The first week in the US was the worst week of my life. I guess that was normal. People call it a culture shook. I don’t know was it about the culture, but it was a shook definitely. When we arrived in Madison it was almost midnight. Nobody was waiting for us. We took a taxi and we went in the place where we were supposed to work. They told us to go and check in the hotel across the street. So, we spent two weeks living in a hotel room. And of course, we spent all our money. We didn’t have a place to live and that was not our mistake. Just to make it clear; we paid for a whole program for working and living in the US. The good thing was that I had internet in my expensive hotel room so I wrote a big mail to the responsible company in my country.

However, after a week they called me and said that I had an interview in some kind of a community that evening. Our housing problem was solved. We were happy. Gaga was at work, and I had my day off, so I went downtown.

Madison is a lovely place. We enjoyed in it during our stay but not during the first week. That was my first time walking downtown alone. I had a map and an address and it was easy. I didn’t have problems with finding the building that I hoped to be our home. I was not sure what kind of community has been living there but I prayed for some good luck.

The place looked strange at first but I was convincing myself that maybe the concept of “strange” is different here. The building was brown and old with a big backyard. I was waiting for 15 minutes before they opened the door.

When the door was finally opened I saw a girl around 25 years old with long black hear, nice glasses and tattoos everywhere.
“You had some great tattoos” – I said while she was introducing me to some members.
“O, I had tattoos in every inch of my body.” – She said proudly and I smiled with my stupid “don’t know what to say” smile.

I was not worried about this girl and her tattoos but everybody was so unfriendly, mystic and different in that house. And the house was another story. It was so dark inside and so cold.

All the lights were turned off except one. Everything was dirty and old. The dining-room was not like a normal family dining-room. The furniture was just placed around without an order and the bedrooms were horrible. They didn’t have keys in the bedrooms because that was a community and they trusted themselves. They had only one bathroom for everybody and there were 30 people in the building. And we were supposed to cook every weekend for everybody in the community. That was a rule.

The president of this community was not there so I waited. They left me all alone in this dark saloon. Then, the cats came. Black, old and dirty cats came and sat next to me. Great, that was the last thing that I needed. Time was passing and I noticed that nobody worried that I was sitting there. Even the cats ignored me. When a dark black dog came in I thought I had enough and I left.

In the backyard I saw another of this “brothers”. Piercings, tattoos and dark clothes were his uniform I guess. He looked liked a former prisoner and when he smiled I saw that he had no teeth.

“Where are you going? We have to vote. The community will vote for or against you. We’ll decide are you safe and good enough to be with us”

“I prefer hippie communities you know. You are very strict.”- I smiled and left
I was going home. Well, in the hotel. I was not ready for this community living. Maybe I am old fashioned but I was responsible for my life here and I didn’t plan to lose it.