Welcome to America

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(passing by freeway exit: Netherby road, Stevensville)
At last, I have found the time to write some more about my Canadian adventures. The excitement I had felt last week from going to New York was quickly shattered when my bus got cancelled. I had spent a couple of hours to get to Toronto with the Greyhound bus. Once I got there I still had two hours to walk around and get some food before I had to go on the Megabus to NY. I entered the first Starbucks I could find because I know that they always have free Wifi (wireless internet). There I ordered a nice hot choco, had a little chat with the people that work there, who were really friendly, and plugged my laptop in the life-support.
(Duty free way to Buffalo U.S.A.)
I opened my mail and there it was; “Due to extreme snow conditions unfortunately we have to announce that your bus to New York City has been cancelled.” Nooooo!! I couldn’t believe it! I packed everything back into my massive backpack (my awesome roomie Elizabeth had lent me hers, she is such a sweetheart!) and walked back to the bus terminal.
(Old fort Erie)
I walked up to some men that looked like they worked there and asked what was going on. “Everything was cancelled to go to New York, they are expecting a massive snowstorm” they said. And then it hit me, I really wasn’t going to go to New York that night. I felt the tears coming as I was standing in front of them. “Hold it together Emilia, it’s not the end of the world” I thought to myself.

( In the meanwhile I got rudely interfered with my writing by the American boarder. What a joke! These officers think they are so cool.. We had to take all our stuff out of the bus, go inside the customs area and wait in line. There, our bags had to go through an X-ray machine and we had to fill in a waiver form to make sure we are not criminals and that we are leaving the States within a certain amount of time. While I was watching the others in front of line go through the whole procedure, there was this younger officer that started asking random questions to people. At first I thought he was kind of friendly. He asked if I was from Germany and once I told him I was from Holland he asked if Holland was close to Germany (Americans and their topographical knowledge… I mean, mine isn’t that great either but come on! They really don’t know the slightest thing about it.). I asked him if this wasn’t a boring job, cause he just stayed at the entrance side by himself. He said he got paid well for it and he liked it. He probably entertained himself with harassing people that come in. He sat down in the area where we were queuing and making remarks as; “nice pink bag, are you from Canada?” He had his eye on a 19 year old girl, which he probably fancied. With every new remark he started pulling out the magic hat, I started seeing the fakeness of his interest. He just wanted to make himself salient and impress us. Pfff, how typical. I felt like I entered an American movie! The people working there all looked really American. And they all took the procedure very seriously, except the wiseguy of course. He started asking really random stuff, thinking he was all that. When the bag of the 19 year old Canadian girl got scanned he walked to the screen and watched what there would be found there. Apparently she had brought a corkscrew with her. In America you can only drink when you have reached the age of 21. So he started explaining her what the consequences would be if she would be caught drinking, blablabla. She stayed friendly, cause he is still an officer, but I noticed that she also thought; what a douchebag! (for the previous generation, this means something like dork or loser). Then he asked her to give the corkscrew to him, and her passport. Remember, we were still waiting in the next line to fill in forms and pay. So I said to her; don’t do it. He opened the little knife from the corkscrew and kept asking her for her passport. She hesitated but ended up giving it to him. He seemed like the type of officer that would be joking around at one moment, and could then totally switch around if you would say the wrong thing. Probably especially if it would be something that hurts his ego. Subsequently he pulled out his own knife and compared it with the corkscrew knife. He reassured her that she could use this as a self-defense object. He used the passport to look up her name and gave it back. His theory was that explicitly mentioning her name would help her remember to be careful with drinking while she is in the States. I interfered with the comment that in Holland we are allowed to drink from the age of 16. And that I thought it was so strange that Americans are allowed to be part of traffic and possibly kill innocent people when they are 16, but they aren’t allowed to possibly damage themselves with excess drinking. I still don’t get the logic of this but he had not answer to this. Instead he just started telling about the first time he drank on some cruise to the Philippines when he was 17 or so. What a hypocrite. Afterwards I spoke with the girl and she also said he really thought he was all that. We filled in the forms, where he also tried to be as present as possible. I had to fill in where I was going to stay and I told him about my friend in New York. “Oh, your boyfriend?” Uhm no.. “But does he expect more?” No, he has a girlfriend… “Ooh, oké”. That was pretty rude in my eyes, but none of the other officers seemed to think this was strange so I just played along. He wrote some things on my form and tried to be funny some more. We paid our fees, got a stamp and we’re off to New York again. Welcome to America!)

