Leaving Europe is getting harder and harder. Is it the age thing? Or is it the critical view on the US with upcoming elections that seem scarier than ever? Is it the aging parent syndrome, the need for their care, their helplessness? Is it the realization that friendships are longer lasting and deeper than anything I ever found in the US, except with other Europeans? Or is it a combination of all? I’m not sure.

Leaving Europe is like leaving a part of me behind, melancholy, openness that wouldn’t be accepted in the US, freedom. Long talks, deep conversations and that love and care I missed for example for my 60th birthday. Everybody in the US is online, has a cell phone, is connected, but for my birthday I barely got any “happy birthday” wishes. I’m not expecting much, but not even my married family remembered. Not a single person. And in Germany they bent over backwards to celebrate with me: b-lunch at a nice restaurant, b-coffee & cake at my sisters house, with homemade cakes, a “60” candle on top, several b-songs and that kind of attention that you feel in your heart. B-dinner followed with a delicious vegetarian antipasto / tapas buffet, white wine, Prosecco, etc. All those things I love and like to eat. Heaven! There is an attention that is just different when you get a party with homemade details. Balloons, a happy birthday banner, cake and songs, etc.