Text 18815, 85 rader
Skriven 2005-12-17 01:26:24 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av SHANNON TALLEY
Ärende: Re: help needed
=======================
> That's pretty interesting... I've had a similar facination with England,
> but my trip there was certainly different than your's... :)
 
England? Aw mah Gawd ... luke-warm beer with no foam ... how can you drink it.
 
>> June 17th I got another cable saying there was a camp taking me and "be in
>> NewYork the evening of June 27th", 10 days later, for an orienteering ....
>> Do you want to hear the rest of the story?
 
> Sure :)  I'd be better over a pint..
 
I was in the middle of exams at college and had to remain focussed, also I
needed to get a passport, apply for a US J2-visa, try to get a flight (as the
regular charter flight out of Paris was booked solid), get some clothing. So I
managed to get an Icelandic Airlines flight out of Luxembourg, they were having
incredible youth bargain fares. I was told when arriving at Kennedy airport to
look for a lady with a blue armband reading "Foreign Student Advisor". She'd
give me an envelope with travel documents and also my destination as I had no
clue where I was going to be stationed.
 
I arrived at JFK on schedule and believe me or not ... I found the lady and got
my envelope. Now I was under the impression I was going to be in the New
England area and brought clothing for exactly that area as other guys making
the same trip with me were going to be stationed in Maine, Virginia,
Pennsylvania, New York state, etc.
 
So I opened the envelope and read "Babb, Montana". Then I asked "Where's
Montana?" and I was answered "Somewhere near Texas, it's hot there, a long
trip". Oh boy ... a long trip ... I had never been on a trip of more than 4-5
hours with my folks and found that "long" already. Now some guys with me were
going to have a 10hr bus ride ... boy, that was long but I had a very bad
feeling and figured I was in for at least 15-18 hours on a bus.
 
So the next day I departed New York's Port Authority bus-terminal at 4:45pm on
a bus headed for San Diego, I had to change buses in Denver, transfer to
Greyhound in Salt Lake City and transfer to Intermountain Lines at Butte. 18
hours ... :‡
 
So when we had driven about 4 hours the bus stopped in Williamsport PA and we
could eat. I entered an eatery and looked at the menu wondering what all these
names were. At school we had learned about Shakespeare, Byron, Keats and
Shelley but couldn't even perform something as simple as ordering a meal.
 
So I recognised theword "Hamburger" and ordered that. The lady at the counter
replied with something that sounded like "Wattayawanonit?" What do you want on
it? ... I said "nothing" ... "Usure?" ... "yes" ... so the first American meal
that I ordered myself consisted of a dry hamburger bun and a grilled
beef-pattee with nothing on it.
 
It is remarkable how suddenly starting with the next meal my knowledge of the
English language dramatically improved as I became able to distinguish food on
a menu pressured by hunger.
 
The bus started riding again, we passed through Toledo OH in the middle of the
night and several hours later by morning we arrived in Chicago. There I asked
the driver what the story was. So he looked at my ticket and said ... stay on
this bus alright until you get to Denver. When I asked when we were going to
get there he leafed through the schedule and answered "The day after tomorrow"
... and I sank through the floor. 2 more days and I hated it already. The
driver explained to me that it would take me easy another 12 hours to get to
Salt Lake and most of a full day to reach Great Falls MT. From there it was
still 4 hours by car.
 
I was ready to go back, hated such a big country but didn't have the guts to
trade-in my ticket and return. So I stayed on the bus ... We passed through
Nebraska and there something odd happened. There was a guy with very long hair
sitting next to me and he had been at Woodstock ... he was my hero. He was a
typical anti-Vietnam person and he would dodge the service if it ever came to
that. He left the bus at Omaha NB. At the same time there was a man in full
navy uniform getting on and taking the seat next to me. He was an officer en
route to his ship in San Diego and departure to Vietnam, he took the bus
because he was affraid of flying.
 
This was such a clash of cultures, so dramatically black-and-white that I said
to myself "Stay on the bus, go the distance, if this is possible in this
country then you are in for the experience of your life".
 
I was ... eventually.
 
Need to hear more?
 
 \%/@rd

--- IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA
 * Origin: "Leonard will be free" - http://www.leonardpeltier.org (2:292/854)