An amazing 6 weeks

25 September, 1.51pm, Dulles

I am an idiot. Probably the biggest in the world. Just a couple of minutes ago, I realised that I have lost my passport cover. Which means I have lost my boarding pass on the way from Malaysia. How am I gonna explain to admin? And how am I gonna tell my supervisor that I am such a muddle-headed person? Gosh, things don’t look good for me now. I mean my supervisor was aware that I lost my toiletries when I went to NYC. And now this? Need to search for new job.

As I contemplated texting the admin manager while she was sleeping peacefully back home, I saw some messages sent 6 weeks ago when I first travelled to US. I was in Taipei, texting Vikki. I was in LA, texting WP and CKP. One to accompany me to dinner. One to know that I have arrived on the American soil. I might be a big idiot but I am also a very lucky gal to have so many good friends around the world. I was getting luckier till the passport incident.

In LA, WP took me out for dinner. I still recalled my excitement. It was a beautiful evening. And I didn’t get lost as I asked for directions to get to Terminal 7. WP came in her nice, new Toyota (almost paid off after 3 years of instalment) and drove around town, in search of a nice place for dinner. We settled on soup kitchen, a favourite of Jamie Oliver if I remembered correctly. We talked and talked and talked. Till it was time for me to board my connecting flight to DC.

Upon my arrival at DC, CKP and TC drove me to get a phone number and then lunch and shopping at Leesburg (Two weeks later, I went there again with a group of participants and thought the place looked familiar and the name never ring a bell). TSG met us for dinner that evening. We were at Ray’s hell burger, popularised by Obama. I don’t think I like American food very much.

Monday came and gone. It took the participants awhile to warm up to each other. I went to trader joe’s for the first time. I only made a second visit later and never did step foot there again. I just can’t remember the way. It was Friday when Dorji took us out to a popular pub in Adams Morgan. We spent most of our time waiting for people. I realised this is a popular past time throughout the whole course. Waiting. We stayed till about midnight. I didn’t order anything. Neither did Adrianna which was a blessing since two against one (Dorji) is better than one against one.

During the first weekend, IMF took us on a city tour and then, Potomac Mills for shopping. On Sunday, I went to the Natural History museum by myself. I have yet to find good and reliable friends. In the second weekend, I went to Leesburg (as mentioned in previous para). Car rental was a pain. The following day, we went hiking in Shenandoah. The ride was long. Two hours. Phillip had to pull out at the last minute due to stomach problems. Kate had the same problem and Alejandra decided to keep her company. And then, Esref pulled out due to the car rental issues. Left 8. Just nice for a huge SUV. But I still felt bad.

The day before I left for NYC, I met N&N for dinner. They were one of the sweetest couple I have ever met. We dined at Meskerem, an Ethiopian restaurant at Adams Morgan. To complete the night, since I don’t drink, they wanted to take me to dessert. But first, we made a stop at their home. It was a beautiful place. We were so comfortable that we ended up staying in and NR made iced chocolate for me. I wasn’t in the mood to eat anymore but to show my appreciation, I finished the whole glass. It was a huge glass. It was half an hour after 10 when they drove me back.

The next day, I was already in NYC. The first sight of Manhattan nearly took my breath away. The city was so alive. I arrived rather late but IQ was still up. I nearly got lost as he had given me a half-complete address. 53^rd St. I remembered Narissa told me it’s in Lexington Ave. So, the cab driver dropped me at the junction. I later found out that it’s about two blocks away from the actual location. He showed me around his simple yet modern apartment. I got a room with attached bathroom. Being a considerate host, he took me out to a nearby mamak for dinner. Unfortunately, I had tuna sandwich in the bus and hence, not hungry. In the end, I agreed to some fried calamari.

