'I will still remain Russian in this country': how a journalist moved to the USA

As I said, I had no friendship with the city for a long time.

And then I suddenly became overgrown with acquaintances, the city seemed cordial, and I happened to have it, sorry for the cliché, a real novel that does not stop. I thought that all this talk of love for the city is nonsense, but now I understand that if I live here all my life, I will be completely happy, this is the best place on earth.

I am constantly asked how scared I am, but I am a Russian child from 90's. The main rule of my childhood is not to play with syringes from the doorway.

I also have mutual love with Detroit and Ann Arbor's neighboring city of Ypsilanti. Ypsi, unlike Ann Arbor, is something of a quiet town surrounded by ghetto neighborhoods. I even have fun: turn on Lamar and drive through its streets, looking at houses and people. I love it for its cinematography. People always ask me how I’m not scared, but I’m a Russian child from the 90s. The main rule of my childhood was not to play with syringes from the entrance. After this, Ypsilanti probably isn't scary. It's a shabby, old town with northern colonial architecture and a predominantly black population. There are generally a lot of dark-skinned people in Michigan: largely due to historical events, because it was from Detroit that fugitive slaves from the South were transported to Canada. My friend Tim lives with his parents in an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Ypsilanti that was part of the Underground Railroad, the route slaves took to escape from the plantations, and Tim still has the bunks and washbasins they used in his basement in the basement. stayed at a farm. It's creepy there. Tim says there are ghosts in the house.

Standard Marriage Story

My story looks almost standard. After a year of living in Michigan, I decided to use my location and get an education in the Business Administration and at the same time I met a man (just from Ypsilanti) whom I eventually married. By this time, I not only began to speak English tolerably enough to joke, and therefore I feel comfortable in the language environment, but somehow I learned Spanish in between times, stopped being afraid to meet people, understood the mentality in particular, learned to count the distance in miles, and the temperature in Fahrenheit, and more or less determined what my plans for the future.

Now we are waiting for an interview on the green card, all the documents have already been collected. The case is very dreary. It takes a lot of money, a lot of paperwork, a lot of work and, preferably, an immigration lawyer. Even tests for syphilis and tuberculosis are needed. Recently, I received a work permit, now I need to get a local version of the TIN. Then I will be able to work at a friend’s enterprise. You need to wait for the interview for about 5 – 6 months from the moment you submit your documents In the meantime, I am writing, helping friends and keeping a blog for girls dorkygals.ru.

You can begin to look for a job in a specialty only when I return from Russia. I’m going to Siberia for more than a month, no company in the US will give me such a long vacation, and I have to go home hard: pull out my wisdom teeth, for example, because it’s cheaper to fly to Irkutsk and back than to do it here. I have some money, so I cannot continue my education for the time being, but I hope, as a result, to somehow combine it with work.

My plans and dreams of a career almost coincide: I would love to teach Russian and foreign literature and at the same time deal with journalism and event management. All this is really feasible, although it involves a lot of work, but I am not afraid of work, because I have a goal.

I have few dreams at all, and all of them can be fulfilled: a dog, my Russian library from Irkutsk in my own house and the moment when I will pass through the border control as a resident of the country, and not as a tourist.

It's the most important. Michigan is my home, which I chose myself, and it’s very cool. The home you created for yourself is the best gift in life.

My attitude towards emigration is very calm. Firstly, I never planned emigration. And when I talk to other people who moved here, I understand that many have a similar story: it just so happened, there was a chance to go, and so I went. Emigration for me is not a political gesture or escape, although I have quite a lot of complaints against my homeland, and modern Russia in general scares me.

I feel good here, and I wouldn’t mind spending my life here, I have friends and a loved one, and I love the city in which I live. At the same time, changing your country of residence is morally very difficult, emigration is not a pound of raisins, and the USA has its own global and local problems. For example, the healthcare system is a complete atas, cannibalistic prices and rules.

The housing market is also inhumane. They take huge sums of money for education loans here. White Americans are an exceptionally privileged people compared to the rest of the world, who themselves do not know where they sit. For example, I have three white friends: the rest are either black, or Latinos, or emigrants from third world countries (Palestinians, Pakistanis, Poles, Serbs). I cannot communicate with whites: we do not have this common base of problems and ethical dilemmas that others face. But that’s what’s good about the States, at least the northern ones: you can be whoever you want, the main thing is don’t bother others. People talk openly about their orientation, nationality and religion. The famous biochemist quits work at the appointed hour and goes to pray, because he is a Muslim, and no one has any internal contradictions.

About emigration

As usual, a coin has two sides, and emigration is both difficult and fun at the same time. And at the very beginning she is generally unbearable. There are now two camps of opinion in Russia: people who themselves are not averse to leaving, and their fierce opponents. The first think that it’s all honey here and that it’s very cool and easy to get on a plane and change your citizenship in a week, while the second irrationally believe that we’ve all sold ourselves for sausage and lost our humanity. Everyone is wrong: life in exile is the same life as any other, contradictory, complex, intense, sometimes hopelessly sad, sometimes joyful, but I decided to stay because it suits me that way, and the choice I make is one of many available. I stayed because it makes me happy, and I'm sure there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

I will still remain Russian in this country, because I grew up in Russia. I have a Russian mentality and social habits, I love my native language and culture, but if someone else doesn’t like them - it doesn’t matter whether they’re Russian or not - it doesn’t offend me. It’s hard for me to be proud of what I haven’t done myself, so I love my homeland, first of all, as a mother, and not as a set for self-identification.

If someone is going to leave for the West, and it seems to him that it will immediately be easy, cool and no one will infringe upon anyone's rights, then it is better to sit still at home: there is nothing worse than unjustified expectations from the move. You are not expected to be here, but they are not particularly interested in you here. And if all of you anyway are about to fall in Sheremetyevo, then I have few instructions: the better you know the language of the new country, the easier it will be in cultural acclimatization, and the move itself will quickly teach you consistency, endurance and courage. Border control does not like the faint of heart.