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Morning in late fall – view of Mount Tamalpais through the oak's window
Living in Berkeley is a huge privilege. Every morning I am grateful to have been bound to the San Francisco Bay Area now for four decades. It was a December night exactly 40 years ago. With my one-way ticket on a Pan Am flight and one small suitcase, I arrive from Munich at the Oakland airport, which is tiny back then, and deserted. Nancy and Tony, members of the theatre company SOON 3, pick me up around midnight. The car ride to San Francisco over the old Bay Bridge. It all seems non spectacular to my exhausted and disoriented young self. In a few days I will turn 28 years old. December 14, 1981.
 For the first three months, I am going to be living at the directors' home called Dreamland Ballroom. Performing at the famous Magic Theatre. My English is very bad, my ear is not used to the American tongue. I barely understand conversations, unless people speak slowly. And I get basically nothing of what is rattled on radio or TV. French was my beloved first foreign language. But I start dreaming immediately in English. When bone tired and frustrated at the end of a long rehearsal, I will start swearing angrily in German, without even noticing, to the laughter of all round me. My first visit alone to the Safeway to buy myself something for lunch, ends in me fleeing the HUGE confusing store in tears. I am too overwhelmed to find or decide on anything to eat. I return hungry. Utter helplessness. A kind stage hand makes a quick run to get me a tuna sandwich and potato chips.

Americans have been very kind to me all along the way, at all times supporting my ideas, work and vision. I learned so much, on all levels. I am utterly grateful to this country, to the San Francisco Bay Area, and all the many amazing people I have been meeting – and am still encountering – who supported me and allowed me to give back to this society and culture. With a deep bow – merci merci, muchas gracias, grazie mille, vielen herzlichen Dank, many thanks for 40 splendid years!
...and more to come...
 

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 13, 2021 at 8:01 PM

    So glad you took that huge step 40 years ago, Karina. Courageous, excited, curious you were, and all things to be in tai chi. Happy, happy birthday. Love, Karen

    ReplyDelete

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