Mastodawn

thanks to the support I’ve received, I’ve been able to cover rent, food, and medical checkups. I’m truly grateful. ❤️‍🩹

I’m still going through a difficult period and continue to need help to stay afloat. Every donation, share, or boost makes a real difference.

https://gofund.me/a09ceda9a

#MutualAid #Crowdfunding #GoFundMe #Support #Solidarity #HelpNeeded #Unemployed #CommunitySupport #ImmigrantLife #Brazil #Immigrant #MentalHealth #HelpNeeded

https://mas.to/@Bislick/116097537702234270

Golden Retriever GF Mar 11

"I don't think I could..."

In 2015 I took a trip to France, England and Scotland. I could barely parse Scottish and I found French opaque. I convinced myself I could never speak another language. Now in 2026 I have been told my German is "Praktisch Muttersprachig" (Practically mothertongue) and "Umgangssprachlich" (Colloquial). Well on my path to citizenship.

I was divorced in 2016 and was convinced I'd be alone and was hella straight. Turns out I am hella bi, am now engaged to a person with almost the same gender as myself. I was also convinced of my jealousy, turns out I am polyam.

I worked in a few kitchens to get by on bills when I was younger. I was convinced I could never be like the chefs I watched. I struggled with dishes for chrissakes. Now I have been a head chef and a sous chef INCLUDING in another country in another language with a different culinary style.

I was convinced I should get on disability for my OCD. I did years of therapy and now it's mostly under control.

I'm not saying you can do anything you can set your mind to. I certainly can't. I'm more saying that a lot of the limits we place on ourselves are self or society imposed and are just made up. Just peer pressure we impose on ourselves like how human jaws could easily bite off a finger but our brains will not let us or a mother could lift a car to save a child. We impose limits on ourselves as a way of saying we are safe here when often we are not. We are stuck in the same rut we always were and convinced we could never change.

Don't be afraid to be that crazy hippie commie gay aunt. Be that gay metal butterfly you were meant to be! I am the cool gay aunt now and you can be too.

#immigrantlife #lgbt #iconoclast

Golden Retriever GF Feb 25

So we were having a shower conversation that involved State name changes of English Speakers of German states and German Speakers of American states. We call Bayern, Bavaria. They call California, Kalifornien.

Me: Why would you add an E N there. There's no EN there it's CalifornIA not KaliforniEN.
Her: Grinning Mischieviously We wanted to make that bitch German.
Me: A californian trying to become a German, absent mindedly toweling myself off not catching the joke Jawohl

She actually laughed at the American she's helping make a German replying Germanly.

#showerconversation #german #english #immigrantlife

The Times of Central Asia Feb 9

Kazakh producer Inna Baitukenova on building a blogging and beauty business in the US while navigating life and creativity as an immigrant https://ow.ly/fpCe50YbWBp #Kazakhstan #Diaspora #Blogging #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #CentralAsia #ImmigrantLife #DiasporaVoices

Life After Relocation: Kazakhs...

Life After Relocation: Kazakhstani Inna Baitukenova on the U.S., Blogging, and Building a Business - The Times Of Central Asia

Kazakh producer and screenwriter Inna Baitukenova, known for projects such as Satash, the documentary Oleg: The Story of Oleg Vidov, and the television series

The Times Of Central Asia

The Times of Central Asia Feb 9

Kazakh producer Inna Baitukenova on building a blogging and beauty business in the US while navigating life and creativity as an immigrant https://timesca.com/life-after-relocation-kazakhstani-inna-baitukenova-on-the-u-s-blogging-and-building-a-business/ #Kazakhstan #Diaspora #Blogging #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #CentralAsia #ImmigrantLife #DiasporaVoices

Golden Retriever GF Jan 29

I feel ... odd. I had a coworker ask me yesterday about my feelings about the USA. He's from Bangladesh and was curious as to where I would retire. I said I would not be moving back to the USA. I prefer Germany and have plans to remain here for the rest of my days. I hear so much about home sickeness but I really don't ever feel it.

I never felt at home in the USA. I had this consistent feeling of other-ness. My general mentality about reality and achievement is that Perfection is always the goal, it's unnachievable but it's the goal. And when a goal is not achieved correction is welcomed and inevitable. You might have understood that what I am describing is impossible. It is a key symptom of OCD and a very strong cultural positive in Germany. In the US this mentality this devotion this .... Pflichtbewusstsein ... it drove people away. In Germany I am just one of the Germans.

Both Autism and OCD in Germany are underdiagnosed because a great deal of both of these illnesses overlap with strong culture cues of Germany itself. In general the German culture lets my OCD relax like never before. It allows me to unwind.

I could also never be as critical of the USA as I am allowed to be in Germany. In fact I can be AS critical of the USA as I am of Germany and Germans still see it as good German complaining. It's normal. American propaganda made every friend, every aquaintance, every coworker balk at how critical I was of my country. Germans welcome it. ESPECIALLY about their own Government. To complain about Germany is GERMAN.

A great deal of the people I have met from every continent want to go home. They don't want to be here. They want to be in Tunisia or Croatia or Bangladesh or whatever so long as it's not here. In my great luck and providence I moved to a country where it felt like moving home instead of moving away from it.

I guess that makes me a very strong future citizen but also a really shit immigrant. People expect me to miss my country. That I have been gone too long. "When are you going home?" they ask but my boss that knows my feelings on the subject springs into the conversation as to make things less uncomfortable and looks at me in pride and admiration to say I am home. And I do really feel that way. I don't feel like a second left-hand here. I feel right.