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, I manned up and held in the tears. The younger dude standing at the terminal told me I could call for free inside, if I wanted to check with the bus company. He told me the number and I went inside. Damn I felt lost. I did all this trouble to get at the bus station at school on time, carrying that huge backpack around. All for nothing! You can imagine, I was proper frustrated. The phone didn’t do anything and I walked back outside. I ran into those men again and thanked them for the help. Shawn (got to know his name later) asked me what they said and I explained him I hadn’t spoken to anyone. Helpful as people are here, he told me to come with him to some office of the bus terminal. He tried to look up information about the cancellation and call the helpdesk but he just got put on hold. A lot of people were probably calling to that number as there were a lot of cancellations. He printed out a paper with information from some colleague I should contact to try and get a new bus ticket. He singed it with his name and signature, in case she wouldn’t be willing to help me (hence the name knowledge..). I felt a bit less desperate because of this friendly guy and went off to the Starbucks again. The next bus back to Waterloo was in an hour or so. What a day.. I contacted Daniel that I wasn’t coming and ordered some comfort tea. On the ride back in the Greyhound bus, to top things off, I lost my house keys. Thankfully my ‘don’ came to open the door for me and I got a spare key of the front door. Clearly it was time to go to bed. I couldn’t wait for this day to be over..

The next few days I still didn’t feel in such a positive mood, but I tried not to think about it. It wasn’t too hard, as my days were filled with classes, arranging things and catching up with schoolwork from the first and second week of school. I also still wasn´t sure which courses I was going to take because they made it hard to enroll in several classes. Now I finally know which courses I am going to take: Roots of Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Psychosexual organization, Psychology of Evil and Personnel selection. For the most of them I have two classes a week, and Personnel selection is on Wednesday evening from 19h till 21.50h. Class attendance here is very important and mostly reflects 10% of your grade. On Wednesday morning I have classes from 10h until 14.20h, followed by the evening class. So you can imagine that I feel pretty tired on Wednesday evenings..

Either way, I am really happy with the classes I managed to enroll in. Classes here are so different from the classes in Holland. At home I have 45 minutes of class, 15 minutes brake, another 45 minutes and I am done. The teachers are mostly not even good at teaching you anything, and they tell as much information as they can in the given time. You sit there as a mind sponge, soaking up all the information handed to you and you go home. Nobody gives a damn if you show up and you are part of a big herd. At least, that is how I experienced it. In Waterloo it is totally different. The work is for you to do at home. Classes are to enrich you in your thinking. They give some good examples, play video’s, ask your opinion about the question, start discussions about topics, give in-class assignments and really involve you in the class. I really want to go to classes here! It inspires me to do well in school and makes me want to know more about the subjects. In Tilburg you wouldn’t read the required readings before you go to class, they would just repeat what you’ve just read.. And for a lot of the exams you don’t even have to read the book. Just learn all the sheets and you’ll probably pass. It makes you lazy and dumb. Only in the classes I found really interesting I feel I have learned a lot. But having a good teacher was a key element to stay motivated. Here the teachers seem like they actually enjoy teaching you things. When I look at the work I have to do here (I already had two quizzes and two essays to write in the 1,5 weeks I’ve been here) I can’t compare it to the workload in Tilburg. It might be a little bit easier in the amount of knowledge and theories transferred per course. But I already feel that having to do all the actual learning yourself makes you develop in a much more important way. You become more independent and eager to learn. They actually make you think here! Hopefully it will show in my grades. Midterms are already a few weeks away, so I’ve brought my books with me today.

It is now Wednesday morning 2.17 am. I am sitting in the bus from Toronto to New York. Yes, I have made it! I am finally on my way to New York. Can’t wait to get there. I’m going to try to get some sleep and post this on my blog tomorrow. I still have so much more to tell, but you can’t write a whole book about your adventures. Too little time, too much to do..

Nighty night, I’m going to figure out in what angle I will be able to get some sleep. And wake up, hopefully, in New York City! Wohoooo! Maybe now I will finally get to know why my dear aunt is so in love with this city.

