Category Archives: California

Outrageous Limbo!

Posted on by under California, Immigration

USCIS

Dear People,

Today I have something serious to write about the country I decided to live in. My friend Giselle and her husband filed an I-212 waiver. The I-212 is an application for permission to reapply for admission into the United States after deportation or removal. The entire application was a large stack of papers, the kind that you need two arms to carry. It included documents that their marriage is real, bank statements, apartment leases, telephone bills and a lot of letters from friends and family members that shared their desire for justice proclaimed. There’s no formal time limit by which US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has to release a decision about Giselle’s husband’s waiver. They might answer tomorrow, or in a few months or maybe next year. They submitted the application in September of 2012. If the answer is positive they can apply for permanent residency. The same application I had to go through.

Now you have to hold your breath: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not know where the waiver application is! It is missing. The big pile of paper with all the accumulated documents has disappeared. It has vanished in the universe of bureaucracy’s ignorance.  Continue reading →

4 As und die Tränen

Posted on by under California, Münsingen

Ankommen und abreisen …

incl.

Abschied und Ankunft …

Das Reisefieber und die Neugier an anderen Ländern und Kulturen fing bei mir schon früh an. InterRail durch Europa, Segeln auf dem dem Ijsselmeer, Schüleraustausch in Frankreich und England und mit sechzehn die erste Reise in die Ferne, Amerika. Australien, war das erste Ziel nach dem Abitur. Indonesien, Malaysia und Singapur lagen praktischerweise auf dem Weg zurück nach Deutschland. Continue reading →

Anniversary RSVP

Posted on by under California

Beach-Zusammen-Back-700

Our anniversary is coming up (actually it was on March 16th) and we are celebrating with friends and family in California. It took me a year to settle on the idea of having a party and it took also a lot of negotiations about what to do and mainly how many people to invite. I simply don’t need big crowds to celebrate my connection with Rajendra and beside that, big crowds make me extremely nervous when I am in the centre of attention!

We will only do a tiny little celebration in the middle of a redwood grove in the Oakland Hills. BBQ and cakes from my mother and my sister friend Anja, a pomegranate juice, prosecco with blueberries in the beginning and a little surprise. Everyone is asked to add a page to our Buch Über die Liebe (Love Celebration Book).  It can be a poem, an illustration, a photo or anything else people are  inspired to create when they think of us or the celebration of being together or being on the ocean with dolphins.

Here I want to share a funny RSVP conversation:

Guest:

nice! planning to be there…

Carmen:

NICE!

Does “planning to be there” mean you will be there 🙂 ??

….still trying to understand the bay area language dance around
solid answers …
Great that you come or plan to!

Hedwig sings *Origin of love*

Posted on by under California

Falls Ihr den Film *Hedwig And The Angry Inch* noch nicht gesehen habt, dann lade ich Euch alle dazu herzlichst dazu ein!

Erzählt wird die Lebensgeschichte von Hedwig, die als Rock-and-Roll Drag-Queen durch Amerika reist, ursprünglich aber als Hansel Schmidt in Ost-Berlin geboren wurde. Die Flucht nach Amerika gelingt nur, weil Hansel einer Geschlechtsumwandlung zu Hedwig zustimmt. Im Film wird die Verwandlung von Hansel in Hedwig beschrieben und dabei auch der Umstand, dass bei der “Geschlechtsuumwandlung” etwas daneben ging, und Hansel/Hedwig statt eines Geschlechtsorgans nur noch der „Angry Inch“ blieb.

Die Geschichte ist grandios schräg! Die Kostümierung und das Make-up ein einziger Genuß und manchmal weiß man nicht, ob man weinen oder lachen soll.

Aber auf jeden Fall ein Rockerlebnis seinesgleichen!

Ich habe den heutigen Abend damit verbracht den Soundtrack zum Film zu hören. Laut! Richtig laut und noch lauter! Den Song *Origin of love* habe ich mit gegrölt und anschließend nach Videos geforscht und dieses gefunden. Es ist wunderbar.

Wer sich immer wieder fragt, was der Ursprung der *Liebe* ist – please listen to the song, dann wisst ihr Bescheid… Continue reading →

R.o.S.e.N.

Posted on by under California

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Das hätte ich mir ja nie träumen lassen – Carmen fotografiert Blumen und dann auch noch die überaus kitschigen R.o.S.e.N.!

In meinem vergangenen Leben habe ich mich immer geweigert Blumen zu fotografieren, weil es mit einer normalen Kamera und einem ebenso normal ausgeprägtem Gespür für Fotographie einfach stümperisch ausschaut. Und um ganz ehrlich zu sein auch zu romantisch für eine verwegene Abenteurerin wie mich. Continue reading →

Far West O.

Posted on by under California

I am spending a lot of my time in West Oakland and help Alex running for City Council. He is a mexican immigrant, gay and married to a canadian psychologist called Christopher, who also immigrated to the USA. Alex was a former figure skater and Christopher a dancer. I think they met on the beach 15 years ago and stayed together since that time. They left San Francisco a long time ago as they had the dream of having their own house. The cheapest realties in the Bay area are in West Oakland. That part of Oakland is, according to the crime statistics still one of the most (if not the most) dangerous spot all over the state. Blight, vandalism, murder, unemployment, hopelessness, despair and rape are the order of the day. Since some months an appalling new fad has developed. The gangs started to take revenge on babies! When I got evidence that this is not just a headline rumor I was speechless of the shock that inhabited my body.
Continue reading →

Schwuppdiwupp Exposé

Posted on by under California

Falls Ihr Probleme habt die Sprechblasen zu lesen, klickt einfach auf eines der Bilder, dann seht ihr die Bildergeschichte in einem anderen Fenster.

If you have troubles reading the word bubbles just click on one of the pictures and the story will open in a different window.