One Word but Many Tongues by Motyka Matthew J.;

Author:Motyka, Matthew J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Hamilton Books
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

2. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (New York: Charles Scribner, 1926).

3. Patricia Highsmith and Wim Wenders, Der amerikanische Freund [The American Friend], directed by Wim Wenders (West Germany and France: Axiom Films, 1977), adapted from Highsmith’s novel, Ripley’s Game (London: Heinemann; and New York: Random House,1974).

4. Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la grâce (Paris: Plon, 1943).

Chapter 6

San Francisco

New World, New Life

I landed in San Francisco at night on April 1, 1989. It was not a joke. I was brought to a home in the Oakland Hills. The next day I visited the city of Oakland in the area of Lake Merritt. Surprisingly, it was a misty day, and very different from the cliché image of California. But the smell of the luxuriant vegetation fulfilled the expectation of being in a promised land. It enveloped my senses with the enchantment that was telling, that even if I were to become a street bum, which I swore never to do in my visa application, I would actually find it more satisfying than living in a Parisian studio. The world opened its gates to me a big way. After seeing the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, a dream revisited me, and that was to enroll and obtain a degree in the United States.

As I started settling in the new cultural reality, I soon found that, unlike in Europe there were opportunities for me regarding education. I had my academic records evaluated and was advised that it would take me at least two years to earn a bachelor’s degree. The equivalency system was stinging. However, San Francisco State University was willing to accept me for the next year if I applied formally in the fall. I did so and had a year to wait. The year passed by quickly. With my work experience in Paris, I found a clerical summer job in the office of the McGraw-Hill publishing house in Berkeley, using my expertise for making photocopies. Soon, a Czech woman, Marcela, a graphic designer for the company, initiated me into rudiments of composition. Given the closeness of Czech to Polish language, She explained the job to me in Czech which I understood better at the time, than I did English. We shared our emotions at the unraveling of the Communist block by an amazing series of peaceful revolutions. It was also the year of the Tiananmen Square protests that ended in the massacre of hundreds of students and civilians on June 4, 1989. Without Marcela’s company, I would have barely noticed anything outside my private revolution that required a great deal of effort to make ends meet financially.

After the summer job at McGraw-Hill, I was able to find another position, based on my prior educational experience at Petit Collège of the Saint-Louis de Gonzague. I became a teacher for an after school program called Enrichment Plus. Like my job in Paris, this was another job that the local educators did not want, but was perfect for me. I had to

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