While waiting..

[TimandAna 37]

you all are making me laugh so hard, trying to work but this stopped me.

my husband is Filipino living in Japan for 30yrs now. rice has been part of his meal every day of his life. THAT might be a challenge here, but we'll make it work. there are alot of Filipino and Japanese places here; just have to find all of the stuff he likes most.

i was there for two months this past Jan/Feb...there can't possibly be food in the US as good as it is there....everything is fresh, all day every day. i miss that alot. I have to try to make this transition as easy for him as possible. i think he's generally excited to be where it's warm and where people / neighbors talk to each other. he knows they all know he's not Japanese (altho obviously fluent), so he's kind of the odd man out in general.

just my short story to fill the gap....we knew each other 40+yrs ago in high school...we were in Taipei together, I was in HS, he was in a Filipino band (sigh....my inner drummer!). when we all left there in early 72, we all lost contact. thank God for the internet and FB, by way of 3-4 emails they eventually pointed me back to him! That was April 2011, we were married in Osaka in Feb this year.....and then I left him behind.....and here we are. because he's Filipino he can't even come here on the VWP(even if he lived on the moon) to visit because they are not in the program. Bummer.

he told me his biggest fear is not knowing where he is and not knowing how to get around. i've decided i'm going to paint one full wall in my house white and then get a wall size map made of Central Florida and Orlando so he can study them when he figures out where he is and where he's going, I'll paint the wall!

Wow amazing story how meeting again and falling in love after 39 years of separation.. It is so funny about being lost and don't know your way around.. I never thought about putting a wall size map up before .. Haha.. Orlando area is a great place with so much to do also variety of food.. My favorite place to eat lunch was Spice Mill Cafe at Sea World also enjoyed spending the weekends at Universal listening to bands having a few "to many drinks"..

[LoveMyTico 999]

Wow amazing story how meeting again and falling in love after 39 years of separation.. It is so funny about being lost and don't know your way around.. I never thought about putting a wall size map up before .. Haha.. Orlando area is a great place with so much to do also variety of food.. My favorite place to eat lunch was Spice Mill Cafe at Sea World also enjoyed spending the weekends at Universal listening to bands having a few "to many drinks"..

I LOVE ORLANDO ! !

Paying a visit to Mickey is on our bucket list of things we need to do together.

[lucybelle 453]

THAT'S FUNNY !!! Thank God for GPS's and smart phones.

My husband lived with me when he was here so as long as his memory is in tact, he should be good. Getting around should be fine.

He still is funny about talking to other people in English. I am the only one who ever spoke English to him and in fact, he didn't speak a word of English when I met him. He always had that confused look on his face. I bought him some books and I sat with him and just spoke slowly. We used to sit for hours and I would google translate lyrics to songs that he liked but never knew what they were saying. We didn't even talk on the phone in the beginning. Just text. Such good memories !!! even now, I text in English and he responds in Spanish. I wouldn't trade that for the world. I could listen to his accent forever. I hope he never loses it !

My esposo's English has gotten so good he's now the go-to translator at his work when Americans visit Yours will loose the accent, or at least you'll get used to it. My family sometimes picks at the way he says something I never even noticed he said it in a funny way! For now we talk about 50/50 in Spanish/English. We're mainly in English now because of some potential job ops, but we go back and forth pretty well. But he ALWAYS emails/texts in Spanish. English is hard to write!!

[GoLdEnSkY99 54]

THAT'S FUNNY !!! Thank God for GPS's and smart phones.

My husband lived with me when he was here so as long as his memory is in tact, he should be good. Getting around should be fine.

He still is funny about talking to other people in English. I am the only one who ever spoke English to him and in fact, he didn't speak a word of English when I met him. He always had that confused look on his face. I bought him some books and I sat with him and just spoke slowly. We used to sit for hours and I would google translate lyrics to songs that he liked but never knew what they were saying. We didn't even talk on the phone in the beginning. Just text. Such good memories !!! even now, I text in English and he responds in Spanish. I wouldn't trade that for the world. I could listen to his accent forever. I hope he never loses it !

we started out as texting in english but not anymore, i just feel more connected when i speak to her in native language.

