It was my second trip to North America. The reason again was a youth-exchange that I organized. It was the year 1994. My buddy Andre and I had landed. We now had four weeks to get all the way from New York to Saskatchewan in central Canada for our youth exchange with the Cree Indians. Our first stop – New York. On my last trip across the USA, I met four New Yorkers and they had all given me their phone numbers and said "stop by for a visit when you’re coming to NY". Now I came. I went to the phone at the airport and called them.
The 1st call said: "There is no connection for the number you have dialled".
When I made the 2nd call, the person at the other end said: "No, I don't know him, we haven't lived here that long. Maybe before…”
On the 3rd call nobody picked up the phone.
And on the 4th call, there was nobody there.
Well, bad planning somehow. Maybe I should’ve taken care of it earlier. So, what now?
We picked up our backpacks and went outside the terminal, but had no idea what to do. There was no underground station, no bus we could find and it was hot. A taxi driver approached us and told us something about Franz Beckenbauer, the famous German football player. We asked how much it would cost to go into town with him. After finding out the price, we turned around again. It was nice and cool inside the terminal in the summer of 1994, without any plan whatsoever, and without internet.
We just had no idea what to do. We also didn't have that much money to just go to a hotel or a hostel somewhere, and somehow that was also against our traveller’s honour.
So, we sat down at the airport terminal and just remained in our seats there. We didn't even make plans; we were so perplexed.
Not far from us sat a family, probably from India or Pakistan.
I took out my glass marbles and rolled them towards the two bored children of the family. One girl and one boy, maybe seven and eight years old.
They rolled them back and it went back and forth like this. They smiled, and I smiled.
I was sitting there on the floor, busy with marbles, until I noticed a young woman standing in front of me who said: “You look lost."
I said: “Yes we are.”
She said: “I know that feeling. I just arrived after a long trip. My sisters are coming to pick me up and I’ll speak with them.”
They came soon and after a short conversation we were told we could stay with them.
Shortly afterwards, the five of us squeezed into a small old car and drove across New York. Amazing. We couldn’t believe what just happened.
This was the start of a wonderful and also a little crazy week in New York, a really amazing city.
Next month I will write more about the people I met.
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