Stranger in a Strange Land: NY City with Luggage

I learned this morning how hard it is to be a stranger in a strange land. Yesterday I left the familiarity of Reykjavik, Iceland for the jungle of New York City. I have been to NY on severl occassions, but never without a car and cell phone. It is amazing how hard adjusting is when you do not have these two beautiful modern conveniences.

Last night I picked up a cab from JFK airport to my hotel. The cab driver had never heard of my hotel and did not know the street information I gave him. We eventually made it, but it was my first dive into the Abyss of dependency on public transport, and I was already feeling like fish out of water (or a land mammal under water).

This morning was ridiculous. I left myself 1.5 hours to make it to my 9:30 AM Bus (Bolt Bus NY2DC) on 33rd St. in Manhattan and missed it by 20 minutes. It sounded simple, "Bus Q20a to the Long Island Railroad #7 train and switch the #2 at Times Square until you get to 34th St. " I could do it again in much quicker time but the first of everything is always a strange adventure. I missed the Q20a twice as I discovered first that I was at the wrong bus stop, and second that the bus does not take dollar bills or a credit card. I had a very similiar experience a the train station as the automated fare center rejected all of my credit cards and I had to find an ATM to get cash for the cash only walk-up fare center. When I finally got to the #7 train they had shut down the express train which skips 2/3 of the stops and goes directly to Times Square and had to board the train making every local stop.

So instead of taking the 9:30 am bus to DC I am taking the 11:30 am bus. Not that big of a deal, but you must understand that I had my luggage from my Iceland trip with me the entire way. I told Annie Tuesday that it would be an adventure getting around NY when I returned and that I was looking forward to it. Except for the fear that I would get back too late to pick Annie up from the airport I manage not to worry a whole lot about the unfortunate morning run around. I had been equipped a few days earlier by Kristen Marks' blog about bad days blog and found myself trying to think of all the ways that God is in the midst of this crazy experience.