Chapter X - I AM A LEGAL ALIEN

"Which perfume does your wife wear?

"Youth Dew from Estee Lauder”

“What is her favorite food?”

“I think leg of lamb”

“You think or you know that?”

“Well, she has many favorites”

“Where did you meet”

“In my restaurant in Amsterdam, she was on vacation”

After three months of being in the USA we applied for my Green Card, work and residence permit, and a couple of months later we were called into the office of the U.S. Citizenship and immigration services. We were put in two different rooms and they questioned Patricia and me at the same time to check us out if we were really married. I handed the officer of the immigration services our wedding album, the birth certificate from our son David and the Dutch marriage certificate. A couple of months later I got my permit and Social Security card. Resident Alien said the card! Finally, I was legal, a legal alien, and I could go find myself a job.

My first job was in a just-opened French restaurant named Café de Paris in the Normandy Shopping Centre in Ellicott City, Maryland. Patricia dropped me off on my first day, it was only a five-minute drive from our home. She looked proud at me and gave me a big kiss, saying she loved me, like I was going to my first day at school.

“Just call me when you’re ready, then I pick you up”

“Wish me luck!”

“How was it? “ Patricia asked when she picked me up

“Ok, I guess, I had some trouble understanding everything”

“Like what?”

“Well, for example, I just served the appetizers for a table, and like 15 minutes later the waitstaff called the entrees for this table, and the chef asked me to serve them. So I told him that I did that already but he argued with me that I didn’t. When he mentioned the dishes where it was all about I told him that that was the main course. Then he said, yes, the entrees. I told him that entree means appetizer in French. So I learned something again, entree means here the main course. Oh and also they have a dish called shrimp scampi and they serve prosciutto ham, so shrimp shrimp and ham ham”

“Oh, and I only could smoke 2 cigarettes all day!”

“I love you, Nino”

“I love you too!”