My welcome to America

So, America finally welcomed me.

For all of you who are American you must understand that I have lived most of my life on the old continent and I found myself exuberantly excited waiting for my USA visa to be processed. And when it happened, the process of crossing the Atlantic was rather quick so I did not have time to prepare and practice  my 'repatriation'. All my 'training' (into the USA concept) was media and Google branded mostly.  My husband was the American I knew and I loved him to bits - so I planned to do the same about his country.

Boarding the American Airlines plane was rather pleasant and to my delight, I even got a window seat. The guy sitting next to me was a high schooler who was just returning home from a school trip to England; he was chatting with the guys about the nostalgic feeling of leaving behind the jolly land, and I therefore liked him as I identified myself with him... England and London in particular have been an amazing blessing into my life; almost four years they have nurtured and entertained me, enabled me to find build special friendship that must forever last. But voila, it was time for new discoveries and, most important, it was time to be with my soul mate!

So,the flight over the Atlantic was uneventful (which is always a good thing when travelling) and, lacking any interest in reading or watching movies, I found myself counting the number of sodas and cookies that people around me consumed. Counting is always a distinguished hobby in itself, but for me it was quite amazing to conclude that no person around me had any drop of water during the whole flight, but soda, and especially Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper and Ginger Ale. I did stay firm in my beliefs and only had water and tea (with one milk, no sugar please) of course.

Landing in Dallas, the procedure was standard, except the amount of time which the queue took until we went through security. But I felt lucky to have been able to catch my next flight even if the three hours queue wait left me completely dehydrated, so therefore highly irritated. My nonstop prayers worked though so I was able to resist my body (to the urge to faint) and I could even made it to the next gate.

Not long after that, I was walking on the American land, breathing the American air and eating the American food. I did not mind the first two at all, and the last seemed quite fun in the beginning. Until I went to  the supermarket and started to read the labels - then I have realized that it must be quite a fashion here to have long lists of ingredients. I personally did not understand why yoghurt or bread must be made from all these ten to thirty different ingredients; when yoghurt is basically milk; and bread is basically wheat (my mom used to make yoghurt and bread when we were kids and she used only the basic ingredients that we could always recognize and pronounce).

But this is the land of the American dream, so food here must be different too.
Shopping for food is like shooting for a moose: you find food and moose everywhere here (Alaska) but you rather want to make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into...Or what you're getting into yourself (or into your body - for more clarification). Aiming at avoiding GMOs, artificial additives and colorants at all costs, looking for the natural and most unrefined product is hard word and sometimes makes you feel so restricted. But this only makes it more clear and evident that what's best about this American land it's the American people.

I have never (ever) met more joyful, more relaxed and more welcoming  people(note: British and Canadians are all of these, but there's no excessive manifestation of emotion with them). We have all impacted by the charm of the American people in Europe and we have all been inspired by their oratorical skills. These are the people of the new land that for many years monopolized the world with the power of their speech and with their enthusiastic actions. Of course that the world always change over time, but for me, I'll always appreciate the non-tiring fight that America led for enabling other smaller countries and far away people to get their freedom and live up to their abilities.

Now of course that the country of yesterday is not the country of today, but my husband is the best evidence to me that the American spirit is alive and as honest and as powerful as it has always been.

It is merely a matter of choice I believe. It is trendy to criticize and find faults in the American land nowadays, but when there's a will for the better, there's always a way for the better. I am personally thankful to God for my American family and for all the benefits that come with living in such a great country. Every country has its own battles but we must never forget that it is the people who make the country; and each nation must and can write their own destiny.

So, I'm happily becoming American I guess.