Talke Talks – Houston, we have no problem!

Howdy from Texas, dear readers, do you come to visit me this summer? Who is interested in the fact that a few Germans were recently arrested when they entered the United States? The United States now warn of trips to Germany: The danger outgoing by the Teutons is estimated at level 2, which is the same level as in Angola and Djibouti, but also – and that is almost soothing – Italy. When level 1, i.e. as safe as it is possible, both our neighbor Austria and the island state of Cap Verde, where we were accompanied by our driver to the supermarket to the cash register when we wanted to buy shampoo. But I haven’t been to Germany for a long time. Maybe I missed something and you already need shopping chaperones?

For various reasons, my family did not want and had not wanted to go to the north German homeland for the past three years; This summer it should finally be ready. Regardless of this, we applied to American citizenship at the end of last year, friends said that that would go quickly. It was also quick: with my husband. Although we registered at the same time (of course, I clicked on “Sending” a few seconds before him, because “Ladies First”), my husband received an initial confirmation of his documents in front of me. When he was invited to the interview (the most important hurdle in the “Naturalization” process), my confirmation of the document receipt finally came. When his test was passed on politics, history and society in the United States, my invitation came to the same.

So the husband became American before I could even be tested for my US knowledge. My test then ran almost smoothly. Almost because there was a power failure that paralyzed the computers in the responsible authority for four hours. I had to break my intent, despite many nervous coffees just not to go to the toilet, so as not to miss anything. But when I got there, everything went well. Only the invitation to the swearing -in ceremony never came. Without which there is no pass. Without which I cannot enter again. You guess where this will lead.

“I had the problem too,” a friend calms me down. “My husband got his passport within a few months, but my documents were lost.” “And how long did it take until you have become a citizen?” I asked, haunted the gap gap ignoring. “Four years.” I would have asked all my friends before I put my summer plans in the sand! But it is of no use. I now have to be satisfied with the fact that I will not come to Germany this year either. No walks in old towns until the feet bleed, no sack with an umbrella, transition jacket and pawn bottle, until your shoulder hurts, no without staring (the Americans even, “The German Stare”) in unexpected S-Bahn, do not take a replacement bus due to bombing, no stay in the night because of the neighborhood.

This is not my typical sarcasm, I mean it seriously: I miss it terribly, the construction site -plagued Hamburg rained with the best bakeries and fish rolls, the dirty bars and rude waiters, the green parks and pretty flowers, the wine -red velvet cover in the opera, which has far too few toilets, and even the annoying staircase at the skin station, which you always have to take Really broken staircase is broken.

But I can also travel within the USA. Well, visiting other states is now as expensive as Europe (okay, the flights are a little cheaper, but I don’t need to pay $ 350 per night at Mutti that now cost mediocre accommodations). But Texas is also exciting. Almost every summer I drive to Beyoncé’s home port of Houston, the third largest city in the United States. It has the most beautiful museums in the US South States, the NASA center, a wet-humid climate and a relatively ugly beach. And there is no internal travel warning.