[LoveMyTico 999]

My esposo's English has gotten so good he's now the go-to translator at his work when Americans visit Yours will loose the accent, or at least you'll get used to it. My family sometimes picks at the way he says something I never even noticed he said it in a funny way! For now we talk about 50/50 in Spanish/English. We're mainly in English now because of some potential job ops, but we go back and forth pretty well. But he ALWAYS emails/texts in Spanish. English is hard to write!!

Did your husband have formal classes in english in the colegio? Mine never did. I'm working on his tenses and sometimes he says "I" when he means "he or they". Or he will say I'm driver instead of I'm driving. I think its cute and I totally understand him but I understand why he feels so weird about it.

And English IS hard to write.. He tries tho .. He will spell "nice" like "Naice". But I know why, because that is how it is pronouced in Spanish. its cute !!

[Virtuous45 31]

I find this thread very interesting..thanks for starting this TimandAnna. Two things I will miss (I'm the beneficiary) when I leave home are:

1. I know I'm going to miss the tropical climate (no snow or cold weather all year long). My husband is from New Jersey

2. Family ofcourse. Leaving mom and daughter (one will be coming with me)

3.....Long stretches of white sand beaches and sunshine

What I'm looking forward to enjoy in the US are:

1. My husband of course

2. Shopping, shopping, shopping and more shopping

3. Building new relationships with my new family.

4. Eating lots and lots of fruits and vegetables because it will be much much cheaper

5. Taking long road trips on wide and traffic-free roads

6....White Christmases

What I know my husband misses when he comes to my country are:

1. Hot water showers

2. Cool temperature throughout the day

3. American food (Its taking him a while to acquire the taste of Jamaican cuisine)

4. His son (calls him every day to make sure he's ok)

haha!

[LoveMyTico 999]

we started out as texting in english but not anymore, i just feel more connected when i speak to her in native language.

Oh, you don't know how many times I go to sleep at night wishing I could wake up speaking fluent spanish. That's so nice you can speak her language.

My spanish is so terrible. I probably sound like a cavewoman . I really want to have a meaningful conversation with his family. all the girls can yap and I just sit there... like DUHHHH

I catch the conversation but don't know how to join in... Maybe one day !

[GoLdEnSkY99 54]

Oh, you don't know how many times I go to sleep at night wishing I could wake up speaking fluent spanish. That's so nice you can speak her language.

My spanish is so terrible. I probably sound like a cavewoman . I really want to have a meaningful conversation with his family. all the girls can yap and I just sit there... like DUHHHH

I catch the conversation but don't know how to join in... Maybe one day !

haha i'm sure once he comes to US and once you start talking to your in laws more often then you will be able to understand and speak more fluently. My wife can speak and write english since she studied in english school, but its just a different feeling

and trust me once you get fluent it will more fun! and not to mention it can be used as a code language in certain situation haha!

Edited November 18, 2013 by goldensky99

[TimandAna 37]

I find this thread very interesting..thanks for starting this TimandAnna. Two things I will miss (I'm the beneficiary) when I leave home are:

1. I know I'm going to miss the tropical climate (no snow or cold weather all year long). My husband is from New Jersey

2. Family ofcourse. Leaving mom and daughter (one will be coming with me)

3.....Long stretches of white sand beaches and sunshine

What I'm looking forward to enjoy in the US are:

1. My husband of course

2. Shopping, shopping, shopping and more shopping

3. Building new relationships with my new family.

4. Eating lots and lots of fruits and vegetables because it will be much much cheaper

5. Taking long road trips on wide and traffic-free roads

6....White Christmases

What I know my husband misses when he comes to my country are:

1. Hot water showers

2. Cool temperature throughout the day

3. American food (Its taking him a while to acquire the taste of Jamaican cuisine)

4. His son (calls him every day to make sure he's ok)

haha!

