5 min read
I've come back to the "real world" to finish off my internship. These past two weeks were the best I've had in a long time. I actually didn't want to get on the plane to go back.
I got up early for a Saturday and took an Uber to SFO at 9:30 to catch my flight for 12:20. We got there in not much time considering we took the 101, which is notorious for horrendous traffic. I then got my ticket printed and proceeded to the security checkpoint. I got hassled for not taking my corp laptop out of its case unlike when I was at JFK. After they swabbed my computer for who knows what they let me go on my merry way to the gates.
By then it was almost 11 and I was pretty hungry from not eating breakfast or dinner the night before, so I decided to go to one of the in-airport restaurants. Luckily, I was able to order a burger and eat it before the boarding time, although I only had 5 minutes to spare. Good thing I eat fast.
After actually going to the bathroom this time, I boarded the plane and sadly looked out the window at California for the last time in probably a while. Seeing as I already spent more than my fair share of time as only a visiting intern out here, I'm not approved to travel to any of the summits happening at Googleplex for the rest of the internship.
Leaving the west coast
After a while, we were once again rocketing down the runway and into the sky. This flight seemed a lot longer than the flight to California (regardless of the time jump) even though it was actually half an hour shorter. I dozed off again for a bit and watched Brave and Parks and Recreation rather than staring out the window the whole time. I was less interested in the view having seen it all 2 weeks ago.
Arriving back in New York at sunset
After what felt like an eternity because we had to circle around the airport, we finally landed and then spent a long time just waiting for the plane to taxi into the terminal. Carrying my backpack on top of my shoulder like my hamper of laundry and my laptop case in my free hand, I quickly disembarked and tried to find my way to the AirTrain.
I got off one subway stop too late to use the AirTrain when I was leaving NYC but I figured this time would be easier since I knew I just had to take the AirTrain to Jamaica Station and get on the same subway going to Penn Station. Well it didn't go that easily because that's how life is.
I got on the AirTrain going from Terminal 2 counterclockwise around the airport. The AirTrain visits each terminal before either going to Howard Beach Station or Jamaica Station. Guess which one I was on?
50/50 chance of getting on the right one and I still screwed up
So as soon as I looked at Google Maps and saw I was going in the wrong direction, I got off the AirTrain and got on one to go back a stop so I could get on the right one. That didn't really bother me since riding on the AirTrain was kind of fun and it wasn't that far between stops.
After finally arriving at Jamaica Station, I looked for a subway going to Penn Station. Eventually I found a sign that said Penn Station on track 2. I had about 10 minutes before the subway arrived so I waited impatiently, my back hurting from carrying all my luggage with nowhere to sit down.
It was a little late but I was finally glad to get on the subway and sit down. One thing I noticed though was that this didn't look like the sketchy subway I took out of Penn Station. It didn't occur to me that I got on a train just because it didn't look much like a regular train, it looked more like a fancy subway. I also only rode a subway twice so I'm not keen on what "real" subways are supposed to look like.
Instead of people quietly staring at the ground like on the subway I took out of Manhattan, the car I got in was full of what looked like spring breakers even though it's the middle of June. Seeing as I had a migraine from the plane ride and they were being as rowdy as humanly possible, I got annoyed pretty fast.
A red flag that I wasn't on a normal subway was when I saw a ticket inspector come around. Seeing as I had to use my Metrocard to even get into Jamaica station, I thought I was all set. No such luck.
The ticket inspector wasn't interested in my Metrocard or even my debit card to buy a $13 ticket since I only had $2 in my wallet from my trip. I was angry enough that I was willing to just get off the train but the ticket inspector instead wrote up a ticket paper after I gave him my ID so I could buy one with my debit card at the ticket station back at Penn Station.
The ride to Penn Station was pretty quick since only one stop was made in between. After paying for my ride and navigating back up to the surface, I was officially back in Manhattan. Back to reality... sort of.