“Hello New York!”. Miley Cyrus’ words in her role as Hannah Montana came to my mind as soon as I saw the welcoming sign to tourists in John F. Kennedy Airport. The Big Apple, I thought. I hurried to tell my family and friends that I had arrived into the city where dreams come true. If I didn’t, they would worry. Afterall, it is hard already to let go your child alone to another country, to meet people she doesn’t even know. But my parents have always been the kind of people that care more for their children wellbeing, education and growth than for their own interests and fears. I was already missing them and some close friends. The hardest part about it all is that I had left Argentina while being is an amazing moment in all of my relationships, and then I had to stop talking to them for a whole month, since I wouldn’t be able to have my phone during that time. However, I knew it would be healthy to disconnect from reality. I had been needing it for quite a long time to solve my inner conflicts. And what a better way to do it than a camp from the NGO CISV in Connecticut, USA?
It was 9:40 am in the state of New York, and a van was supposed to be waiting for me outside of the airport with one of the program director, Steven, and four participants like me, Elliana from Israel and Maria Clara, Ana and Lucas from Brazil. There was a long line to present the papers to enter the country. The length of it was due to me being from Latin America, and the excessive attention they put to our revisions. It took me at least forty minutes to do the papers and get my luggage. When I could finally go to the area where I was supposed to be waited for, I saw in the distance two young people waving a poster at me. “Natalia!”. I heard my name, distorted by the sounds of the people shouting at their families that, just like me, had arrived in New York City. I approached the people that were calling me. They were a woman and a man. I knew they were Mexican, even if they didn´t tell me so. I felt instantly comfortable with them. But where was Steven? And the other participants? I just assumed that they had already left. And I was right. There was a confusion with the arrangement of the vans, and in the one I was supposed to leave there wasn´t enough space for me, so I would have to wait until 6 pm for the next van to leave. Luckily, my two companions, Baca and Pozo, were really warm and caring.
JFK Airport is amazingly enormous. I arrived in Terminal 7, but we had to rush from one terminal to the other to pick up participants. The following person to arrive was Vasco, from Portugal. “Do we know what he looks like?”, Baca asked us. I looked for his contact in my phone. “I can’t tell by his Whatsapp profile photo, his picture is a triangle”, I replied. Pozo, intrigued by it, grabbed my phone. “How dare you call it a triangle? That is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album!”. We all laughed at my mistake, and it ended up being a joke during the whole camp for every time we talked about our first day in the airport.
Eventually, the Portuguese guy arrived. He is probably a rich boy, I thought. He really looked like it. His hair cut, his way of walking, his clothes. Of course, they were all prejudices. Still, we teased him the whole camp about being a rich boy. He was also a serious boy. He barely talked to us. It was uncomfortable. Fortunately, some time later Aubrey, from the USA arrived. She was extremely tall, and her boots made her look even taller. She was the stereotype of an American country girl. When the other boy from the hosting country arrived, we went to have lunch.
I couldn’t believe how expensive everything was. I had a tough time deciding what to eat, mostly because my parents weren’t there. Of course, I always choose and order the food myself, but somehow when I am in another country, I get nervous about making a fool of myself ordering food. When I am with my parents, we make at least a fool of ourselves together. So, I ended up spending $17 in a lunch, which was double the price I intended to. Sunny, from Lithuania, joined us. She was one of those people that immediately light up a room when she enters it. She was shy during the whole day, but never stopped smiling. We all talked while we had our meal, and that made everything more comfortable. Afterall, I would spend a whole month with them, I could very well start making friends. I was sure I would end up finding a family there. But for the while, I was still in contact with the one I had in Argentina. We just had to wait for Max, from Austria, and then we could head to Connecticut.
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