Melting into the soil

I apologize again for the inactivity here. 

  I know it's now summer. And when it's summertime, don't you just miss the cold cozy days sometimes? snuggling in your favorite sweater, drinking a cup of hot chocolate with its steam slowly hovering in front of your face and just the little chilly feeling and of course no more sweat to ruin your makeup of the day!

   The winter i miss the most is the after-snow days, when it isn't snowing but the snow hasn't melted away yet. I love the serenity of that. Not too crazy with the blizzard, everything's quiet and white. With that little blanket of snow covering the ground. Don't you just love it?

  I remember one day in winter, the snow storm has gone and the temperature actually went up a little. So, i, like a crazy teenager, wore a black skirt out to the city, without any leggings underneath. It was all fine until night came along. I stepped out of the LIRR train and walked to the bus station in my pair of snow boots.


Skirts and snow boots... what a combination right? I know. When the night has come. the chilliness actually rolled in. Literally, rolling into my skirt! Buses sometimes come right after the train's arrival, but sometimes, they come way early and guess what, we have to wait for like half an hour for another bus. That's actually pretty quick already. Let's not talk about to wait for a train for an hour!


   I hid myself inside the bus waiting area, which actually isn't really shielded and I was trying to keep myself warm by walking around.

    At last, the bus came and several students, like me, were lining up for the bus, trying to get away from the cold. From what i can recall in my memory bank, a black skin- color girl, with probably an Afro hair gestured me to go before her. She said, "You can go first. You are wearing a skirt!"  I turned to smile at her foolishly because i know right? What a brilliant wardrobe choice to go for. So i went before her and that little gesture and care still sticks to my mind today like a blanket of snow melting into the soil.

   Do you have any memory of a small kind act of others that still stick to your mind for a long time?


  

Tip me a little good

As spring starts to roll around, the gloomy weather also follows its way in. And that really encounters  for the cause of a lot of sleeping in and low productivity. Yes, i blame you weather. Good news is, I'm back with this little blog post that i'm sure most of you have missed me a lot. Right?

  Talking about how a new season steps its foot in makes me reminisce the time I step my cold feet in the JFK airport in New York. Having no free WIFI is one of the great welcome i had when i stepped out of the plane. JFK is a big airport but since it's big, it has many divisions, and i think the division i was in was a small one, so lining up to get our passport checked and the little immigration stamp, making your passport looks like a traveler's collection was a mixed feeling.

  Once the staff at the counter stamp his chop chop on my passport, it was like a "welcome to the U.S, you're officially in the border now." moment. The staff did say welcome even though he kept his strict face all along.

    Things i hate about this country is you have to pay for almost everything and tip everyone. In my country, the baggage trolley is always free and you can take as many as you want. (only if you want that many). As soon as i got my two luggage, I have to pay i guess $4 dollars to hire that trolley for a short moment. Many have chosen to opt out for this option but i couldn't afford to push two luggage by myself that is of different heights. Although i have been told I have to pay for the trolley, still, i don't think it is reasonable to pay such a big amount to just use something that the airport is supposed to provide you with.

     To get to where I live, i have previously booked a shuttle. On its website, it says up to 10 people can fit in it so i expect the shuttle will go around a pick up people. So i waited in the waiting area in the airport next to the parking lot and crossed my fingers that the shuttle will arrive. Because i would not know what to do if it didnt arrived. I gave my receipt to the little counter of the shuttle company and the lady asked me to wait around and would call me when someone was going to pick me up.



   It was a small space with two little coffee shops and some stands of tourist information. I picked up some maps and shows recommendation cards for myself and dug them into my bag. It was 6 a.m in the morning, feeling hungry, i thought it'd be good to grab myself some breakfast and get ready for the two to three hours shuttle ride.

    Approaching at the starbucks counter, i picked up a packet of banana bread and a 1L Smart water with me, The water in the airport was so expensive (was $5) but that how airport works. As i pay the cashier with the amount, she said it was not enough. I then checked the price tag again and added it up and asked, "isnt it $xx?"  She said, "No, its "$xx.xx, there's tax."   There I went, Oh, tax. I never have to pay any tax in the city of where i live so this is like a shock for me and i quickly opened my coins bag and tried to work out how many cents i had to pay more.

  Having almost no idea how to distinguish each coin and its value, it took me quite a long time and i literally spread the coins on the counter and trying to count. The cashier went on taking the order from the next customer and later she said, "Don't worry about it." I looked up at her and said " sorry?" The man lining up behind me added "You don't have to pay, she'll take care of it."
Then, the cashier took her employee card and beep it on the cashier, there, i was free of paying the tax.
 
   The amount of the tax i have to pay was not a lot and in fact there is some changes in the changes box which can help me cancel out the money i have to pay. But how the cashier saw my problem of distinguishing the coins and being new to the tax system and helped me out made me feel welcomed.

  After few minutes, my shuttle driver was here and thanked god for that, then my worry was like, please don't drive me to anywhere else. Well, he didn't and a bonus, i got to enjoy my banana bread and the $5 water all to myself in the shuttle. It felt like a private shuttle ride as only 1 passenger, me , was on the shuttle all along.

Blog post will be coming up

Updates: sorry i havent been active but i promise a blog post will be coming up . thanks!