My Story

My name is Maria. I come from Jakarta, Indonesia. I have been here since February 2002 because of my marriage. My husband is an American. We live in Auburn.

I realized that I have to improve my English, so I enrolled in Green River Community College (GRCC) to study English as a second language. After I took the test, they put me in the ESL-Level 5 class last spring. Now I am continuing this fall by taking pronunciation, computer and English classes.

In the first three months of being here in the USA, I had culture shock. Everything is so much different with what I am used to in my country. I feel sad and miss my country a lot. So does my 7 years old son. We wanted to go back home to Indonesia. But then, I got so much help from my husband and his family, my sister, people from my Church, my teachers at GRCC and my new friends from GRCC too. I have learned so many things from them about American food, cultures, customs, laws, and so on. I am very thankful I have them around me.

I am feeling so much better now. Except for the weather, I love being here in the USA. I increased my confidence and this month I even started to apply for jobs.

I love little children and because of that I have a plan to study Montessori so I can be a kindergarten teacher or have my own childcare center. But it costs a lot, so I have to work and save money first, and then come back to GRCC to study Montessori. Meanwhile I have to improve my English, so I can get a good job.