Man… I’m here!
Posted by Desiree | Filed under All Posts
After preparing for this trip for what seems like months now, I’m here in New York City for real business this time – not just to hang out!
I’m soooooo excited!
I’m here for a property investment mentorship and will spend 3 days with my US Property investment mentor, John Grimes to learn a system to buy anywhere in the US no matter what type of market we are in. Also we’re following Robert Kiyosaki principles (Rich Dad) which is even more important to me – it really is.
Virgin Atlantic is a fantastic airline however I’ve noted that the seats are getting smaller and smaller. I’m not a small girl and neither am I big but put it this way, the arms of the chair were touching my thighs in Economy class. Come on Virgin… if I gain a few more pounds would I have to book 2 seats? Oh no, I’d have to upgrade to Premium Economy… well maybe in the future when business is good.
Also funnily enough, the 8 hours seemed to go so quickly. Maybe it’s because of the 2 coffees and constant TV and the Nollywood film that I was so preoccupied I didn’t notice. Plus, which airline offers you so much food that you have to decline? After dinner came ice cream and then cookies… geez I had to turn it all down I can’t eat so much so often and dinner wasn’t too bad at all. For an extra £20 than the other airline, Virgin has never disappointed!
Got to JFK and after 1 hour in the passport clearance line – thank God they’re still only fingerprinting your index fingers only – Mom and I got our luggage and started to look for a cab at 10pm to get to our hotel in Jamaica – NY that is. At the ground transportation area some guys asked us where we’d like to go and advised us that we could take the shuttle bus and then a train if we didn’t want to pay $20 for a cab. I looked at him and laughed as I looked at 4 big cases and 2 little ones as the thought of lugging them around unknown parts of New York at night ran through my mind.
So as we stepped out into the freezing air with a nice New Yorker and passed the cab line I realised that he wasn’t kindly escorting us to the cab line for a tip but took us to this sleek truck, like what you’d find on a Hip Hop video and loaded our luggage in the boot/trunk of his vehicle (it wasn’t a car more like a tank – trust me!).
My mind started to run through the warning message that the air steward said on the plane, “Do not take unsolicited taxis from the airport as they may not be licensed or insured….” As the door shut and we started to move.
Anyway, we started talking and he picked up the English/British accent and we talked about London which is apparently where his Mom lives. Everyone in New York knows about Brixton, but this dude knew about Lewisham! Props to him! He was really nice and helped me buy a NYC street map as I was going to be driving in NYC – yep me!
We got to the Super 8 hotel in Jamaica, our lodgings for one night, where he courteously unloaded all our luggage (why don’t they do that in London?) and I paid him extra for the help, checked in and then settled down to sleep without freaking out at the thought of driving around in New York tomorrow!
Tags: british accent, brixton, driving, fingerprinting, jamaica ny, john grimes, lewisham, london, mentorship, nollywood, rich dad, robert kiyosaki, tip, virgin
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