Conquering America captures the true life experiences of a girl in her mid twenties that got the opportunity to go work at the headquarters of her company in America. It contains fun things she did, the strange things she encountered, the missing and longing for the things she left behind in South Africa as well as finding herself, losing love, finding love and the joys and ordeals she encountered with immigrating to America. The outline of this book is based on the weekly "Pittsburgh Posts" that she sent to her loved ones back home to inform them on what she is doing, also to educate and tell them what she did and what she found. These weekly posts got very good feedback and her distribution list grew as the months flew past. This book will appeal to everyone that has lived overseas, everyone that is currently living overseas, everyone that wants to live overseas as well as anyone that loves to travel. Life lessons learned and general knowledge obtained is shared in a straightforward manner in this book.
CONQUERING AMERICA
TALES OF AN IMMIGRANTBy Henriette OzimekAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Henriette Ozimek
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4685-5955-2Contents
Chapter 1 The Adventure Begins.............................................1Chapter 2 American Ways—and Football.................................6Chapter 3 The City of Pittsburgh and Andy Warhol...........................13Chapter 4 White Water!.....................................................18Chapter 5 The Art of Being Alone...........................................23Chapter 6 Amish Country and Hershey's Chocolate............................29Chapter 7 Relationship Challenges..........................................36Chapter 8 Truck Night and Ice Hockey.......................................43Chapter 9 Halowe'en and School Dances......................................51Chapter 10 Animals: The Wild, the Deadly, and the Dead.....................59Chapter 11 New York City...................................................63Chapter 12 Thanksgiving and California Dreamin'............................72Chapter 13 The American Dog................................................83Chapter 14 Zoos and Wildlife...............................................88Chapter 15 Wine and All Things Nice........................................93Chapter 16 Home for the Holidays...........................................102Chapter 17 Baseball Isn't Everyone's Cup of Tea............................106Chapter 18 Dealing with Homesickness.......................................110Chapter 19 Language Barrier................................................114Chapter 20 Life's Frustration..............................................118Chapter 21 Seasons of Change...............................................124Chapter 22 Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...........................130Chapter 23 Driving—Especially in the Snow!...........................139Chapter 24 My Country—South Africa...................................145Chapter 25 A Visit to Ireland..............................................154Chapter 26 American Houses.................................................162Chapter 27 Happy Birthday to Me!...........................................167Chapter 28 Cherry Blossoms in Washington...................................171Chapter 29 Soul Searching..................................................176Chapter 30 News Close to Home..............................................179Chapter 31 The Meaning of Life.............................................186Chapter 32 Questioning Life Decisions......................................190Chapter 33 Niagara Falls...................................................194Chapter 34 NASCAR..........................................................198Chapter 35 Food, Food, Glorious Food.......................................204Chapter 36 Adventures with My Sister and Mother............................220Chapter 37 Wedding Bells ... Ring-a-Ting-a-Ling............................227Chapter 38 Getting My Green Card...........................................237Chapter 39 Married Life....................................................243Chapter 40 Making a Home away from Home....................................246
Chapter One
The Adventure Begins
I landed safely in sunny, warm Pittsburgh. While we waited for our lift on the curbside pick-up zone, the sun was shining happily on us, leaving my skin with little bumps of pleasure. The soft wind took the edge off the heat of the sun's rays, and the smell and humidity level made me feel that I was on the east coast of South Africa in sunny, hot, humid, Durban. The big problem with packing for a country in which you have never set foot is that, even though you can look up the temperature of the city, you remain unsure if it will feel cold or hot. Twenty-five degrees Celsius with lots of wind could feel cold, but the same temperature with a high humidity could feel warm. Luckily, it was spring when I boarded the plane in South Africa and autumn when I landed in America. Both places were pleasantly warm. The experience seemed surreal as we drove from the airport to our new apartments in Monroeville. "I am in America!"
The first time I went overseas was in grade eight when my mother said, "We can go to Egypt if you save enough money for the trip." Saving is one of my greatest attributes. After we toured through Egypt and Israel for two weeks, my mother and I were bitten by the travel bug. From that year forward, as a nurse, she went overseas two to four times a year to attend conferences. I too wanted to see the world. When the opportunity arose at the company where I worked in South Africa to work at our headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for two months with another colleague, I rejoiced.
I needed to get away from my way of life. I felt suffocated by my daily routine. Dissatisfaction had spread like an infection in my being. It all started when my company lost our main client, I had no work to do but still had to look busy every time my boss came into the office. I love my job as an engineer, but I really felt dissatisfied filling in my timesheet with lies every week. It is more tiresome to sit and look busy than it is to actually do something constructive. A sense of worthlessness soon crept up on my conscience. I had endured two months of this torture before I boarded the plane and set off for America. It is funny how, when you are going through the drought, it feels like years, but when you look back, you realize it lasted but a few months. Just like when you are single, you wonder when you will find the next boyfriend. It might seem like ages until you find him, but it was all but a few months.
The other major dissatisfactory issue I was experiencing was my love life. How long had I been dating my boyfriend? More than a year but less than two. I was not happy about where our relationship was heading, but he was very satisfied to go nowhere slowly. I needed to clear my head on this matter, and being apart from each other for two months might be just what we needed ... what I needed.
One of my primary school friends went to London with her husband. She created her very own, personal version of the London Times every few months to send home to friends and family members so they would know about her new life. In this publication, she shared pictures and stories of places that she had visited and people she had met on her travels in the strange, faraway land. She is very creative and original. It was a good template to work from, so I decided to do a weekly Pittsburgh Post that I could share with a handful of people—family, close friends, and colleagues.
Pittsburgh Post
75¢ Edition 1 11 September
Fly Away, My Little Bird
The long flight to Washington DC seemed short thanks to ample entertainment on board. The plane made a one-hour stop in rainy Dakar at midnight local time. The first thing that hit me after stepping into the Washington Airport was the pleasant aroma of coffee, which came from nowhere else but from Starbucks Coffee. The flight from Washington to Pittsburgh felt like a spin around the block after the seventeen-hour flight to Washington DC.
My First Night in Pittsburgh
After the long flight and a hot day in Pittsburgh of unpacking, settling, and shopping, it was time to go to bed. Not even the big pool party that the speed bikers' club held next door could keep me awake. I slept like a baby. The following morning I awoke to soft rain cascading through the...