You will need to get that Jersey accent and sometimes I don't understand them.. Haha Your going to be close to New York.. Can go ice skating in Times Square, horse and buggy ride through Central Park, and experience so many celebrations!! Also lots of shopping everywhere!! Haha.. I miss the pineapple in Jamaica and think it is the best in the world.. I stayed at a resort there and made sure the butler brought me fresh pineapples everyday.. Thank you for sharing

Hot showers are very important!! Haha

Edited November 18, 2013 by TimandAna

[Cathi 5,629]

Grate thread!

My husband actually misses the driving in Jordan, he says driving here isn't a challenge haha. I HATE driving in Jordan, it is insanity.

There are so many things he misses about home,

-the driving

-being able to go to dinner without spending a small fortune, the cost of,living is so much lower there in just about all aspects of life.

-He misses all the specialty markets for food and spices and meats and veggies and breads.Everything there is fresh. I miss that about Jordan too.

- he misses the hustle and bustle of the city, he lived in Amman. Even though we live in the biggest town in NH, it is not nearly as busy as the big city, after all it's New Hampshire.

- he misses having family around all the time. There was always mom, dad, brothers, sisters and extended family at home constantly. Here we live far from my family.

- he misses his moms cooking and eating all the parts of an animal, that in in my opinion, are not meant to be eaten. I do cook a lot of middle eastern food for him, but it just isn't the same. We don't have the fresh spices, and farm fresh yogurt and so many other things that are available there.

- here he HATES the winter. Then again so do I, and I grew up here.

Things he doesn't miss

- TV and movies. He is from a Muslim country so many shows and movies are blocked or edited because of the laws about dencency(not sure of that's good,or bad..lol). He gets to watch shows on tv when they are new, not years later as reruns with half of the good parts cut out.

- being able to watch soccer on TV in the comfort of his own home.

- the job market there is terrible, he is happy to have a job in his field with decent pay.

- he loves that here in the US we can drive a few minutes and be at the ocean, or skiing 5 minutes away, and less than an hour to Boston. He loves the different cultural sections of Boston, the north end(Italian section, he says he feels like he is in a scene from the Godfather when we go), Chinatown, Southie(Irish)He loves how different each state is and that you don't have to hop on a plane to vacation.

- he loves the different cultures and foods right at his fingertips, and that it's authentic. In Jordan there is one kind of food, middle eastern, even Japanese or Italian food is middle eastern...haha

- he likes the option to go to the gym 24 hours a day. Not quite sure he joined a 24 hour gym though, he only goes at night after work...haha

- he is amazed at how good the medical system and care In this country is, albeit expensive. It is night and day. Going to the hospital there is a scary experience. Been there, done that, it was the worst experience of my life.

I could go on forever about what he misses about home, and what he likes and doesn't like about the US. I just know that we are both incredibly lucky, to first of all have each other, and to also have the cultural differences that we both embrace into our daily lives. There are so many things I have learned from him, his family and friends and culture, things I never would have know unless we met. The intense conversations we have about the religious and cultural differences take place between us every da make us laugh, and cry( good crying)and make us think. What he has brought into my life, and into the lives of my children and family are endless. Neither one of us would trade our journey for anything. We have fun, we live life to the fullest, but most importantly, we love each other. More each day...

I meant great thread... Not grate. Damn auto correct

[JA_Martinez 81]

my husband and i hadn't talked via web/face chat for the first year and a half....i think we thought we didn't want to ruin the first face to face in over 40yrs. we sent pictures and voice chatted via Voxer and other mediums and did so while i was there, which was pretty cute. After I got home that all changed! We have a short bit of face time in the morning here (late evening there with DLST on now....hate it), and text outside of that til he goes to bed and I go to work. his mornings (my early evening) are short during work days so we only get to text a couple times until his lunch time (my bed time), and that's short as well, but we still send notes back and forth. IF we happen to both be off on a weekend, we get maximum time of maybe 30min of face time IF he stays up later and i get up earlier. we've been doing this this way for so long it seems normal. i've been told by a couple people that he and i communicate more than they do with their spouses here!

funny how we're all surviving this mess by whatever means we have to to communicate. our best tools have been Voxer for voice and Tango for face time. I hate Skype...they make it too hard to use... and FaceTime is not as clear as Tango. i should own stock.

