Archive for April, 2010

With me and my husband being 27 and 30 years old, it is the time in our lifes in which our and our friends interests change. Alone this year three couples we know marry, many friends already have kids and others buy or plan to buy their own houses. Compared to our friends me and my husband are kind of stuck right now. But stuck in a good way: Because our dream is not to have our own house and kids very soon. Our dream is to move to the US and build up a new life abroad. And actually this is what keeps me alive right now!

I often think about what would be, if we wouldn’t have won the Greencard last year. I guess we would think about getting a kid after the wedding this summer. And with this we would have to think about a new home, perhaps our own one. And what about my job? I guess I already came pretty far and am kind of good in what I am doing. But would that be enough for me to lay down, work for a few years and care for a child? I am not sure!

Everytime I think about my future, I know that I have big dreams to achieve. I know that it will be a long way down till we have good jobs, a strong social network and everything else we want and need in the US. But this challenge is what I live and work very hard for every single day! I kind of need challenges like this one in my life – at least till now! Perhaps moving abroad and building up a new life is what will give me some rest! Perhaps after fulfilling our American Dream I will be happy with what I have and not always build my dreams bigger and bigger! Perhaps fulfilling this dream is my life challenge. But even if it’s not, this is what I am hanging on to right now! And I am really thankful for that! Because dreams are the most important things to have in life – even if they stay dreams forever!

We want to move to the US at the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011 and right now I have the urge to start sending applications. For the last year I constantly have been looking for jobs that would be good to apply to and tried to check out the regularity of new matching jobs for me to open up. When I saw two good job ads last week I finally thought: Now is the time to start! And I started my job hunt in America.

I actually made a tiny step towards it in January. The job I found back then was kind of a perfect match for me and I would have taken the chance to move for it any minute. But the big problem was: German applications are not in any way similar to the ones required on the online application forms in the US. Even with the help of our american friend Scott, I wasn’t able to fill out the application form correctly and didn’t get to send it. Perhaps back then it was fate that holded me back from applying, because about a week later I got my current job, which I am very thankful for. But now I really mean it. I want the jobs I applied for.

But let’s go a step back first and let me tell you about the fun time we had while filling out the application forms yesterday. I already was used to only being allowed to apply via the online form. In Germany you normally do apply per E-Mail or send in an letter application – at least to the companies I applied to in the last years. I already had an english version of my resume so I was able to upload it without any problems. But what gave me little problems where the contact informations on my supervisors that I needed to give. I immediatley thought about my editor-in-chief, which would be anything but amused to get an english speaking call from an american employer. Again the giggles were on my side when I had to answer the following questions: Would you do a drug test on request? Are you hispanic or latino? Are you a war veteran? Do you want to give information on your gender? To a german person these questions sound so strange. In Germany you have to send in a picture with an application, which kind of leaves no question on the gender topic. And have I ever been asked, if I were a war veteran in my life? No!

The end of the story is that i completed my applications and now hope to hear from these companies, for those jobs are great! I kind of worry to talk to a potential employer on the phone and I guess this fear will stay for at least another year. But the good thing is: I may not have to worry about bad application pictures anymore and will not waste expensive stamps and application dossiers in the future. But if this will get me a job? Cross your fingers for me!

There are only four weeks to go till our next trip to the US and I am so excited. I’ve never been so excited before any vacation ever in my life. Okay maybe one time, when I was 17 and visited Australia to live there with a foreign family for four weeks. Back then I was so worried about how I would get along with the family and especially my host brother. Everything turned out to be perfect though. I got along great with my host family and had the most amazing time with my host brother and his friends. Now, 11 years later, I am grown up, am much more confident and am not looking forward to stay with anyone but the guy I love in a hotel. But I still feel the same way then I did before the Australia trip!

Why? Because I will meet my husband’s american friends for the first time. I told you about them before and I actually can’t wait to meet them. But at the same time I am so worried that those guys might not like me. I am not only worried about them, but about all the other americans as well! I have got great friends over here! This week me and the girls got together to watch Germany’s next Topmodel and had so much fun. These moments are the ones, in which the negative sides of our emigration plans hit me right in the face! I am so scared to live in the US and have no friends at all. And that’s where Scott and Jeana come in again. I so want to make it work with those guys and so want them to like me, because having someone you like in your new hometown is something really calming. Actually I would move to London any second, because I know that my best friend Petra lives there and that would make it work for me! But till now I have no one in the US I can hold on to when I feel lonely besides my husband!

Flo always tells me not to worry about Scott and Jeana, because I wrote mails with those guys before and they are really cute and friendly. But that actually is what makes it even harder. When Flo and I met two years ago we first only wrote e-mails. Before our first date I was so worried, because I wanted to make it work with him so badly! And that actually is the same feeling I have right now! I do have a friend blind date with two americans! And I will keep you posted on how our young love will work out!