Was I living a double life? It kind of felt like it to me. Let me explain.
Hey everyone, Dana here.
Now when Stefan and I go back to the U.S., or even when I go back to the U.S. alone,
it basically feels like a vacation.
Even if we stay there for a few weeks, it still has a pretty vacation-y feel to it.
It’s definitely not everyday life.
But on my first two trips back to the U.S. after I had moved to Europe, I really had
this feeling, this sensation of like that I was living a kind of double life.
Both of these first two trips back to the U.S. were longer trips.
I was there for about two months each time.
And my parents still lived in Florida at this time, a place that I knew and was familiar with.
While I was in Europe, it feels like my life was kind of focused around a certain set of things.
Studying German, for one.
I gave learning German a lot of time and focus at that point in my life.
It was a really top priority for me.
And also just trying to learn about the culture of a new place in general and figure out my
way around a new country and find my own place in that country.
I was also experiencing and working through those stages of moving abroad that I talked
about in this video.
And I also then went on to start working as an English teacher, and to get around town
I often walked and/or used public transportation.
And then, of course, there was also the thought and time that I spent towards trying to maneuver
my way through the bureaucracy and the paperwork of just living a different country.
That was also a part of my life.
Then I went back to the U.S. and suddenly the things that I was focused on kind of changed.
Like a lot of that stuff that I just mentioned disappeared or was at least put on pause for
the time that I was there.
I was staying with my parents in the U.S., so my daily life really changed, I just sort
of fell back into my routine with them.
Public transportation...I mean, what public transportation?
I was once again going almost everywhere by car.
And all that German that I had been really focusing on and trying so hard to learn and
prioritizing in my life, suddenly I didn’t need German at all.
And there wasn't German being spoken all around me.
Trying to make new friends, trying to settle into in a new place, all of those stages of
culture shock that I had been experiencing in Europe, it was all just sort of put on
hold at least for the time being while I was there in the U.S.
Plus being in Florida it was just such a completely different ecosystem and climate than in Germany.
I mean, in Germany I had been wearing a thick jacket and gloves and winter hat.
And walking around the park kicking up fall leaves and then in Florida I was wearing a
T-shirt and I was walking along the beach.
And surrounded by a completely different vegetation there.
And in Germany I had been thinking about keeping warm and wearing, you know, my thick jacket
and do I need this hat or the thicker hat?
Whereas in Florida now I was thinking about sunscreen and should I wear the T-shirt or
the tank top? You know? So I was, it really felt like I was thinking about very different things.
And the thing is, yes, if I had gone on vacation from Germany to somewhere on the other side
of the world that would also have looked and felt quite different I would imagine, but
then I think there also would have been this vacation feel to it.
But going back to Florida the first two times after I moved to Europe, it did not have that vacation-y feel.
It felt like normal everyday life to me.
But a totally different one than the life that I had been living back in Europe.
So my question for you is: What is your take on this?
Was I experiencing some kind of sixth stage of moving abroad?
Have you ever experienced something similar? Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching.
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And quick announcement: I have made now a couple videos on the YouTube channel where
I'm speaking German.
And if you'd like to hear me speaking more German I have been doing the stories on Instagram
in German. At least mostly in German.
And, yeah, we'll see how that goes and how long I keep doing that in German.
But for now I'm doing the Instagram stories in German. So you can check that out if you'd like.
I'll put a link to it down in the description.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Thanks so much for watching. I...blah.
And wow it was really hard to say "sixth stage of moving abroad."
Sixth stage of moving abroad.
Both of these first...