It can be quite tough to cope with an unexpected occurrence without losing our composure even in our own country, much more in a foreign country. When we encounter an incident, more often than not, we tend to lose the presence of our mind. In such an instance, what should we keep in our mind? Or in the first place, what can help us ward off such an unfavorable event?
I was one of the passengers of Singapore Air, SQ-12, bound for LAX from Narita on Dec. 22, 2013. That was the first time for me to have taken an international flight in more than two decades and the very first time to have been to the States. Torrance, California, was my destination as I had been accepted into El Camino Community College there.
My flight landed on one of the runways of LAX almost on time of the schedule, slightly before noon, on Dec. 23 local time. So far, everything had gone expectedly since I left Morioka, my hometown around 600 km away from the north of Tokyo. Everything went well.
When we enter any foreign countries, the first thing we have to do is to go through immigration clearance, so I walked toward the area for it. While I was walking, I was stopped by a female black police officer.
She asked, “Are you an American?”
“No,” I replied.
Then she told me, “Immigration clearance for foreigners is over there.”
“Thank you,” I said. I was walking toward the area for Americans. Then I made a 360-degree turn and began walking to the area of immigration clearance for foreigners. This was the first happening unexpected, which, however, gave me practically no problem.
When I arrived at the area, there were several long lines of people before the booths. I joined one of the lines. After waiting for around 30 minutes or so, I was in front of one of the booths, so I showed the documents, such as my passport, I-20, and so on, to an immigration officer.
Then he asked me, “Custom declaration form?”
“A flight attendant didn’t give me such a form,” I replied.
“You should fill in that form,” said the officer.
“Where can I have a form,” I asked.
He was so kind that he got out of the booth and pointed out the place where copies of the form were stocked.
I took one copy of the form out and then filled it in, but not recognizing, I must’ve been so distraught or feeling so pressed that I wrote some information in the wrong place. This was probably because Ms. Grogan of Global Student Service, that had arranged a host family for me, was waiting for me at the exit. Any event, I had to find another copy and fill it in, ending up with doing the same thing twice. I wasted almost one and half hours. After filling it in, when I went to the immigration clearance area again, what I saw there were several long and long lines of people before the booths. After joining one of the lines, it took me almost one hour to go through immigration clearance.
After that, I wanted to go to a rest room, and when I was just in the entrance of one of the rest rooms, I felt that I heard my name being called. I was actually paged.
The announcement said, “Mr. Akira Hino, come to the baggage claim immediately.” That was the first time for me to have been paged in a public place. Anyway, after having my business done, I rushed to the baggage claim. My suitcase and bag had already been unloaded from the carousel. It’s no wonder that almost three hours had passed since my flight landed.
Anyway, after getting my suitcase and bag, I moved to the exit where Ms. Grogan was expected to wait for me holding a sign board having my name. There were a lot of people at the exit who had similar sign boards, but as my anxiety had told me, I couldn’t find anyone who was holding a sign board having my name. I had wasted too much time. Yet, I had no choice but to go out the exit and entered the lobby.
Around four hours had already passed since the arrival of my flight, so she might have gone back home or somewhere. Without her, nothing could I do. I desperately needed to contact her. Fortunately, I had her phone number and found pay phones, but I didn’t have any coins for calling her from one of them. I had US dollar bills I had exchanged at Narita. I looked for an exchange counter and found one.
I told one of the guys, “I’d like to exchange these bills to quarters,” handing two one-dollar bills.
He gave me fore quarters and returned one one-dollar bill. I don’t know why he didn’t exchange two dollars. Anyway, I got coins that enabled me to make a call to her. Fortunately, she answered my call. Understandably, she asked me where I was. Since that was the first time for me to have been to LAX, I was unable to explain well where I was. Instead, I told her what a sign I was able to see said. Within ten minutes or so after hanging up the phone, she appeared with a sign board having my name. It was around 3:30 p.m., which means almost four hours had passed since I got off my plane. This was not what I expected to happen to me, of course.
What I could see and feel when we went out the terminal were a clear blue sky of California and a sunny breeze. This is California. That moment made the hectic and nerve-racking spell forgettable. Despite such an inauspicious start of my American life, my one-year stay in Torrance was incredibly comfortable, thanks to my former host family, who happen to be Filipino immigrants. To their home, Ms. Grogan drove me. We arrived there at around 4: 30 p.m.
In the first place, I should’ve been more attentive to in-flight announcements. If I had been so, I wouldn’t have missed getting a copy of custom declaration form during the flight. Yet, unexpected things can happen anytime and anywhere, like what happed to me at LAX. If I had maintained my composure, it wouldn’t have taken so much time to go through immigration clearance and thus I’d have been able to meet Ms. Grogan without trouble. Attentiveness and composure can help me save time and in some occasion my life.