90 day wonder

I have now lived in America for 91 days. 90 days had been my record up until immigrating in July. That is the number of days a "visitor" to America can stay here on a tourist visa. So now I've passed the visitor barrier and have entered the immigrant barrier. I take a practice driving test this afternoon then go to the driving test center tomorrow and sit the Missouri driving test. If all goes well I'll go to sleep on Wednesday evening with a pristine driving license from the "show me state."

3 months have just flashed past and I feel I barely have my feet on the ground yet. Bethany keeps reminding me that I'm not American and that I should keep in mind how long we gave our American staff in Munich to acclimatize to a new culture. I have a social security number, a cool looking permanent residency card and God Willing this week I'll have the American driving license that is so essential to living in America. That takes care of making my wallet (new American wallet with built-in money clip for the numerous dollar bills) feel American but I'll need more than identity cards to create identification.

My adopted city's awesome baseball team is in the "World" Series, playing those Texas Rangers. I have a few friends in Germany who will be hoping the red bird doesn't swoop in and snatch yet another World Series championship out from under their snakeskin cowboy boots.
I've always wondered about my American friends propensity for sports metaphors until I came to live here. I thought it was a Young Life or Youth worker type thing. But it seems everyone and their dog speaks in sports metaphors to describe every facet of life here. Politicians are ankle deep in football phrases, the chief executive of a fortune 500 has a deep bench and it wouldn't be a real sermon in any given church on any given Sunday if golf didn't find its way into the illustration!

So I'm no longer a 90 day wonder. I live here, I'm part of "here." So now I work on creating what being "here" means to me and what it will mean to "here."

Have a nice week and if you are a Brewers fan please know you have all of my sympathy for what my last minute Redbirds did to your awesome season.....