Ramble on the Internet

My American Trip
October 6th, 2007

Arrival

I arrived at Detroit around 4 o clock on 6th October 2007. Everything was new and curious to me. I walked along with others to customs and immigrations, while I could not help wondering around. It’s neither a big nor a busy airport from my point of view. Lack of geographical knowledge, I had no idea about Detroit. After I went through customs and immigrations, it had been a bit late. I lost my colleague, because of the long queue at customs and immigrations. I decided to take a shuttle bus to Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is.

It is my first time noticing that Americans use different English terms, although I have been taught in school. This slowed down my walking pace, while I started to think how English culture have gradually come to me and changed me. Of course, there is no time to think too much. First of all, I need to find the bus and get to the apartment J rented for me, because it was extremely hot outside. Seeing lots of buses lined outside the airport, I couldn’t help wondering why they don’t have the shuttle bus stop near to the airport exit. Later, it will show how naïve I was to try to push them have the shuttle buses near to the gate. After a long walk, I finally found the shuttle bus service. However, they told me the shuttle bus won’t come and just picked me up without reservation. I need to call the shuttle bus service and reserve it. A moment later, the thing surprised me most was that they did not know the number I should call, because they never need to call them. What should I do then? No Internet, no number… Taxi? It’s far too expensive, beyond my budget. Hot, hot and hot. It’s summer again. It’s just so annoying. There were so many empty buses along the road, waiting to pick up people to the rental company, but none of them can drive me to Ann Arbor. After a while, I decided that I was going to rent a car and drive to Ann Arbor, because I didn’t want to be defeated on my first day here. I went near to one of these buses and asked them the price for renting a car. He told me that he only drove people to the rental company, but had no idea about the rate. Sigh…. He was going to drive me to a place, seemed to be nowhere to me. I had no idea how much they were going to charge me. Fine~ I haven’t touched a car for one year, I was so keen to have a car and drive around. I think I stopped thinking at this moment. I always did. It’s relatively cheaper than I thought to rent a car. It took him twice long to fill in the information on his computer, because he accidently deleted all the information once. After everything was done, it’s dark outside. He gave me the key and asked me to find number 60 in the car park and here I go. Wow, no tutorial. I was going to drive a car to some place, which I have no idea in my mind. After I got into the car and hold the wheel, I started thinking again. I got my driver license in 2004 one month ago before I went to England, which means I had one-month driving practice. Until now, I have been back to China twice. I spent one week at home in 2005 and 20 days at home in 2006. In total, I have been driving a car for two months maximally. I think I was mad when I made the decision to rent a car in this country. Actually I was always mad. I think I just didn’t think too much. That’s sometimes good. I always surprise myself. It’s going to be a challenge for me in the US then.