I always think it was a miracle that I met Mr. A at the main entrance of the apartment building on the evening I submitted my lease application. After thinking it over and over, I finally decided to live in A apartment. I was unsure until I met Mr. A whether it was right to live in the apartment because the rent was rather high, but I convinced myself that I had to pay for security in the US. I was also worried about living in a room on as high as 11F. But the decision I made turned out to be perfectly right.
Mr. A was living in the apartment with his wife since November 2012, just one year before I moved in. Their room happened to be the one on the same floor just across from mine. The main entrance was on the other side of the apartment building and he did not usually use the entrance. The Japanese population being so small in Charlotte, there was a very little chance of my bumping into Mr. A at the entrance. I was with a relocation agent who knew him. We got introduced and exchanged business cards. Mr. and Mrs. A gave me e-mail on the same day asking me to go out for dinner on that weekend, and we started to communicate.
Mr. and Mrs. A and I had the same, or at least similar, sense of value of life. We had many small things in common. Mr. A liked coffee, and had the same French-style espresso machine that I had. Mrs. A worked as a professional in Japan but found the time out of her busy schedule to practice Japanese tea ceremony. We both liked to explore the neighborhood looking for good restaurants and sweets shops. They also shared the same surprises I had in the US. They agreed with laughter when I said that I was shocked to see men jogging without wearing a shirt in Charlotte. The style is literally called “naked” in my country. They told me that I would get used to it in a couple of months. I always enjoyed spending time with them. They were smart, and knew the American history, geography and pop culture. They tried many US (Charlotte) things from football games, doughnuts, cooking to travelling, and had their own opinions and thoughts about what they saw and experienced in the US.
Mr. A is a pediatrician and Mrs. A is an ophthalmologist (she was not working as a doctor in the US). Mr. A was working at XYZ as a medical researcher. Both Mr. A and I were not “expatriates” sent to the US by a Japanese company but came to the US by ourselves. None of us belonged to the Japanese Association of Charlotte, which is a membership community primarily for the employees of Japanese companies in Charlotte. Mr. and Mrs. A had a fresh memory of what had to be done to start the life in the US and understood the difficulties I had in settling down. They gave me the information about the apartment community, the neighborhood, the government procedures and the rules of life in the US in general. They often took me out for lunch and dinner and cheered me up. They even took me for furniture and grocery shopping until I got a car. Since they are doctors, I could consult them about my health and ask them about the US healthcare system, doctors and medicines. I do not know how much I learned from them and how to express my thanks for their help.
