Essay Previews

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Becoming American, Part I-III

After winning a “green card” in the lottery, somebody once made the comment that this has been a “divine decision”. We started a new life in the US and eventually felt many times the “divine ” being involved. From the beginning everything was working out very well for us, in fact, and in various situations we really felt wanted, like being pulled into the country, there was something special acting …

California

It was a dream that developed so many years ago, when I was a young girl, a teenager in the 70ies. It was the music, the liberal movement, a picture that everything is possible, that everything is allowed. It was a picture of freedom in my head as I dreamt about California…

My English language

“You have beautiful eyes” said Alain charmingly in his lovely language. I was fifteen and his irresistible approach on my first morning in a French school only strengthened my belief that besides French there was no other foreign language of any relevance for me – my passion for it could only expand… So when English, my second foreign language in school, was introduced I didn't really care much for it. I wasn't in love with Donny Osmond anymore, I had realized that chances of us meeting one day were small. The times in which I translated every single song of his with only the help of a dictionary were definitely over and my excitement to learn English had completely faded.

Simon's school

During this summer I received an email from my former neighbor in Switzerland, I hadn't heard from for a long time. Verena and I lived in the same street, our kids were not friends, her daughter was a couple of years older than my kids, and her son and my boys never really cared for each other. She and I instead, shared some common connections...  

Fabian's school

I am glad that I have two kids, two completely different boys. I was telling Simon's story, and I will also tell about Fabian's school experience, but this same subject will suddenly come out differently. The perspective had changed a little bit, the light has a different hue, since again, my sons are not alike...

A Moment of Happiness

Five years in a new country… a new life in the US, in Georgia – suburban Alpharetta,   in a place I had never heard about before then…. This summer I won't go to Europe for the first time ever since living here. After finally making this decision I feel relieved. Too many unresolved thoughts were pressed in my head in the past couple of months. They led to strong feelings of homelessness and loneliness. Feelings of sadness were stuck inside my stomach…

Why do you always need to eat and drink everywhere?

I wanted my husband to see “The Hours”, a movie I had already seen with my artist friends. It touched me deeply then, and when I came home that afternoon I had a headache, everything seemed so far away from reality. Virginia   Woolf   wouldn't get out of my mind. I liked to remember the scene in which she announces to her husband that she might know the first sentence of her novel. In my own life I had experienced that adequate magic many times - the power of a couple of words in my head building up a story. I could deeply feel Virginia's   obsession of thoughts.   Very often after taking a shower I put a towel over my body and then run to write down all my surging ideas, my burning sentences. I always joke that we should put a computer in our bathroom, since my best thoughts pop up creatively and uncontrolled in this room...

Happy Valentine's Day

”She loves me… she loves me not…” I closely listened to this radio ad the other morning. She obviously loves you when you give her diamonds, pearls, etc. from the jewelry store which is sending out this ad, but she doesn't love you when you only buy her flowers or chocolate for Valentine's day. Valentine's day… for me the most ridiculous holiday!…

Wild Angel

The other day, during a casual conversation at the dinner table, I made a comment about the today's fashion. Without thinking a lot, I said, that sometimes the girls are exposing their whole body a little bit too much and too freely. My teenage sons looked at me shocked: “Now, mom, you are getting conservative”, Simon, the older one, remarked…

European Women don't get fat

While waiting for a friend at Barnes and Noble I picked out Mireille Guiliano's bestseller “French women don't get fat”. I flipped through the book and very soon said to myself (I have to admit that I say this too many times) “I could have written most of it myself”…

Stupidity and ignorance

I am sure you were at a gas station lately. Well, the prices for gas are going up, which means that driving your car is getting more expensive. Relief in sight? As reading in some forecasts we are definitely facing the end of the “cheap fossil fuel era” and eventually we are running out of oil…

The Northwest

I can't stand it when Europeans are talking about “America” or “the Americans” as a whole . I think it is very obvious that the US is one big country with countless different regions, with different mentalities, different lifestyles, different views, etc. Especially after the last year's presidential election (2004) I tried to convince many European people about the fact that almost half of the country didn't vote for Bush, and therefore might have a similar opinion about him…