My wife even calls me a trans european. Assigned the wrong citizenship at birth. I dunno what to say really except I get along much better with Germans than I do with expats or other immigrants and the Germans are infinitely more welcoming of me than my immigrant peers. Guess just a few more years and I'll have it anyway. I'm just feeling a little weird because I'm told I should feel homesick and the only thing I ever missed from the USA was Taco Bell.

#immigrantlife #mentalhealth

Golden Retriever GF Jan 28

I get this question an awful lot and I see it asked of other immigrants to Germany an awful lot. "But, Taylor, you can earn more in the USA" or "How do you feel about German income tax". I think this question only addresses half of the facts so I'll address this topic.

In the USA at my last job as a very experienced cook (ie I got higher rates of pay than a lower level/no maneagement experience cook) I got about 16 USD/hour + tip pool. This translates to about 2800 a month. -12% income tax. I have been working at my current job for three years and have gotten a yearly raise. Hourly wage doesn't apply as I am salaried. I make something like 2800 a month + tip pool minus 30% income tax.

I have a partner who doesn't work that I didn't have in the states. In the USA I was barely staying above water and I was consistently stressed about homelessness. In Germany I have thousands in savings and that's after buying new beds, a kitchen and spending thousands on vacation every year.

The idea that you can earn more in the USA is at best a half truth and at worst a myth. It only factors in earnings and not cost of living and in the USA that is dramatically higher. I understand that Germany isn't doing well. I understand corruption is higher and that workers rights got gutted. I will push for change when I can actually vote in a few years. HOWEVER the German situation at 3 to 5 times more income tax than an American's is a dramatically better quality of life with much more robust savings.

Your income tax might be low in the USA but rent, food, and lack of access to healthcare, guaranteed vacation, sick days, maternal AND paternal leave costs a great deal. Gas is much cheaper but you get nickeled and dimed for every service. America is not a land of milk and honey as Western propaganda likes to say but rather Coca Cola an subsidized Corn syrup.

"You earn more" is a malicious mistruth to keep afloat one of the more problematic nations on earth. Generally seeing other countries say we need to be more like the USA isn't pushing for more freedom or wealth but more access to discrimination and blatant corruption.

I have never understood this distaste of taxes and government services. Do you not use the roads? The healthcare? The infrastructure and rights guaranteed by your constitution. Those taxes go somewhere. They pay for things. The first time I was in Germany I had to ask my wife what those city janitors were doing because I never knew that it could be a government job to do city cleaning and basic maitennance. It was an idea alien to me.

Don't ask me why I would leave the USA to come to Germany, ask yourself why you would believe malicious propaganda about the USA. Swallow it like so much cola that put your own companies out of business. The USA rots more than just your teeth, it rots your soul. That's why I am here. That's why I am willing to pay "Exorbitant Taxes" and earn "less". It's not less. You have been lied to by wealthy elite that want to rob you blind.

#immigrantlife #uspol #depol

Rose LaCroix Jan 5

Today is the 1st anniversary of my arrival in Germany.

Unfortunately the entire year has been spent in a bureaucratic headache but I don't think I want to leave. Not for a while yet.

I spent my whole life wandering. I just want to settle down.

#immigrantlife #immigration #Germany #photography #filmphotography #blackandwhite #snow

Golden Retriever GF Nov 29

I really think that translation is really over applied and really wrong in a lot of applications. For example I do not believe that Christmas and Weihnachten are the same thing. Advent is a huge part of tradition here and, yeah, I've seen it in the states but not to this extent.

Do you know what a Stollen is, Adventskranz, Krampus? Who tf the Christkind is? Not to mention when gifts are opened is different. What people do on the day is different. Plus there is a competition of three different Christmas traditions in Germany. These words are not one to one. Like most words because a language is not just another language hiding under a pronunciation trenchcoat.

What the hell does Doch mean in English? Uno reverse card is the closest thing I can think of. Womit and Worüber translate to the same word in English but mean drastically different things in German. Translation isn't "oh this means this" it is "this is our best approximation".

Translation is very important but I really feel the process is misunderstood. Like other languages are just a shift cipher from your mothertongue and it's really really not. I just feel in many cases translation is a disservice to culture, history and tradition. Valid and important but rather misunderstood, ham-fisted and abused.

Tis the season for such an example.

#immigrantlife #language

Golden Retriever GF Oct 28

At some point the differences in words can only really be explained with he language itself and not a translation. Case in point I was doing a Rezeptur, basically pricing out a recipe for cost-benefit analysis. Chef stuff. One line said Zubereitungszeit and the other Vorbereitungszeit. Both Zubereitung and Vorbereitung translate directly to Preparation in English. It requires the knowledge of German itself to differentiate.

Zu means, for all intents and purposes, to. Bereit is ready ergo To Ready means the time to bring it to readiness. Vor means generally for or before and so it translates to the time required ahead of time to prepare. So Cook and Prep time respectively.

Also there is a severe difference between ne Schale and ne Schüssel and the difference cannot be said in English. It must be learned in German. Whoever said you can only think in a language past a certain point was lying. I think in German all the time and it takes time and energy for me to switch back to English.

I have enough work as a gay kitchen chef. This is like the dark souls of being gay TT_TT.

#immigrantlife #german