The next two days were a lot of fun for me. On the first day, I walked half of Manhattan. I got lost before I found my way to Bowling Green. Again half-complete information from my wonderful host. I went to 3 metro stations and no maps could be found. How I miss London at that point. At the pier, I decided against boarding the ferry to see the statue of liberty due to the long queue. I walked around and went up to Wall Street and the former WTC. I stopped by mcd for lunch (as I refused to pay tip) before heading out to the Brooklyn Bridge. I crossed the river and back again. The day was bright and sunny, resulting in me getting a little tanned. I crossed Chinatown to end up at Union Square to watch the liveliness of the Saturday market. A few more blocks and I was in front of the Empire State Building. And an even few more steps and I was walking past Central Park. It was already time for me to go to Hanum’s place. I was getting worn out anyway.

Hanum was a great host. And her apartment was cosy. I dined with her family, enjoying my first real home-cooked meal in US. In this situation, I always feel bad about my eating habit. We chatted like old friends. When someone asked later, how close I am to Hanum, I laughed. I knew Hanum 3 years ago from a 3-day course. We parted ways soon after. She, to follow her husband to NY and I to further my study in UK. To say that we are close is definitely an overstatement. Yet, I felt close to her at her home.

Sunday was a more free and easy day. I finally saw the Times Square, walked around Central Park, visited the MET and went up Empire State Building. It would have been a fulfilling day if not for the large crowd of tourists at Empire. I really hated the line. 90 minutes to go up. I made the right decision in not going on the ferry ride to the statue. At the end of the day, all I wanted to do was enjoy NYC like a resident, not a tourist. And I did just that.

My bus leaves at 6pm on Monday. I decided to walk around Central Park again. But I also wanted to visit the NYRO. IQ promised to take me there. But since it was Labour Day, he took me out to Macy to shop first. He was pretty convinced there will be big discounts. I hardly shared the excitement given his previous records. Sure enough, there was sale but not as good as the one I went to in UK. I didn’t manage to get anything as everything was too big. I discovered quickly that there’s no size zero in Macy. Quite a big letdown. My host, on the other hand, got lucky and bought two suits. We walked round the city a bit before stopping by the office. That was to be my last stop in NYC and then, it was good-bye. It never occurred to me at that point that I will be visiting NYC again in two weeks’ time.

The price to pay for visiting NYC was a long night of preparing for my presentation. I promised the team that I would do the first round. As I much preferred to do the charts by myself, I didn’t accept the assistance extended by my teammates. But it was worth my time as the result was almost satisfying. Almost because I felt there’s still room for improvement and I was not totally satisfied. Andre and I made a great team. In fact, we were the most entertaining presenters. Of course, Peter played a part when he suddenly turned on his microphone which stopped me on my track for a moment as I realised the echo from my voice. And Nisreen caught it on camera.

Thursday was football day! I thought I will play just for fun but those guys in my class really meant business. They were discussing the strategy once Marc invited us to the friendly match. There was no way I can play and not being blamed for being the reason for the loss of the team. Most of the class were present at the mall. Some to play, some to watch and some to video tape like me. It was a pretty intense match with plenty of pushing and some yelling. The match ended with the participants wining by a point. The score was 4 – 3.

After the match, I joined some of the guys for dinner at Mei Hwa, next to the hotel. Peter and Claudio were very happy. Especially Peter. Esref missed the whole game as he was lost. This happened even after he bought a GPS and was testing it out on that evening. He made me laugh a lot throughout the whole course. The company was good even though the food was so-so.

Eid came. We celebrated by going to a Moroccan restaurant. There was belly-dancing and an 8 or 9 course meal. Food was good and we shared the food, using our hands to eat. Arie had the most fun, taking photos of the belly dancer. He was teased endlessly after that.

Weekend came again. It was Baltimore Week! Sat was museum day for Wendy, Arie and I. It’s always advisable to take Arie out as he is the guy with the SLR. He takes pretty good picture. We took some silly photos and had a good time laughing.

In Baltimore, we walked around the aquarium and watched a dolphin show. It was a bit of a disappointment as there wasn’t much tricks from the dolphins. And the show was only about half an hour. Lunch was good. Nisreen and Levan ate shrimps for the first time. My table was full of mad people, playing with food and the hammer. We had the jokers – Arie, Andre and Richard. And we had the fun-loving girls, Wendy, Nisreen, Inna, Mada and I. At one point, Esref was jealous by the amount of fun we were having at our table that he came over to bug us.