(Albany, upstate New York 5:28am)
After having had 3 hours of sleep, our busdriver woke us up for our (very early) morning breakfast at McDonalds. They only served breakfast, so no burgers or McNuggets. Instead, they served things like hash browns (no idea what that is) and eggs, cheese & bacon biscuits. I had no idea what to choose, it didn’t sounds like anything I would normally have for breakfast. But I have discovered lately that a good eggs and bacon breakfast on bread is really delicious. Eggs, chees & bacon bischuit it is!
(Mass Ptke Boston)
They gave me a seriously greasy chunk of white dough bits mashed together, with in between plastic yellow cheddar cheese, a big (dubbelgevouwen) slice of tasteless egg and a tiny piece of rubber bacon to top it off.. I looked at the thing and seriously thought; this is not breakfast, this is suicide! The chuncks of dough started falling apart as I grabbed it to take a bite. My first reaction to the taste of this fat-bomb was; damn, and I paid for this!? Must have been the most disgusting breakfast I have ever had..
(Coxsackie Ravena, 1 mile)
Alright back to bed with my head against the vibrating windshield. I don’t really feel that tired actually. All the bus rides to Austria took much longer so, luckily, I am used to long bus sessions. The bus driver announced that we are 1 to 1,5 hours late because of the weather. I don’t really notice any extreme weather, except for the ice on the ground on our way to the Mc. The bus seems to be going really fast, so I think that he might just be using it as an excuse. Either way, I’ll try to get a few more hours of sleep.
(Clifton, New Jersey)
Hallelujah, I’ve made it!! I finally arrived in New York. I woke up just in time to get a glance of the skyline filled with skyscrapers. The weather is really grey and there is slight ’miezer’ (rain) coming down. We got dropped off in the middle of New York City, on fashion ave. There I was, looking like a proper tourist with my massive backpack. I loved it. Everybody around me was rushing, stressing, totally focused on their own thoughts and space. It looks exactly like it looks on the television, only then much less glamorous. As I walked around and looked at all the massive buildings, I was amazed by the fact that I still didn’t feel any major shock from this whole new environment. I would expect to be blown away by it all, but it actually feels really normal to be here. I found my way to the next bus terminal I had to go to and got on the bus to New Jersey. It took me about 30 min. to get there. Daniel was there to pick me up and my America experience was about to begin.

They say that everything is bigger in America, well it is deffinitely true. The houses are so big, the cars are big, the food is big, the stores are big, everything is big. Even the toilet seats are big. But then again, there are also a lot of big people. If you look at the food they eat here, it is no surprise. We went to IHOP (the international house of pancakes) with Dan's mother and brother. It felt like I was in a movie. Typical american diner with the super friendly waitress and everything. I ordered blueberry pancakes. I got a stack of 4 pancakes with blueberry sauce and whipped cream on top. It was massive. And they kept reassuring that I didn't want any eggs or meat with that. I couldn't imagine that you would want to eat pancakes with eggs and sausage.. I ended up eating half of the big tower of pancakes. Damn, Americans sure can eat! I liked it, but I still love crêpes much more. At least I can finish those.

After the IHOP we went to Daniel's old highschool. I entered a movie again. All these lockers in the hallways, kiddies in uniforms and the American flag in every classroom. We picked up Dan's little sister talked to some teachers and the principal of the school. It was amazing! They were all so nice and friendly. I got a lot of hugs and even souvenirs fromand the president! We went to the French teacher who was having an after school little party with all these French goodies like pain au chocolat and Frenck cheeses. Too bad I had stuffed myself with the pancakes, I couldn't eat any more. We left the school after having said goodbye to everyone and I could feel the love. Dan explained that this is not how every highschool is. This is a catholic private school so you have to pay extra, but you get a much better environment for your children. Public highschools are much bigger, you don't have as much direct contact with the teachers and there is much more crime. It was nice to experience that school. The more people I come across on my journey, the more I feel like we are the same no matter where we come from. Culture shapes us in a certain direction, but in every culture are so many different people. I feel we are basically just human. And I think it is so interesting to see what the differences are between people. Good thing I went for psychology!

Today (thursday) we will be going to New York city to do some tourist activities. And tonight we are going to see the Lion King on Broadway. Can't wait to see that!

Hugs from Clifton, NJ.

(While I was uploading the pictures I realized I hadn't told you about our skitrip to Chicopee. These are a few slopes, not very spectacular but we had a lot of fun. And I had bought new snowboots and snowboard because they had a big sale. Love my new snowboard! Chicopee is only 20min away so we will probably be going there regularly.)

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