Posts Tagged ‘Immigrant’

For me this saying never made more sense than right now. This week I read some of my old blog entires from the time when we were still living in Germany. It is so strange to read about how I felt back then, what my fears and expectations were like and just how i thought. Now – three months after we moved here – I think I can slowly tell how we feel living here.

Back in Germany I was really scared that life over here feels different. I don’t really know what exactly I expected, but I just expected it to be different. But right now we just live. We work, we meet people (and slowly begin to make friends), speaking english becomes more and more natural and we love living in this city. I really feel that this is my home now and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Sure, there are these moments when you miss the people back home, when you wish your family could be nearer or when you just wish you could talk german at work. But all in all: I am really happy we took that challenge and I am pretty proud on how good we are doing so far.

Life in the US is amazing. Sure, there are downsides here and it is not as perfect as some immigrants picture it. But for us: It’s the right thing! And I hope it will be for a long, long time coming.

One of the most annoying things of being an Alien in America (most likely being in alien in every other country with a different language, too) is that you have to say just one word and people ask you “Hey, where are you from?”. I know that this is a common problem amongst immigrants, but it really drives me nuts.

I know that my english is pretty good, but my accent sucks a lot. Everytime I form a sentence in my head during a conversation it sounds so good. But when it comes out, it sounds amateurish. If people just would be able to hear how I speak in my mind, I think they would never recognize that I am an Alien in America. But sadly this is no option.

I really wonder how long it will take me to be able to speak some sentences without people wondering where I am from. Since our last visit to the US in May I actually made some tiny little steps in the right direction. I now can order water in the restaurant without being ask “Excuse me, what do you want?” You want to know my little, easy secret? Do not say water with a “t” like british people would do, just say it with a “d”.

Some days ago I told you about Flo and me wanting to try out our new american names Nina and Rian. I did the first day we arrived in California and it worked. Flo tried it on our last day at the airport and besides them spelling Rian with a “y” it worked.

When I complained about the one word thing to my american colleague this week he asked me why I am complaining and not simply be proud of my accent. I guess it is just me trying to lose some of my now still pretty obvious green alien-look to the people in my future hometown.

Hello fellow aliens, american residents or whatever brought you to this blog. I am Janina, fiancee of a lucky greencard winner and future alien. For a start why don’t we take a trip back a few years to when we all first heard about this thing called Greencard. For the record: the Greencard was first given away in 1940. I don’t know about you but I guess I haven’t heard about the Greencard for the following 50 years. I don’t remember the actual date I heard the word for the first time, but I remember the first question that popped into my mind: “Is the Greencard actually green?”. It’s no surprise it isn’t, but when thinking about what I want to write about in my first blog entry I realized that till now I don’t know why the so called “United States Permanent Resident Card” is always referred to as the Greencard. For there is no official statement about why the Greencard is called Greencard, I took a short trip through the internet and found one of the lamest explanations ever: “The name Greencard refers to the green lights and free highways waiting for it’s owners when moving to the U.S..” Come on, really? I thought there would be a cool explanation like: “Immigrants are referred to as aliens and the aliens coming from outer space are expected to be green.” Or “People moving to the U.S. are some kind of greenhorns, so let’s call their immigration permit Greencard.” To not to be too disappointed I told myself that apparently even for the Greencard the following lame saying works: “Don’t judge someone by it’s looks!” Neither the Greencard, nor it’s owner. And that would be us, fellow aliens! So we should be lucky that we don’t have to paint ourselves green or play the dumbass when moving abroad. But to be honest may come what may I will never get used to the Greencard. Neither in my pocket, neither in my mouth, nor in this blog. Congratulations to us! And welcome to Alien in America!