The speech part 1, or 'what are you doing here?'

Yesterday it was my turn to give a presentation in German class. Each of us has to present at some point in the semester, about any topic we choose. So far, the speeches have been about the educational system in Nigeria, women's rights in Iraq, and why rats make great pets. Mikhail the book thief also gave a presentation about food additives and preservatives.

Everyone in class seems to think I am a bit of a novelty as an American, so I wanted to choose an Amerikanisch topic. My inspiration came from a weird neighbor that I ran into on the sidewalk.  I don't know his name, but he keeps his bikes next to ours in the basement. He had never talked to me before aside from a grunted 'hallo' every now and then. One day he stopped me and asked what he would need to do if he wanted to live in U.S. I started talking about jobs applying for a work visa when he interrupted and said that he didn't want to work. He just wanted to buy an RV and drive around the country. I told him there was no visa for that, but if he wanted to overstay his tourist visa he could try to be an illegal German RV driver. "What about Canada?" he asked.

This awkward conversation inspired me to speak about immigration to the U.S. and how it works, compared to immigration in Germany, with which my classmates and I are very familiar.

I ran into the weird neighbor again in the basement last week. Even though he has often seen me with Brian, he asked whether I live alone. Creepy. He's just the kind of guy who might try to lure me into his RV. Then he asked why I live in Germany, and said "if the U.S. is so great and so many people want to go to there, what are you doing here?"

I decided to put that speech, and some of the questions that my classmates asked, on this blog. I might even slip in a few German words to make it more authentic. Read on.