[JA_Martinez 81]

......by the time this is over, all of our CR1's will be IR1's, we'll all have more bonafide documentation than we'll ever need and we'll be D O N E! that's my silver lining!

[HoussemAnna 20]

Thanks for the positive topic

What my husband will miss about his home country of Tunisia...

Probably the weather, he will miss his cat, a few friends, soccer (aka "football" isnt so popular in the states ), the coffee shops, and maybe he will miss seeing me in skype all the time ( getting a better trade off)

he wont miss................

no job opportunity, the social and government unrest, the garbage in the streets, showering in cold water, no ac or heat unit in the house, being away from his children and wife.

What my husband will love about being in America....

Having his family, the food, the Dollar Store lolz, being pampered by his wife who misses him too much, more freedom, I think he will enjoy too much in America with few complaints

[lucybelle 453]

Did your husband have formal classes in english in the colegio? Mine never did. I'm working on his tenses and sometimes he says "I" when he means "he or they". Or he will say I'm driver instead of I'm driving. I think its cute and I totally understand him but I understand why he feels so weird about it.

And English IS hard to write.. He tries tho .. He will spell "nice" like "Naice". But I know why, because that is how it is pronouced in Spanish. its cute !!

He went to a public school so any English he got was minimal. He mostly learned by watching TV and picking up gringas at bars. Like me!

And the problem with Spanish in Costa Rica is you could speak Spanish, and still not understand ticos. The slang is INSANE. Seriously, when I first moved down here my esposo would tell his friends "she speaks Spanish, but she's still learning Costa Rican"

[Dan from MI 23]

he told me his biggest fear is not knowing where he is and not knowing how to get around. i've decided i'm going to paint one full wall in my house white and then get a wall size map made of Central Florida and Orlando so he can study them when he figures out where he is and where he's going, I'll paint the wall!

WOW I love this topic! It take me away from the stress of the same waiting game. I had some good laugh and a couple tears. That is really actually a great idea to paint one wall of the house. I think I will do something like that at my house for my wife to show her. I asked her tonight what she missed and look forward when she come back to the US.

1)"YOU!" Oblivious answer

2) "Sully" My (our) dog that she loved to death

3) "Library" The library in Brazil... at least in her city is terrible and no free movies to take out of the library.

4) "Lake Michigan" She loved the clean fresh water lake over salt water and just couldn't get over the fact that this is fresh perfect temperature water and a bigggg lake. In her area the water tends to feel like you are in a bathtub especially during the summer.

5) "Smooth Road" That was the only answer that I had to stop and figure out what she meant. It was until I realized it was because in her town the potholes swallows cars and the roads are so terrible that you think you are going over speed bumps every 5 feet. If you want to open a car garage, look no further.

6) "shopping heaven" 99% of things are far far cheaper in US

7) "Houses with backyard and green grass" In her area, everybody is surrounded by 15-20 ft 2 or 3 ft deep cement walls and the house covers the property and the lucky people like her have a cement patio big enough for a car inside the fence.

8) "the REAL Chicago Deep Dish pizza" she claimed that the famous chicago pizza is the only pizza that can beat out Brazilian pizza. mmm I'm sure somebody here would argue with her answer

9) "Easy to get anywhere within minutes and without asking for direction" Her roads and highways are insanely hard to follow that even the Brazilian still get lost and 3 hours traffic is actually a good day.

10) "Did I say YOU?" Yes dear you did and I love you

Thanks for the fun topic