In the summer of 2011 I was prepared ready to travel to USA; except for not knowing where to go after I leave the airport. I did not care if I know someone there or not, I just needed to go alone and see what's going to happen in this adventure. My father told me about his friend in NEW YORK and he said that he will call his friend to tell let him know my arrival date and time to see if he wait for me and help. My father assured me “do not worry, he will wait for you at the airport and will take care of in the first day”, Well New York sounds good but I did not care if he is going to wait or not. The only important thing for me was to fly out of my country.
I arrived to JFK airport around 4:00 PM; I finished my immigration document; after that I got out of the airport and looked everywhere searching for my father's friend with no luck, so I started calling him again and again -five times-, but he never answered. I did not get mad because I had a feeling he is not going to show up and I believed my feeling in that moment, most important thing at that time was what should I do now?
In that moment I had to take care of me by myself. I'm stranger in this country and I also look as a stranger for people around me. When I stepped outside the airport I overheard some people saying they will go to Manhattan bus station to get a bus to VIRGINIA State. When I heard '' VIRGINIA" I kind liked the sound of that and I said to myself let me go to Virginia, it was a common name for beautiful girls after all and sounds better than Manhattan. Suddenly I saw a man walking to me and he asked me ''where you want to go?" I said to Manhattan bus station, he said ''I will charge you 80 dollars to drive you there” and he told me he is a limousine driver.
I recognized after that he was not a limousine driver because there was no sign on his privet small car nor any writing, I found out later that 80 dollars was so too much to drive me there, he wanted to get my money because he saw me as a stranger, and he knew he can get from me as much as he can. I had on me at that time $300 dollars in my pocket, but I accepted his deal because I wanted to go to VIRGINIA.
I arrived to VIRGINIA at 5:00 next day in the morning, I started walking in the streets until after I left the bus station to find an open corner store; I went inside and I talked to the cashier -he speaks my language- so I asked him for a job, and that is how I got my first job in USA, next I looked for a room to rent and found it as well. 2 weeks later; my dad’s friend who was supposed to meet me at the airport called me on my cell to ask me ''Are you in USA?"
I said oh yeah you did not know! He said fine you can go to Bridgeport, CT and you will find job there with more money, I told him OK and thanked him.
Virginia is beautiful but not as what I thought of it; so I traveled to Bridgeport and started to work in a grocery store and restaurant too, it was very hard on me at the beginning to do that job because the customer treated me so badly because I sounded as a stranger for them and I did not speak English like they do. For that reason I went to school to learn English to communicate with everyone and to continue my accounting degree. It has been two year since and I'm still feeling as a stranger to the people of USA which I hope it will end when I finish my study.
