I first met Akiko in 1995 in Tokyo Japan...at the bar where she was working. Cerveza -Japanese originality at its finest there- offered 100s of different types of beer from all over the world. At the time Akiko did not drink beer. She liked cocktails. I don't even know what kind of cocktails, because as is typical of a person whose head is lined with stone I just stopped listening and started explaining to her why beer was so wonderful. She was crazy not to drink beer.
While my delivery was less than stellar, let's face it - I was right. Most importantly, Akiko agrees with me that beer is great even after completing her engineering degree in Wine Making at the FH Geisenheim in Germany. By the way, any winemaker who doesn't agree that beer is a wonderful beverage probably spends too much time in the office and not enough time in the cellar or vineyard.
Three years ago work brought me back to the USA. I had been living in Germany since 2000 working first as a scientist then as an overtitled traveling salesman. When Akiko finished her degree we had to decide whether she was going to come to the USA or I was going to go back to Germany. I had a decent job in the US and I thought my being a citizen might make life a little easier for us. So, we decided on the US as our home and got married here in VA on April 29 2009. Sadly, there aren't too many days that go by where at least one of us doesn't regret that decision...the decision to choose the US that is!
Don't get me wrong! The USA is a gorgeous country. Some of the finest natural landscapes in the world are here. Americans are great people, if incredibly myopic. My family is here and many of my closest friends are here too -even the ones who will give me hell for my comments here. These are the things that have so far kept us from starting the trip back to Europe. It isn't the "land of the free" that keeps us here, because, man, there is nothing in America that's free. It isn't the home of the brave, because American soceity is scared of it's own shadow these days. It sure as hell isn't because the US is the land of opportunity that we stick around. What opportunities are available to my wife- a foreigner stuck in limbo as she waits for the government to make a decision on her legal status?
As a foreigner in this country without a social security number, you have the opportunity to stay at home and do nothing. You want health insurance? Sorry. You want a driver's license? Nope. You want a bank account? Hell, you aren't even allowed to work here. What do you need a bank account for?
As you can guess, right now we are going through a teensy bit of an adjustment period. I suspect we aren't going to convince American bureaucracy, society or culture to adapt to us. So, this blog shall document our (re)adjustment to Life in America. The bad will also come with plenty of good. Highlights over the next few months will be our trip across the US from VA to OR via Chicago, the Badlands and Yellowstone to name a couple of way points. There should be lots of fun episodes when Akiko starts work this fall at the winery in Oregon. The 2009 Harvest will be one to remember.
There will also be accounts of our trips to DMV, dealings with the USCIS and insurance company antics -my personal favorite- to round out the content a little. I will also see if I can get Ms. Akiko to weblog every now and then to keep me honest.
