How an Extra Terrestrial Made me Decide to Live in the US

He threw a big accounting ledge book aiming at my face and screamed: "You bounced one again"!   The Iranian man's patience was growing thin with this odd foreigner just off the boat and her inabilities to be the perfect off-the-books administrative assistant.  The year was 1995 and I was illegally taking jobs left and right to survive in a city like New York.

I made the decision that I would live in the United States at the age of 14 and for a very specific reason: I watched Spielberg's "E.T.".  In the movie I noticed that children in America, even though poor and in chaotic divorce family situations, could still order pizza over a telephone using a credit card. They could also express their feelings openly without being worried of a military government kidnapping them and making them go into a "disappeared" list.  Bombs were not going off at the delis on their own street or two blocks away every other night. Americans seemed to have lawns.

My family had been waiting for a phone line to be installed in our Buenos Aires apartment since the day I was born.  A request had been made to the government and we had just had it installed a few months before the movie E.T. was released.  We got something like this (picture). We took turns to pick it up when it rung which was not often as nobody knew our number.

I did not know what a credit card was, and having pizza was a special treat. Should we have it with Coca Cola it was akin to having dinner with the president. 

At that time (1982?) my now-husband, who is my own age, had an Apple II + computer in his home and a telephone in his very own room!  He could also enjoy pizza whenever he wanted.  

I entered the United States on a tourist visa which I later changed to "student" while enrolling at several acting schools which would come handy when begging for jobs without proper documentation, at least until I hit New York where I enjoyed a variety of ways to produce streams of income:

• "Candy girl" where I interrupted everyone in night clubs and offered M&Ms, cookies and a variety of flavored gums.
• "Bilingual Bike tour guide" at Central Park, I know all about the great lawn and the obelisk and how Trump wanted to shape a building in the form of a T but some Mayor or other thought that was a bit egocentric and did not let him.  Yeah, might be an urban legend, I never found out.
• "Deli Sandwich Maker".  So it turns out people are allergic to peanuts in North America? I did not know, the thought of allergies to nuts had never entered my conscious stream while growing up in South America.
• "Waitress" - that was fun
• oh, yes, and "Administrative Assistant" for the Iranian guy on 5th Avenue who could not control his temper.

When he threw the book at me I said: "In America we do not treat women like that", then stood up and walked one block to the Salvation Army dormitories where I shared a room with three other foreigners.  Oh the feeling of freedom!, did I just do THAT?, yes I did. Of course I came back to work the next day.  He never said anything but he stopped throwing things at me.

I am lucky to be an American citizen right now, it is here that I learned to be appreciative of all details of life. Here are 32 things I am grateful for today:

1. The blog
2. People who comment in the blog and give advise, courage and reassurance
3. People who want to know what yoga is
4. People who are caring and want to be the change they want to see in the world
5. Utility companies that keep my home warm
6. Phone companies
7. Insurance companies, ugh, have trouble with that, but yes I am grateful to them
8. I am breathing
9. The cup of coffee in my hand
10. The country where I live
11. My husband
12. Kids - all kids, but especially four of them that are very close to my heart
13. Friends
14. Teachers of yoga
15. Students of yoga
16. Computers
17. The world wide web
18. Health
19. My family
20. Healers
21. People who pray daily for our planet to be at peace
22. The country where I grew up, and the lessons it taught me
23. The momentum being reached with people who want to take responsibility for our own beings, to create a planet of peace and where things can flourish
24. The spring coming
25. Plants in the house
26. The closets and the clothes in it that keep me warm 
27. My landlord
28. Asana
29. Meditation
30. Pranayama
31. Goenka
32. Krishnamacharya