Let's go!

The USA. The land of endless possibilities. Since I was little, the USA has been at the top of my bucket list. After Covid paralyzed everyone's life, there was a lot of time to think about everything possible. It took a whole 17 months from the final decision to actually travel to the USA. Not that I had been thinking about this the whole 17 months, but I knew that as my university degree was getting closer, something was going to change. To be honest, the states only crystallized as one of the possibilities quite late, namely when the Au Pair program from Cultural Care was suggested to me. From an 'I can just sign up and see what happens' idea, it quickly became serious. After a relatively short matching phase, where you have the chance to speak with different families from the USA, a family from Denver, Colorado quickly emerged. The family consisted, or rather consists of: the parents in their 30s, a 13-year-old son, a 4-year-old son, a 3-year-old daughter, two cats, and a dog. In early September, after the first conversation via Zoom, both sides decided to spend the coming year together. My Au Pair year was supposed to start in January 2022, so after the matching, there were still four months left to get to know each other better. This happened through more Zoom conversations and many messages and photos. In November, I applied for the visa at the American embassy, and my pulse rose to unimaginable heights for the first time. 'I'm really flying to the USA.' At the embassy, I remembered a day in the summer of 2014 when I printed out a picture of Los Angeles and stuck it to my bed frame, where a dreamcatcher should actually hang. And now I was standing in the American embassy applying for a visa for a whole year in the USA. After the visa application was done, everything suddenly went very quickly. I wrote a packing list, went to final doctor appointments, said goodbye to friends and family, and mentally prepared for departure. The Christmas season was particularly emotional. Two days before departure, I slowly started packing my bags. On January 7th, the big day finally arrived. I said goodbye to my bed, my room, the bathroom, the house, and Marley. I think it's difficult for everyone to say goodbye to their pets, but that was really tough. One last look back at my home and then into the car with a deep breath. Little did I know, I could have easily spent another night at home, but more on that later. Arriving at Düsseldorf Airport, the most difficult part was still to come: saying goodbye to my family. While my luggage was being inspected for explosives after the security check, I was able to see my family one last time for a long time, and then the journey continued alone. Everything went quite slow in Frankfurt, and after sitting in the already delayed plane for two hours waiting for takeoff, the flight was canceled. Along with two other Au Pairs, I was accommodated at the Steigenberger Hotel directly at Frankfurt Airport. The next day, the journey continued, unfortunately without the Au Pairs, but at least on time. The first flight went to Chicago, and next to me was Frederick, a German who has been playing soccer at college in Indiana with a scholarship for two years. He told me a lot about the USA, the people, the experiences, the entry through the immigration control and customs. This took away my fear of the grim-looking people at the counter in Chicago. But let's rewind for a moment back 20 minutes from the immigration control: I was still sitting in the plane and we were about to land. Good old Frederick was just telling me about his American girlfriend, but I couldn't concentrate on that. My gaze wandered past him, out the window: a water tank. A real American water tank. I also see huge roads, big cars, and the skyline of Chicago. 'I'M IN AMERICA!!' Zoom through immigration control, no stop at customs, say goodbye to Frederick and... it's done. After a short layover in Chicago, it was off to Denver. My suitcase, which was now broken on one side, took quite a while to arrive. My host family had already set off and sent me a photo from the car: all five of them were coming to pick me up. My suitcase, thankfully in one piece, arrived, and I quickly found my host family in this huge airport. They were waiting for me with a homemade sign. The long journey was done. In total, I wore my FFP2 mask for at least 20 hours in these two days, sweated and froze, was super excited, dissolved at times, was extremely happy, and questioned everything. But finally, I could say, 'the adventure begins.'