America: the land of broken phones

For reasons that only my best friend would have, she couldn't pick me up from the airport. So she arranged for a friend to pick her up and another to lodge me for the first night. It all sounded perfect, but since it was me and her we were sure something would happen on my arrival to the United States.

Both planes were on time and I only got lost once in the New Jersey Liberty airport, so all was going well. I found out that my Belgian number doesn't work in the states so I bought a phone card.

I landed and picked up my bags and looked for a girl with bright clothes, maybe with a sign with my name on it (yes, that was the only description my best friend gave me, very detailed as you see). No such girl around. I went outside to the passenger pickup area and waited about 15m. I almost went to talk to an Indian-looking girl that had a bright orange blouse. After a bit I decided to give the girl a call. The first phone was out of order so I dragged my bags a bit more to the left and tried the second phone, also not working. I dragged the bags again... In total there were five phones not working in that whole row. When I finally managed to get a dial tone I only got her voicemail.

Sigh.

I called my friend and asked for help. Apparently the girl had already called her and was searching for me somewhere in the airport. I told my friend what I was wearing and my coordinates (I was very, very specific) and waited 10m. No one showed up. So I called my friend again. The girl had given up on finding me and was sitting in her car next to door seven (I was before door one).

'What car does she drive? there are loads of cars outside.'
'Oh. I should know this... I was already in that car....'
'Ok, never mind.'

I dragged my bags all the way to door seven. Luckily the girl noticed me and waved. As soon as I saw her I made a mental note to slap my best friend in the head for her wonderful description (girl, bright clothes), the girl was black and bald. Not wearing any bright clothes at all by the way. Very detailed description indeed.

After a long drive (this country is way too big) we managed to get to the area of where my friend lives. It took us 20m to get there as we circled it but couldn't quite find it. My body was telling me it was almost one in the morning but here it was only seven in the evening.

I went to the reception (my friend lives in a dorm) and announced myself and asked for the girl that was going to house me for the night. She didn't pick up the phone. We tried five times. I asked for a phone so I could ask my friend to call the missing girl. The phone was also not working. I laughed.

I sat on the reception area with my bags trying to think of how long it would be appropriate to wait until I started thinking of going to a hotel. A girl sat next to me and we started talking, she knew both my friend and the missing girl. She called her cellphone and of course she didn't pick up. I had been waiting for almost one hour by then.

A few minutes later the missing girl shows up in her pijama. She was surprised to see me. The phone in her room didn't ring. Yep, another one not working.


Now I'm going to see the 4th of July celebrations and not use a single phone over the next couple of days.