For many immigrants it is difficult to call America their home, even though they left their country a long time ago. However, they make it their home by living close to their families and friends who immigrated from the same country. They continue to cook traditional meals, open up restaurants and stores that offer foods and items from their home country, they spend their free time and weekends the way they would back home, and they celebrate their holidays with traditional meals and customs.

There are many such "homes away from home" in most metropolitan areas. One such ethnic neighborhood is in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Walking into some of its butcher stores, bakeries and restaurants makes one question that it is still Brooklyn, or even still America.

In the stores and on the streets English is not heard. Neither patron nor merchant speaks English at the butcher shop, where sausages hang neatly off metal hooks above the counters, nor at the bakery, where freshly baked breads come from the back of the shop. Store shelves strain form the weight of traditional foods though it is rare to find the specialties translated into English. Waitresses in restaurants and clerks in stores are often incapable or reluctant to help with a translation because it is an ethnic neighborhood. A neighborhood where English is the foreign language.

There are many stories of hardship and triumph in these neighborhoods. One of which is Dana's. Since 1976 Dana's new home has been Greenpoint. She immigrated with her husband, son and daughter to join her family, who came to Brooklyn ten years before her.

"It was a trauma" she said. Her children had to go to school immediately after their arrival, but did not speak a word of English. A kind teacher, she said, offered to give extra English lessons to the children outside the school hours. Dana did not speak any English either but went to English classes, that were offered for women in her neighborhood. She took classes five days a week for five hours per day, while getting settled into her new home, learning about her new neighborhood and stores and especially, getting used to the new customs.

"I did not feel welcome," she said, " everything was different, and as immigrants we did not receive any help." Her husband, an engineer back home, had to work as a draftsman for many years before continuing in his profession. "The food is different, the working hours are different, and the family values are different," Dana said. Yet, she said, back home they did not have the same opportunities. The economic and political conditions did not allow them to lead a peaceful and fulfilled life.

Now, Dana is glad that she put up with the struggle of immigration and feels at home among the other immigrants in her neighborhood. They all still share and enjoy their country's traditions and customs, while having adapted to the American life.