50 minutes of transit. My trip to JFK.

5 min readSep 22, 2019

It all started about a month ago. Or was it even before? Oh, yes, right … it was before. It was a year ago, my parents took a trip to visit my uncle in New Jersey and I did not go with them. I was waiting for a student visa to go to France back then, and when they came back, my visa got rejected. I asked to go to the us alone back then but they had two arguments why I shouldn’t: 1- I was starting my final school year in Algeria. 2- my uncle wasn’t told before so we shouldn’t bother him like that.

And since then a lot has happened! Mostly 2 important things : 1- I graduated. 2- I told my uncle I want to come for a visit!

By now, you would think my parents had no more reason to not let me go, but come on, do you not know Algerian parents? I had all kinds of worries, questions and ‘what people would think’ issues to handle to get here. But I was ready to do it all. I did whatever they asked of me and I argued whenever they had a change of heart and by August 27th, I finally held that dear ticket in hand after literally tuning in the rain to get the bank statement necessary to buy it!!

And so it began, the wait, the planing, the preparation and THE FEAR!

I never traveled alone to such a far place. Even with my family I had only traveled close. And so I had to fight my own urges to cancel and curl up in my room for the month! Day by day and with the help of my wonderful friends I got over it and over myself. I packed 12hours before my flight and until the very last moments I was still tuning around getting my tasks done!

This is a few helpful imagery to let you feel the pressure I was feeling then:

The three pictures are the three phases every bag goes by : ‘I am ready to be full!’ ‘‘Are you serious gonna take all this? ‘ and finally : ‘ olive oil? Really ?’

Next up was the drive to the airport. My mom is a very calm person under pressure and that was so awsome! Because honestly at that moment, I was freaking out. Going down that elevator with my suitcase and realizing how out of my compfort zone I will be for the next few days is as exciting as it is scary. And so we drove, talking as if she was driving me to the library which she never does btw. We got to the airport, she drops me off, a kiss on the cheek and that’s it! So much for the emotional goodbye mom! I mean, yeah sure, I am not a fan of goodbyes but … a little moment? A little tear? A special advice ? .. no? Nothing? Okey then … see you mom!

And so I go looking for Iberia and my Madrid flight. One awesomely compfortable detail : it was booth number 11 ❤️ it’s my favorite number and I smiled at the thought ❤️

I passed, got to the final gates where families cry their loved ones away. I was like the grinch with my weirded out face expression passing through all of them like ‘stop whining, they’ll be fiiiiine!’.

Get to the police and then the customs where the weirdly friendly fat officer wished me a great flight ! And off to the terminal where we are supposed to be boarding.

When I am bored I play a funny game : trying to guess which ones of the passengers are actually heading to Madrid and which ones are going for a transit to somewhere else. I got some guesses right.

And so we boarded the plane and here started a very interesting little mixup.

In the plane next to me were two Algerian business men whose luggage got taken by the customs and so the airport workers asked them if they wanted to travel without their luggage. At first they said yes but then things got complicated and the officers from the Algerian customs showed up and to solve the matter it took them about 20 minutes!!! 20 minutes of my precious 50 minutes transit time in Madrid! I was so pissed off and worried that I couldn’t keep still in my seat!