Barbaras Auswärtsspiel


Los Gatos, 3/19/2012


Prolog

Someday in Aachen, Germany, it could be any time between 2000 and 2009. The date doesn’t matter, because it would have been every time the same, but presumably it never has happened like that:

He: “Tell me, what would be, if I would get a job offer abroad?”
She: “Abroad? No way, I don’t wanna go. It’s so nice here!”
He: “But elsewhere it’s also nice!”
She: “Sure, but just for vacation. Living is only good at home!”
He: “But it’s certainly interesting to live for a while somewhere else!”
She: “Maybe for others! I think it’s too much effort.”
He: “Asia for example, would that be great?”
She: “I don’t know anybody there, I prefer to stay here.”
He: “And America? What about USA?”
She: “Never ever! I even don’t want to go there for vacation!”

Sometimes things are changing. Suddenly your worldview, which you built in decades, wobbles out of more or less good reasons. Someday I will tell you the real story: Why USA, California and why she changed her mind and said “yes”.

First I wrote only for German friends but the readership expanded. I just began with the translation more than a year after leaving Germany. Now I try to translate almost every column, but some are missing. Maybe someday in the future I have the time to fill the gaps.

Have fun and read!