Journal #4

My First Day in America

Here is a story about my first day in America. I came from Taiwan. I was so excited when I arrived Los Angeles National Airport. Everything was interesting for me. For example, on the way to checkpoint, there were many people from different countries I had never seen before. In checkpoint, I was on the line for security checks. I felt sad because there were thousands of people on the lines. Could you image the lines as a river? I would probably wait for half hour or one hour. What could I do? Just wait.

Later, it was my turn. I was so nervous because my English was pretty poor. The police asked me to show my passport and I-20. Then he asked me some questions. However, I did not understand what he talked about. I just realized one question. He said, “Why are you come here?” and I answered, “Study English.” I did not answer the other questions. I just smiled at him. One minute later, he did not talk to me anymore. At that time, I guessed he might give up talking to me. I believed nobody want to talk to a wall. Then for security checks, he took a picture and checked my fingerprints that I already done when I applied the visa.

After that, I picked up my stuff and went to lobby. As a result my plane arrived thirty minutes early, I had to wait for my relatives. Nevertheless, I did not want to wait. So I tried to call them by pay phone. I put coins into the phone and pressed the number buttons. Then nothing happened, the phone did not work. I tried that about twenty times but I did not give up. I tried to find another way. I found there was a hole on the phone box. I thought that hole was for phone card so I bought one. Whereas, it still did not work. Suddenly, there was a sentence in my mind, “What’d duck. What’s going on?” I was so angry because the phone card cost me twenty bucks.

Then I went to bathroom. I got an idea when I was pee. I thought the phone card might need password so I checked the back of it. I found the password and tried to call them again. You know what. It did not work. I felt so chapfallen and gave up.

Finally, my relatives found me. On the way, I asked them how to use pay phone and told them what happened to me. Then all they were laughing because the pay phone was different from our country’s. I should call the number first and put coins into the phone next.

In short, this is a horrible experience. I will not forget about it.