It was 8:25p.m when my plane landed safely at JFK International Airport New York but we had to wait on the plane for the jetway to be ready since at that time JFK was very busy. It seemed that New York was a little bit slow in welcoming the guests from the eastern part of the world. We waited and waited for about half an hour and finally the plane moved patiently towards the jetway. We got off the plane and headed hurriedly for the Customs. I found there had been a lot of people in a snake line waiting for getting through the Customs. While waiting in the queue, a Chinese woman behind me with a little boy lent me her cell phone to make a phone call informing my friend’s friend to pick me up.
When we passed through the customs and got our luggage, it was almost ten o’clock. My friend’s friend Mr. Tang had not come yet and I had to make another call by using the public phone at the airport. Luckily, it was not that troublesome because my friend had called me from Indiana how to make phone call while I was still at home. Ten minutes later, my friend’s friend Mr. Tang arrived at JFK with a large car. We put our luggage in the trunk and made for the family hotel we had booked beforehand.
It took us about half an hour to get to the hotel. I was startled when the car stopped in a small quiet and out-of-the-way street in Flushing. I was greatly disappointed when Mr. Tang pointed at the house and said that it was my hotel. Reluctantly, I dragged my suitcase out of the car and stepped towards the gate. The door was locked and Mr. Tang had to call the landlady to open the door. It took her some time to get to gate because the family hotel is on the 4th floor. Mr. Tang helped us with the luggage to the hotel and then said goodbye to us. My hotel was actually a compound house which was renovated into a family hotel. My room was upstairs and with great difficulty we struggled to carry our heavy suitcases there. I had thought at that time the hotel must be at the suburb of Flushing and we were deceived by the hostess, but later on I learned that the hotel was located at the center of Flushing, near No. 7 metro terminal, it is very convenient for you to get everywhere you want to.
To my satisfaction the room was very clean. Feeling exhausted after more than 13 hours’ flight, I took a shower and went to bed. However, it took me some time to fall asleep, partly because of time difference and partly due to a little bit of disappointment, anything but excitement. I forced myself into sleeping only to find it was too difficult. So I turned on TV and began to watch it and then after some time I fell asleep. But not long I woke up and watched TV again. I could do nothing but wait for the daybreak. So my first night ended up in sleeping and watching TV program alternately.