My name is Delia N.
INTERVIEWED BY Isabella Nugent (x 15)

"My first impression of the US wasn’t so great. I looked around, I said to myself, 'This is America? Why, all their trees are dead!'"


DEPARTED FROM
Manila, Philippines

ARRIVED IN
New York, New York

YEAR
1992

NOW LIVES IN
Green Brook, New Jersey

COLLECTED BY
DELIA N'S FIRST DAY

TRANSCRIPT

My name is Delia and I arrived in the US on November 12, 1992 from the Philippines. There was a US consulting company who interviewed IT professionals and when they like you enough, they offer you a working visa. The deal was they’ll first find you a job in US and once the job offer is made, they’ll send for a plane ticket. But me, as soon as I got my working visa, I didn’t wait for them to send me a plane ticket. I sold some stock options and bought my own.

My first impression of the US wasn’t so great. I looked around, I said to myself, “This is America? Why, all their trees are dead!”

A week after I arrived, I got the job offer. So, the problem was this company that I was to be working for was located in the suburbs in New Jersey. All my friends were working in Manhattan. So now I had no place to stay. Luckily, my friend knew somebody--a Filipino family who had an extra room. Their son was away in college, so I rented out his room. Now, my next problem was this town didn’t have any form of public transportation. So, my landlord had to drive me everyday and when I had to work overtime, my boss drove me home.

So, within two months I had to learn how to drive and I bought myself a used car. I was a new driver in a winter of about seventeen snowstorms. And because I was so nervous, I drove to work early in the morning, like six o’clock in the morning, and I leave from work around eight o’clock at night just to avoid traffic. The first time it snowed, I didn’t even own a snow brush or a shovel.

One other thing I remember from my first week in the US was when I went to the store, examining each coin before handing them to the sales clerk. She was looking at me funny and when she said, “You still owe me a nickel,” I just stared at her. I didn’t know what she was talking about.

During the first year here, I spent most of my holidays with my brother and his family and his friends. And on long weekends, I spent it with my friends and we traveled a lot. We visited most of the tourist spots in DC and then we went to Disney. We went to Niagara Falls and a lot of touristy things in New York.

Now fast forward twenty plus years later, I still live in the suburbs of New Jersey. I’m now happily married with two daughters. I now enjoy all the four seasons. I don’t use coins anymore to pay; I use plastic. I don’t travel as much, but I’m home.


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