 2009 and took us to Florida for a week. I loved it there, but this was kind of a shopping and leisure trip. Now we are up for more! We will start our journey in San Francisco. I traveled there with my parents about 13 years ago and loved it. That’s why it is a good start for our trip. After three days in San Francisco we will rent a car and make a little road trip to San Luis Obispo. It’s my big dream to stay at the Madonna Inn Hotel, since I’ve seen it on TV (I better not tell you on which show). The next road trip will take us to Huntington Beach, where we want to stay for about a week. My husband’s friends live in Huntington Beach and it is where we want to live once we move over. So this will be the most exciting part of our trip. And the one I am most looking forward, too! I can’t wait to meet Scott and Jeana, who have been so cute to me in the last weeks! And I hope it’s not only the company of those guys what will make our stay fantastic, but also the beach, a visit to Disneyland, some cool shows, shopping sprees to Sprinkles Cupcakes and trips to Los Angeles. We will end our stay with a road trip to Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park and back to San Francisco to catch a plane back home.

I feel like a little kid waiting for it’s birthday when I only think about this trip. I am so curious, if I will cling with my new home right away. I hope that this trip will confirm that our decision to move is right and give me even more confidence about that whole emigration thing. As I can say for now: I love to have the knowledge that I will only fly to the US for holidays twice! The third time I will fly home!

It always catches me by surprise when I realize that I match a proverb. In the last weeks I often realized that I pretty much am a (wo-)man of habit. I told you about my new job in Frankfurt. I commute over there every day which takes me two hours one way. In the beginning I wasn’t very sure, if I would make it to get up every morning at 6 am, walk to the train station, take a two-hour ride, work eight hours and than do the same thing backwards. But I don’t mind. I actually feel like I’ve been doing this for ages, like I’ve been working with my colleagues for years and like I never had the freedom of getting up whenever I want.

It’s the same with my husband. I feel like I’ve known him and his family and friends forever, not only for two years. I feel like we’ve been living together for ages and also marriage doesn’t scare me a bit. It feels natural! All these things make me wonder how much or better how less time I need to get used to live in the US. On the one hand I always worry about how I will survive the first six months without my friends and family and with the homesickness I expect to have. But on the other hand I think I will soon get used to my new life.

Another thing that surprises me is how easily I got used to write this blog in english. Everytime I think about a new article to write I put thoughts and words together in my head – in english! I’ve only been writing this blog for six months and my english is not anywhere near perfect, but it makes me proud how easily I accepted this challenge.

Perhaps after a few months or years of living in the US, I will write another blog entry saying that I have problems to speak german when being back in Germany or that I can’t imagine life without my new home, my new job or my new friends. This actually is a nice perspective, but I think it would also work out any other way. Because man for sure is a creature of habit and I think that we can get used to nearly everything no matter what will happen in the future!