After few minutes, I arrived to Radisson Hotel at the heart of Washington DC. Getting to my room made me feel so relaxed, and I realized that I didn't sleep the whole trip from Egypt to Germany to USA. In a while, I was invited to the dinner, where I had the chance to meet alot of students who came to America catching a part of their dreams. But for me, I was neutral, neither happy nor sad. I knew it; it is the period where you don't know if you took the right decision or not, but I did my best to overcome in only 3 nights.
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It was hectic days of waking every early morning to get sessions about the fellowship, what US Department of State expects of my performance, how I will receive my stipends, how I can use my cultural allowances, and finally the US Department of State representative explained the consequences if I did not fulfill the requirements; the unmerciful termination.
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I started to get close friends who are waiting to go their host universities, just like me. Most powerful impacts came from Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, India, and Tunisia. We had the best time ever visiting Washington major places. But the most important event that happened to me is this old lady, around 80-90 years old, who gave me her ticket : Unlike Egypt, USA metro tickets is via machines. They looked huge to me, and I was wondering how I can use that. I looked so naive, while this old lady with her innate feminism approached me saying, take this for you. I was confused what she is doing till she hold my arm and put the ticket with a nice smile in my hand. I looked to the ticket to read "Available for 24 hours" . We all laughed and smiled for the nice situation while I was so excited to use the metro for the whole day for free. As a result of what the lady did, I felt just like home.
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In the metro, I approached this nice girl from Lebanon, Joanna. I expressed how much I love Lebanon and how I adore Darine Hadchiti , Elissa, and Wael Kafoury ( famous singers of Lebanon). We get close to each other so quickly, and she became one of my best friends that I have till today. She was going to a university in California, but we promised that we will meet many times and we will be friends always.
From Algeria, this girl was so jumpy and happy. She gave me most happy times in DC. My lovely friend Dallel. She was my soul mate, and my only sad moment is when I remember she will be in Mississippi the whole period of her study. But the best time was to think we are enjoying our time as best friends.
By the time I went back to the Hotel, I got the news that, a girl from Yemen and a boy from Bangladesh will have the same flight to New Jersey to the same University of mine, where I became so excited to meet them;although, I got the question Does we will fit to each other?. As usual, I whispered to me: go with the flow, close your eyes and take the risk, dawn time is close, you will get enough time in the pane to discover.
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At 4.30 AM , I woke up and dragged my luggage to the lobby. I went to Dallel's room, but her crying got the silence away. She said her prayers for me. We both promised we will meet soon, and the last few days made the friendship bond tighter
At the lobby, American councils members were ready. The shuttle took us to the airport while the American councils members started to encourage me and my other fellows to take the maximum experience. We were ready but we needed those advises. In the plane, the pilot announced, welcome to the United Airlines, we are heading to Newark Airport of New Jersey. We will reach the destination in 40 to 45 minutes. Thanks for choosing us, have a good time.
