This story tells about my trip to the United States. About the excitement in the plane, the struggles in the train station, the beautiful Times Square, the huge train stations, the cancellation of the flight, traveling through the storm and how we got to Harvard.

Coming to the United States was mainly for me so I could have better medication and treatment. My family thought that the U.S would give me what I needed. We came as tourists and the best place to go was New York City. My brother made our visas and he planned and checked everything to us. It was at night when we left our house in Saudi Arabia and drove to the airport.

We waited for our flight with my sister and I was going to cry because I did not know when I was going to see her again. Afterwards, our flight started boarding and when we arrived at the security to get on the plane. We had some tablets and laptops that did not work. The security checked the bags first then they saw the electronics that we had and they said to turn them on. I was so scared that I could feel my heart pumping so fast like a hammer slamming to the iron because I knew that my tablet would not work or turn on at all but the guy was nice so he let us to get in the plane.

It was an eleven-hour flight to New York City. It started when the sun rose over the horizon. The color of the sun was a really deep red almost like a deer’s blood. The take-off was a bit scary and exciting for me, because it was the first time I was ever on a plane. As the plane started to move I was suddenly scared to death. I had an idea in my mind and wanted to try it so I got excited and tried to resist the gravity. It was almost like resisting someone pushing you to your bed. We were flying with the sun so we started chasing the sun for the whole flight. We landed safely. The most terrifying part was that when we got out of the plane and moved toward the hotel.

We left the airport and rushed to the train station. The station had awesome, huge, beautiful drawings made with glass pieces. The drawings looked like they were talking to you. At the time we were in the station it was midday, so the station was jammed with people almost like ants in their hole. It was underground, the best sounds were the train approaching you with the sounds of the railroad squeezing and shouting. The feeling of the ground while the train passing me was almost like an earthquake moving toward you. The only things that I could smell were the steel on the railroad and the smell of the humidity was like it was raining in the station.

Not knowing where we are going, all we knew was that we needed to catch the train to get to Manhattan, New York. Next, we went down to the train station, so it was really hot and humid, like a bad day at the beach. The sweat on our face was like we ran for miles without stopping or even like we took a shower of sweat. The sweat covered every single part of my body. The worst feeling was when it got in my eyes. It burnt like a fire in my eyes and itched so much that I could not open my eyes. 

Not knowing the exact station or street to go. So my father called my brother that planned everything for us. He knew where everything was, however, because we were underground, the service was really awful. I was terrified and tired but I did not feel the tiredness on my legs or back because I was excited and scared.

My other brother that came with us, knew where we should go because of my older brother; the one who planned everything told him where to go. We went to a station that would eventually lead us the hotel. We had our huge, heavy, new bags with us. I had to carry one, it was so heavy that I could barely walk.

Racing through the nasty, dark, jammed, but yet beautiful and huge station to get to our train. We ran for almost an hour to get to the correct train. The worst thing that happened was that we were moving in the wrong direction the looks on our faces were of tiredness, anger, and sadness. We tried to call my brother so he could give us the right directions.

We finally arrived at the right train and station and got into the train, it was the first time for me on a train. The breeze of cold as I jumped on the train was so satisfying and nice that it made me want to sleep because I have not slept from the beginning of the trip. After we got to our destination, we raced up the stairs to the streets and we were in the middle of the Times Square, I saw it before, but only in photos, it was surrounded by huge buildings and skyscrapers, it was as colorful as a basket of all sorts of fruit, it had bright and vivid colors. It was so jammed that the people looked like ants or soldiers marching! I took so many pictures of it. We stayed for two hours in the Times Square.

Moving out of the Times Square, we headed to our hotel. We were so tired that we could barely move our legs to walk. The other exciting and happy moment was that when we stepped into the hotel doors, although we were drenched in sweat, we got into our rooms and we were so happy that the smile on our faces was indescribable.
We went to all sorts of places in New York City, although we stayed only for a week. It was time to leave to Illinois, so we took a taxi from the hotel we were in and went to LaGuardia airport. We checked our bags in and then we waited to get on the plane, but it was stormy outside and it was raining on the way to the airport. I hoped that they would not delay or cancel the flight. Sadly, they did and my father did not saw that they did cancel it. We sat for an hour without knowing that the flight was canceled.

My father went to ask what happened and they told him that the flight is canceled, I was so tired and barely could move. It was late at night and the airport started to close. My father went to get us new tickets, but he did not find any flight on the same day. We had to stay another three days in New York. we had nothing to see if there was any flight available the next day. My brother that planned everything was sleeping at that time.
We called him so many times and he did not answer. Eventually, and happily, he tried to see the closest hotel we could stay in. We left the airport to the hotel. When we reached over there they told us that we can not get into our rooms until 3 pm, it was 3 am so we sat twelve hours in the lobby waiting. On the day of our final flight, I was still scared that we would not leave because it was still stormy.

It was night, almost 9 pm. We checked our bags. They started calling for people to get on the plane. The storm grew bigger. I could see the lightning in the sky. We finally flew away from New York City. It was a three-hour flight to Chicago. In the air, I could see the lightning it was like tree branches in the winter. So I took my camera and started shooting it.

The other scary part, well the worst part was that we were moving through the storm. We had a lot of turbulence all the way to Chicago. Finally, the rain stopped and the plane landed safely. We got through the security, then we went to get our bags, when we got them we sat on the benches.

Before we got to the United States one of my brothers flew before us so he was the one who came to get us to the hotel in Harvard. He had a small car. We were sitting on top of each other in the car. Finally, we got to the motel in Harvard. When I got out it was cold and the smell of the cold air was so refreshing and the smell of the rain was like I am in a field of roses and flowers.