A shot at panic
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
On our first day in Florida we went out to search for something to eat. It was past 10 pm and the only open store we found was a pharmacy. The outside advertising said that you could buy food and drinks there and to our surprise get flu shots at that shop. What? Flu shots in a pharmacy? Flu shots like in immunization against the swine flu? That felt strange, because in Germany you can only get those at a doctors office. We went in, bought some snacks and forgot about the whole thing. Two days later we went to a grocery store and there it was again. A sign that read: Get your flu shot today! And inside of the store we saw a little desk where you could just sit down, pay some cash and than get your flu shot. I know that the swine flu is nothing to joke about, but getting a flu shot together with your lunch, some soda and snacks is a funny thought – especially for us Germans. Back in Germany we told our family and friends about the supermarket-shots and no one believed us. They all thought this was a joke, which was our first thought, too. A few days later I read a newspaper article which said that british healths organisations want to ban spitting on the ground in british soccer stadiums. It’s funny that they didn’t came up with this earlier, because it’s not only dangerous in times of the swine flu, it’s disgusting. In another article I read about banning handshakes. And I wondered why don’t they start with simple things that are really harmful? Like the free peanuts in bars. Everyone knows that there are ugly things in there beside the peanuts. Or the free drinking fountain which are on every corner in the US. Would you like to drink out of one of those after someone who is infected? The swine flu immunization is top news worldwide, but I am still not sure if I should put it on top of my to-do-list. After the immunization-marathon my husband and I had to go through for our Greencard application I feel kind of immune to every syringe a doctor wants to stick into my arm. But I try to decide again what to do every day. Recently one of my friends listened to a radio show about the swine flu and they said that it might be a must to get the immunization in order to travel to the US very soon. This would not only make the decision much more easier for me, it would take that decision off my shoulders. I don’t know, if I would appreciate that, because I am a bit afraid of the side-effects of the immunization. But when I must go to the doctor, I go. When I just need to go, I never go. So a visa rule would be a nice side-effect of the Greencard. The first one in a long time actually!
Our first trip to the US as Visa Applicants was our honeymoon. We went to Florida for one week and it kind of felt like a trip to our own future. Okay, we are not planning to move to Florida, but anyway going to America felt like stepping into Doc Brown’s Delorean. It started when we arrived at Miami International Airport. Us waiting in line for the passport control made every officer suspicious. We were giggling like little children, while imagining us standing in line at the US Resident counter next year. On the drive to our hotel I started to pick out the car I want to buy when living in California. And that was just the beginning of our holiday. We couldn’t stop connecting every little cool thing to our life abroad. A trip to the supermarket ended in our little “Do we have this in Germany”-Quiz. It was a joy to watch TV Series like Desperate Housewives in english and “live”. And in the movies our only thought was: “Yes, we don’t have to watch bad translations anymore very soon”! This wasn’t a normal holiday for us. It wasn’t a relaxing honeymoon like it should have been. It was exciting. We actually made plans for our future life. For our American Dream! And when we finally read the word Greencard on an ad on the highway which said that Greencard owners (along with tourists and US residents) were allowed to travel to the Bahamas for a day, we nearly freaked out. The moment we arrived back in Germany depressed us both. For the first time in my life I wasn’t happy to return home. Because in my heart America already kind of feels like home! This makes the decision we both made for our future a bit easier. Yes, it’ll be brutal to leave our families, our friends and our lifes here in Germany, but we already left pieces of our hearts in America and I guess we will have to pick them up very soon! And this actually is the only thought that keeps us going right now: We will be back soon, America!