Why are you so cold, U.S.?
Friday March 9 2007
Continental Flight 692
Newark to Orlando
2.25pm to 5.14pm
4.02pm
Why are you so cold, U.S.?
When I was landing in New York on Tuesday evening, I looked out the window and saw snow in the fields. I looked closer and saw what could have been a crust of ice on the Hudson. The Kuwaiti attendant announced that the temperature outside was minus seven degrees Centigrade. That's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
No, no, no, I thought, I've made a mistake, take me back, take me back to the lands of Tagore, Kipling, Jim Thompson, and Imelda Marcos. Take me back to where I can walk around in short-sleeves and sandals day and night and putting on a sweater doesn't cross my mind.
I was supposed to miss this winter; I was supposed to travel from February 2006 and not see cold weather until November of 1007. I was supposed to catch some early Spring weather of 50 or even 60 degrees Fahrenheit or more. That was my plan. Instead it is record-breaking low temperatures expected in January, but not March.
I took the Airtrain, the rail system for the John F Kennedy Airport terminals, to Howard Beach station. On the train I am wearing sandals, khakis, and a short-sleeve blue shirt; everyone else is wearing dark wool coats and hats.
There outside the turnstile I untie the stuffsack tied to the bottom of my travelpack. I pull out my running shoes and socks and put my sandals back in their place. I pull out the fleece jacket and imitation Hard Wear shell jacket that I have been hauling around from South Indian city to Thailand tropical beach to Philippine tropical beach. I bought the jacket in Leh, Ladakh, in August 2006 for fifteen dollars.
You have to pay to exit the Airtrain outside of the terminal. Clever scheme, eh? I pay seven dollars for a combination Airtrain and subway fare card. I go down the steps to the A train platform. I have just missed a train to Manhattan. It is bitter cold. It is dark now and the wind is blowing; I read on the web the next day that it was ten degrees Fahrenheit, zero degree with the wind chill. What a shock it would be for someone from one of these countries I've been in to land here in this weather for the first time!
I really need a hat and gloves but I don't feel like digging them out of the stuff sack. The A Train arrives and I go aboard. New Yorkers are not afraid of strangers and like to talk. I see one or two people talk to each other. We pass through Brooklyn stations with the name of the stop tiled on the wall. I get off at the Chambers Street exit and walk several blocks underground to the World Trade Center.
The World Trade Center is still a big hole in the ground. There are big signs for the PATH train to New Jersey. I take the PATH under the Hudson River for US$1.50. I get off at the first stop on the other side, Exchange Place. It is below freezing outside. Behind me is the South Manhattan skyline, minus the twin towers. Ahead I walk down familiar-looking, American streets. Without hat and gloves the five blocks to my friends seems too far.
Why are you so cold, U.S.?
