Chronicles of a Nigerian International student (Part 1)

Grrrh it was so cold, I hoped I would find a seat next to the window on the train.

"Ticket please......? "

Huh? what does this one want?

"Ma'm Ticket"

"Oh sorry, take.... Thank you," I said.

Union, Precious, you're stopping at union. You better not sleep and miss your stop. 

I got the window seat I wanted, now I hoped someone who smelt like fish, won't sit close to me, like the other day.
Taking the train to school had turned out to be very therapeutic for me, which is odd because I had been in America for only five days. Regardless of that, I really needed time for myself to take in this new country that I was struggling to like..

It was snowing that morning, and here I was in the 8:15 a.m train which I made without the help of my mum. I stared outside the window, and I thought it was remarkable that with every stop the train made, the color of the snow was different. It ranged from the sort of nice looking white snow that I watched on TV in Nigeria to the dirty lump of black ice that I had never seen on TV, either way it was fascinating. I gained a new respect for America, with their ability to hide their slumps from the world. If I told my friends about the dirty snow, they wouldn't believe me, because to them America was heaven that didn't have sand on their roads....

I brought out my red fancy CD player holder from my bag, which also contained about 20 other CD's, all Nigerian music that I had brought from Nigeria. I remembered buying all of them at an open kiosk down at Rumokoro road and I had bought them for a good price too. I brought out the last Plantasun Boys album from it's holder, which I heard was released after 2face, who was the breakout star of the group was being a diva. I really did not care for the rumor though, I was just happy my favorite Faze was singing again and that they came back long enough to record an album. My reward to them, was me playing it for the thousandth time.. I pumped up the volume to the highest and watch the snow.

"Union Penn station, if you're leaving the train watch the gap"

I saw the sign Union....
Oh God! oh God, excuse me please! I said, running towards the door, ' God don't let this door of this train close.. '
I got out, thank God! Still panting, I was struggling to understand why I always insisted on putting the volume of my CD player so high! What if I had missed my stop? I don't know anywhere here!
I found myself walking behind about 22 other people which I guessed from the look of their laid back dressing, backpacks, and the look of reluctance written on their face, that 80% of them were fellow Kean University students. I walked along the same path with the other students.The distance to my school was at least a 9 minutes walk, but with the snow stacked up on the floor, it took longer.
The ground was slippery, so I had to walk carefully especially because this was my first experience walking on the snow.

After about 10 minutes, I started approaching the major road that I had to cross to get into my school. The traffic light showed green, but there was no car at the moment coming at the moment, so I decided to cross the road, you know Naija girl no dey carry last. Just as I was about to proceed into making the cross, I saw a car approaching in high speed, I stepped back quickly. The motion of stepping back however was cut short by the motion and realization that my ass was on the floor.... I had fallen. I slipped on the snow and fell, but before I could even take in the shame, I noticed something... something I would never forget.The light had turned green, and I saw the other people who were along side with me, now crossing the intersection, they all walked across me, not even a single person offered to help me stand up, no one laughed, no one said sorry, no one made a comment, no one stared, nothing.. Welcome to America, Precious welcome..