Weekdays came. We were getting lethargic. Nooman couldn’t understand our restlessness. We spent most of our time joking and chatting. Work was slow. Edwin and Esref had made up. No more war, only peace.

On the Friday before my trip to NYC, Trina finally took us to the US Treasury Department. Security was very tight as we had to give our details to be cleared 72 hours earlier. Unfortunately, they could not clear Arie. He passed me his huge SLR and told me to take plenty of photos. That became my obligation and also a source of teasing from Trina. According to her, I was behaving like a typical Asian tourist. Syikes! We walked past the secretary’s room. His PA was in. I was thrilled but never got the chance to see him in person.

My final weekend in DC. I tried to organise a trip to the Niagara Falls but only Arie, Edwin and Rakesh were interested. I couldn’t get any of the girls to join me. Because of this, I made a last minute plan to visit NYC. I thought I could meet up with Kate, Alejandra, Tom and Levan but their plans differed from mine. I was lucky that my host agreed to accommodate me at such a short notice.

Once again, I boarded the bus on Friday evening. This time, I was with Wendy. The journey was more than 4 hours due to some unusual traffic but we were not bored at all with each other’s company. I learnt a lot about Wendy on this day and I shall treasure every moment of it. At IQ’s place, I got the same room I have grown to love.

As I had done most of my sightseeing the previous round, I settled on free and easy this time. I made plans to meet a friend for lunch. The morning was spent at New York Public Library and Bryant Park (I love this place). Lunch was at Hard Rock Café on Times Square as recommended by IQ. In order to get there, my friends and I had to take the metro. It was pretty funny as we were following the GPS on his phone to locate a metro. GPS said a metro is nearby but we couldn’t see any. So we walked further down. But we were moving further away! As we turned back to the original junction, we discovered that the metro was just across the street. We concluded that the authorities in NYC do not encourage metro usage as the signs are often hidden.

In the evening, I spent my time reading in Bryant Park while waiting for the free performance by Brooklyn Philharmonic to start. It was a beautiful evening with the moon shining brightly upon us. Little did I know that I will make a new friend and have dinner with her.

Sunday was short as my bus was to leave at 5pm. I spent the whole day indoor, chatting with my friends. I had leftovers from Hard Rock Café which lasted me both lunch and dinner. I really should stop ordering so much food. And my NY dream ended that night.

It was finally the last week in DC. I began to feel the sadness weighing upon me. I knew I was going to miss the company of all these people I met. Not a day passed without feeling the burden of separation which could be forever for some of us.

On the final Monday in DC, a few of us got together for masak-masak. My friends made great food. We had so much food that we chatted till 11pm. Wednesday was the day before our final presentation. I spent the night working on the slides for the presenters. To celebrate the finale, my workshop group went to dinner together with our counsellor. We found this nice Peruvian restaurant not so far from the hotel. Friday was spent on a Moroccan dinner and ended at a beer place, Brickskeller.

Those two final nights, I learnt new things about my friends. Levan made his longest speech for the first time in 6 weeks. He taught us the toasting custom in Georgia. It’s really tough to have dinner in Georgia given the custom. Every sip requires a toast. Nikolay surprised me with his ability to joke. I thought he is all about formulas and maths. And there he was on that final evening, entertaining us with his jokes.

After the drinking session (I didn’t take any beer even though Dorji tried his very best. Luck was just not on his side), I went over to Nisreen’s room to bid farewell to Wendy and her. By the time I got back to my room, it was almost 2.30am. I woke up at 6.30am to do my laundry and to see Wendy and Andre off for the final time. It was a tearful farewell.

At about 10.30am, Peter came to my room to download some photos. Luckily he was there as Tom called 15 minutes later telling me the shuttle has arrived. I was in a panicky state as I thought it was 11am. Peter helped me with my luggage. I was even luckier when I got to the lobby to find Peter with Claudio and Arie. I seriously needed help with luggage. We bade each other farewell and I left on the shuttle. Tom and I parted at the airport, promising to keep in touch.

Sometimes, I wonder. How many of us really do keep in touch? Only time will tell.