#immigrantlife — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #immigrantlife, aggregated by home.social.
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So my wife told me I was more German than she was today. Here's the situation. I forgot to order Cabbage at work so I had to drive by Lidl and buy a whole bunch so we could make Kraut. Some homeless guy asked me for 50 cents for a cart. I moved immediately to give the guy 50 cents but it turned into I pay a penny for his thoughts. As I was reaching into my purse he said
"Das ist aber viel Kohl oder?" ( isn't that a lot of cabbage? )
I told him "Ich arbeite im Restaurant. Wir machen heute Kraut"
To which he replied softly "Ja. ja."
And like .... I have this opinion that I or whoever should be able to buy as much cabbage as I would like without tolerating your unsolicited opinions of my obscene amount of cabbage. I don't care about your demographic or social standing. This is my cabbage and my business. Take your fifty cents and leave. My wife told me my ideas of wanting privacy regardless of the obscene possesion of cabbage was rather German of me.
#integration #immigrantlife -
So my wife told me I was more German than she was today. Here's the situation. I forgot to order Cabbage at work so I had to drive by Lidl and buy a whole bunch so we could make Kraut. Some homeless guy asked me for 50 cents for a cart. I moved immediately to give the guy 50 cents but it turned into I pay a penny for his thoughts. As I was reaching into my purse he said
"Das ist aber viel Kohl oder?" ( isn't that a lot of cabbage? )
I told him "Ich arbeite im Restaurant. Wir machen heute Kraut"
To which he replied softly "Ja. ja."
And like .... I have this opinion that I or whoever should be able to buy as much cabbage as I would like without tolerating your unsolicited opinions of my obscene amount of cabbage. I don't care about your demographic or social standing. This is my cabbage and my business. Take your fifty cents and leave. My wife told me my ideas of wanting privacy regardless of the obscene possesion of cabbage was rather German of me.
#integration #immigrantlife -
So my wife told me I was more German than she was today. Here's the situation. I forgot to order Cabbage at work so I had to drive by Lidl and buy a whole bunch so we could make Kraut. Some homeless guy asked me for 50 cents for a cart. I moved immediately to give the guy 50 cents but it turned into I pay a penny for his thoughts. As I was reaching into my purse he said
"Das ist aber viel Kohl oder?" ( isn't that a lot of cabbage? )
I told him "Ich arbeite im Restaurant. Wir machen heute Kraut"
To which he replied softly "Ja. ja."
And like .... I have this opinion that I or whoever should be able to buy as much cabbage as I would like without tolerating your unsolicited opinions of my obscene amount of cabbage. I don't care about your demographic or social standing. This is my cabbage and my business. Take your fifty cents and leave. My wife told me my ideas of wanting privacy regardless of the obscene possesion of cabbage was rather German of me.
#integration #immigrantlife -
So my wife told me I was more German than she was today. Here's the situation. I forgot to order Cabbage at work so I had to drive by Lidl and buy a whole bunch so we could make Kraut. Some homeless guy asked me for 50 cents for a cart. I moved immediately to give the guy 50 cents but it turned into I pay a penny for his thoughts. As I was reaching into my purse he said
"Das ist aber viel Kohl oder?" ( isn't that a lot of cabbage? )
I told him "Ich arbeite im Restaurant. Wir machen heute Kraut"
To which he replied softly "Ja. ja."
And like .... I have this opinion that I or whoever should be able to buy as much cabbage as I would like without tolerating your unsolicited opinions of my obscene amount of cabbage. I don't care about your demographic or social standing. This is my cabbage and my business. Take your fifty cents and leave. My wife told me my ideas of wanting privacy regardless of the obscene possesion of cabbage was rather German of me.
#integration #immigrantlife -
So my wife told me I was more German than she was today. Here's the situation. I forgot to order Cabbage at work so I had to drive by Lidl and buy a whole bunch so we could make Kraut. Some homeless guy asked me for 50 cents for a cart. I moved immediately to give the guy 50 cents but it turned into I pay a penny for his thoughts. As I was reaching into my purse he said
"Das ist aber viel Kohl oder?" ( isn't that a lot of cabbage? )
I told him "Ich arbeite im Restaurant. Wir machen heute Kraut"
To which he replied softly "Ja. ja."
