Final Narrative by Suzanne
Alice Yuen was born in Hong Kong but left at the age of eighteen, when she married and immigrated to Germany. The reason was because her husband’s family lived in Germany. At first when she moved, she really missed her family a lot. She cried for months even after she left. In order to stay in touch, Alice would write letters to her family since back then there was no internet access.
When she first arrived to Europe, she did not felt much pressure even though she didn’t understand many things there, and didn’t know how to speak the language. Though she did not know how to speak German, she could speak English. Ninety nine percent of the population in Germany spoke German and only one percent spoke English so it was hard to communicate with people there. She got used to life there, and she soon adapted. She helped her husband’s family restaurant. She worked for long hours everyday and when she came back from home, she was either exhausted or sleepy. After working there for ten years, the economy dropped and business was down. They had the restaurant sold later. That was also when she felt freed and relaxed, while her husband was extremely depressed. After two weeks, she got a call from a friend about a job. She tried it out and went for an interview where she got accepted. Her boss was friendly enough to let her work even after he found out about the truth that she never had much working experience. For the next past six years, she worked in the same company for a department that sold monitor parts. Later she got a raise and worked in the shipping department from Asia to Germany, and Europe for the two years after that. Then she worked for the accounting department also for two years. The company later moved to Southern Europe, where she was really far from her family. She had no choice but to quit because she didn’t want to move.
Two years later her boss opened another, smaller company. He asked if she wanted to be a part of the company or not. All she thought of was that she wanted to rest. So half a year later, her boss called back and asked her again. Alice accepted. She worked as an administrator and liked the job even though it was a small company with six people in total, which included herself. She felt that her responsibilities were important, which made her feel happy. She left Europe about three years later to the United States to escape from her divorce.
Alice arrived to New York City and stayed with her family in Long Island. She had a different view from Europe. At first she hates the transportation and the loudness from the city where in Europe, it was different and calmer. After a few weeks, she was introduced to a new job as a book keeper that was similar to accounting and where she worked for almost two years. She went back to Europe for a few months since she missed it so much there, as well as her family. Later she came back without the old job. After ten months, she got introduced to a new job for filing and got transferred to a book keeper again which is what she does for living now. She also now got used to living in the city because she attempted another part of the new life. In her spare time Alice took English classes to improve in her speech a bit more.
Even though she did attempt the city, she noticed that things are really expensive, especially the rent. At first she moved to Long Island and lived with her family but it was too far from her work’s place. So she moved to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. However the apartment was really crowded and squished. Not only that but the rent was also high. Later, she moved to another apartment in 79th Street in Brooklyn where she also had two other roommates with her. It wasn’t as squished as before and the rent became cheaper since her friends and her chipped in the money together. She got used to many things but also learned more new things from all her past experiences because she knows this world never will have a ending to excitement.
Alice Yuen was born in Hong Kong but left at the age of eighteen, when she married and immigrated to Germany. The reason was because her husband’s family lived in Germany. At first when she moved, she really missed her family a lot. She cried for months even after she left. In order to stay in touch, Alice would write letters to her family since back then there was no internet access.
When she first arrived to Europe, she did not felt much pressure even though she didn’t understand many things there, and didn’t know how to speak the language. Though she did not know how to speak German, she could speak English. Ninety nine percent of the population in Germany spoke German and only one percent spoke English so it was hard to communicate with people there. She got used to life there, and she soon adapted. She helped her husband’s family restaurant. She worked for long hours everyday and when she came back from home, she was either exhausted or sleepy. After working there for ten years, the economy dropped and business was down. They had the restaurant sold later. That was also when she felt freed and relaxed, while her husband was extremely depressed. After two weeks, she got a call from a friend about a job. She tried it out and went for an interview where she got accepted. Her boss was friendly enough to let her work even after he found out about the truth that she never had much working experience. For the next past six years, she worked in the same company for a department that sold monitor parts. Later she got a raise and worked in the shipping department from Asia to Germany, and Europe for the two years after that. Then she worked for the accounting department also for two years. The company later moved to Southern Europe, where she was really far from her family. She had no choice but to quit because she didn’t want to move.
Two years later her boss opened another, smaller company. He asked if she wanted to be a part of the company or not. All she thought of was that she wanted to rest. So half a year later, her boss called back and asked her again. Alice accepted. She worked as an administrator and liked the job even though it was a small company with six people in total, which included herself. She felt that her responsibilities were important, which made her feel happy. She left Europe about three years later to the United States to escape from her divorce.
Alice arrived to New York City and stayed with her family in Long Island. She had a different view from Europe. At first she hates the transportation and the loudness from the city where in Europe, it was different and calmer. After a few weeks, she was introduced to a new job as a book keeper that was similar to accounting and where she worked for almost two years. She went back to Europe for a few months since she missed it so much there, as well as her family. Later she came back without the old job. After ten months, she got introduced to a new job for filing and got transferred to a book keeper again which is what she does for living now. She also now got used to living in the city because she attempted another part of the new life. In her spare time Alice took English classes to improve in her speech a bit more.
Even though she did attempt the city, she noticed that things are really expensive, especially the rent. At first she moved to Long Island and lived with her family but it was too far from her work’s place. So she moved to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. However the apartment was really crowded and squished. Not only that but the rent was also high. Later, she moved to another apartment in 79th Street in Brooklyn where she also had two other roommates with her. It wasn’t as squished as before and the rent became cheaper since her friends and her chipped in the money together. She got used to many things but also learned more new things from all her past experiences because she knows this world never will have a ending to excitement.