NYC...piece of cake

When I was going to travel to Baltimore by myself, I was a bit worried. To go there, I had to go to NYC before taking a train to Baltimore. Woof, NYC...yikes how can I ever survive in that huge city even though I would only be there for 3 hours. But Tiara comforted me that I should be okay, knowing that I grew up in Jakarta. "NYC = Jakarta", she said. I didn't believe her. Come on, I saw in the movies about NYC and it seemed like a "jungle" city (minus Tarzan).

Well after having a 25 hour flight to NYC, I only had 3 hours before the train took me to Baltimore. JFK airport was packed with people and the immigration queue was quite long, plus the flight arrived late, so I was nervous as to whether I would eventually get the train. After “escaping” from the immigration, I needed to go to Penn station by bus. Unfortunately, the bus only took me to Grand Central Station. So I needed to get a taxi. At Grand Central station, it was hard to get a taxi because it was rush hour and they didn’t want to take me to Penn station. My instinct said I needed to go the other street, hoping that it would be easier to get a taxi. And I was right! This was the first time I felt lucky that I grew up in Jakarta. Okay so, it was 5.30 pm and the train would leave at 6.15 so I only had 45 minutes. With traffic jam everywhere will I ever make it? Finally, Penn station. The time was 6.10. Crap...where should I go from here? For me, Penn station was huge and I was confused. Not sure why, people there didn’t help me much when I asked where I should go. But anyway, I found the lane...and it was 6.19. Ahh...okay well, I’m definitely late now. But then I saw the board and it said that the train was delayed. Pheww...

So I guess, Tiara was right, NYC = Jakarta....piece of cake then