And like .... I have this opinion that I or whoever should be able to buy as much cabbage as I would like without tolerating your unsolicited opinions of my obscene amount of cabbage. I don't care about your demographic or social standing. This is my cabbage and my business. Take your fifty cents and leave. My wife told me my ideas of wanting privacy regardless of the obscene possesion of cabbage was rather German of me.
#integration #immigrantlife -
CW: Long Happy post about moving to Germany
I'm going to tell you a little story about riding waves. Not literal waves but taking risks and doing a CDU wetdream of moving to Germany with nothing but two suitcases and a dream. Because yes, I moved to Germany in two suitcases with the required allowance for a short stay Visa in my account. In all honesty practically nothing.
I feel personally long distance relationships should be introduced like new cats. Put them in a bathroom so the other cats can get used to the smell and they can acclimate together. Adding in a long distance relationship, ESP as an immigrant is going to disrupt ongoing relationships. In under a month Tally and I were broken up with in our triad. I'm not the only person I have heard this happen to. An immigrant trying to deal with a crisis while also trying to find a job in under 3 months is basically a standard rite of passage for immigration.
I also had to visit immigration ( Ausländeramt ), citizen services ( Einwohnermeldeamt ), the US friggin Embassy, AND stand in a huge ass line to get my 3rd Covid shot. But I got all my stuff approved and JUST in the nick of time got a job. Like I had a week left.
I moved in in August but my first February here was an appointment DAILY whilst also working full time/overtime in a language of which I only spoke a very solid A1. Surprising but not good competence. This got me placed in a German Integration course in April.
This started the hardest period of my entire life, and I am a gay trans woman. That is saying quite a lot. I was working full time/overtime Tuesday-Sunday at a unsuprisingly shit job. ( Your first job in another country will ALWAYS be shit ) while going to German courses 20 hours a week. It left me with 1,5 hours of free time a day and zero days off for 5 months.
During this time @thatfrisiangirlish also lost her income so we had to go to Arbeitsamt for unemployment funds and that was a monthly struggle of arguing why we deserved to be able to eat. Apparently if there is an immigrant in the family they are expected to produce more income than a German would.
So I passed the Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer ( B1 language competence ) and the Leben in Deutschland ( Government, culture, and history competence ) with a 1. The highest grade possible on the German grading scheme. The DTZ came in 2 parts. A reading, writing and hearing section which is like listening to Deutsche Bahn announcments and praying to god that you made it out and a Speaking portion where I got to be graded and questioned by two German bureacrats.
Theeeeen Ausländeramt said my job was not enough. Get a better one or go home. So I did. I now work at a locally famous job that I get to be congratulated for to this day. I'm not just a cook. I am a very good and skilled cook. So I dodged that bullet. Not without having a mental breakdown because my boss decided to get drunk and scream at me and out me to every table in the restaurant because I had the audacity to quit.
The next year was constantly being charged about 600 euros with a surprise bill. Every month. My grandfather also died. One of my first friends in Germany, a guy from poland, also killed himself near the end or year. I had to work with a very homophobic problem child, all while dealing with an increasing shortstaffing problem. All in all it was an incredibly stressful year but less so than the year before.
By the end of the year the Homophobe had quit, I received a raise and a promotion and finally the waves were beginning to settle into shore. I was starting to get the information required for marriage and we are finally closing in on the last steps to that. What started as an absolute shit tempest, like shit everywhere has really calmed down into mellow waters.
Immigration is the hardest thing I have ever done. I've gone through a divorce, had a hard degree in college, was homeless, a teachers aid on a campus where I had to control a class during a school shooting and almost murdered multiple times in the US. Immigrating to another country was still the hardest thing I have ever done. It requires you to be willing to fail, then get up and try to succeed again just to fail again. Lather, rinse, repeat. I'm still happier here than I ever was in the states and my German still needs work but damn has it been a wild ride.
#immigrantlife #germany #german #bureacracy #transjoy #lgbt