Actually, the first city most Work and Travel USA participants land in is New York! After long flights and wandering through airports, it takes a while to realize where you are. But let's take things in order.
We arrived at JFK airport in New York around 8 PM. Contrary to all the scary stories, getting through passport control didn't take that long (about forty minutes, tops). I cleared passport control and went to look for my bag. That's when the first challenge awaited me.
Yes, I forgot to mention that I wasn't flying alone, but with a friend. We met another guy while departing from Moscow. So, for the first couple of days, the three of us traveled together.
So, about the challenge. I couldn't find my suitcase on the carousel! After carefully checking every spot where it could have fallen off, we approached an incredibly large African American airport worker and said we couldn't find the bag. He asked for my last name and checked his list. Then, quite cheerfully, he said: “Oh, yeah. Your luggage was sent to the wrong place. Go to the information desk.” At the information desk, they told us the luggage would only arrive the next evening and they could deliver the suitcase to the hotel where we were staying. That wasn't an option for us, because the next morning, or at the latest by afternoon, we had to leave New York. We didn't even intend to visit a hotel. We had only 1 day in NYC and didn't want to spend it sleeping. In short, we were bummed out. And then, to our surprise, the information agent said: “Well, no problem. Tell us where you're going next, and we'll have your luggage delivered there.” Basically, they saved me from having to drag a suitcase around New York all night and day, and they even gave me a bag with essentials (toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, deodorant, a T-shirt, and a bunch of other little things). My suitcase was indeed delivered to the exact address a day later, safe and sound!
By the way, during all this, to our great regret, we discovered that understanding Americans is not nearly as easy as understanding teachers in an English class. =( The three of us had to piece together what was being said. A better understanding only started to come after about 2 weeks of being in the USA.
Back to our trip. From the airport to Manhattan, we took the AirTrain, then the subway to the Port Authority Bus Station. We wanted to buy bus tickets for tomorrow right away. Plus, there's luggage storage at the bus station – $8 per day per bag (my companions had their suitcases with them =)).
We made this whole journey without going outside. So, we were walking through the bus terminal toward the exit, chatting about something, and then... we found ourselves on the street!
