But being I'm not much of a small talker, plus the fact that I tend to think that asking more than two questions to someone is probably annoying to them, I tend to keep quiet. Unless, of course, they decide to have a conversation with me.
This weekend, I took a spontaneous 3 day trip to New York City...although 2 of those days happened to be full of traveling. I was in New York City for a full Saturday, at least. I spent my morning strolling around the Met and gazed at the beautiful artwork and decor of our past, particularly in awe of the European section.
From the Met, I made my way through Central Park, eager to see the next museum on my list: the Museum of Natural History. Central Park was beautiful and very large. It's hard to believe a park that huge, full of trees and even a lake, is in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the US.
(via TravelDigg)
The walk through Central Park was exhausting, especially in the freezing temperatures with heavy clothing. So after I successfully migrated through, I decided to stop at a tiny food truck on the street and order some homemade bacon cheese fries. Not the most healthy of choices, but why not?
The food truck man, whose name was Mohammed, immediately heard my "beautiful" southern accent and asked me where I was from. "Alabama," I said, although I wanted to lie because of my (very wrong) idea that locals usually dislike tourists. But I knew I couldn't lie because my accent gave it away immediately.
His face brightened up as he said he's always wanted to visit Alabama. We exchanged some more small talk and I went on my way to eat my bacon cheese fries and scope out the museum across the street. He had a heavy foreign accent himself, but I couldn't quite place where from.
However, shortly after making my rounds in the museum, I noticed my phone's battery was slowly draining. I knew this was from my taking way too many pictures at the Met and from excessively using Google Maps to navigate through the city. But I had no charger, and no idea how to get back to my hostel on my own. I contemplated walking around looking for a store that would sell chargers, but it was unbearably cold out and my legs were writhing in pain from walking 30 thousand steps that day.
Then I had an epiphany. I bet Mohammed knew where I could find a phone charger. I walked out of the museum and back to Mohammed's food truck. "Do you know where I can find a charger for my phone?" I asked him. He immediately grabbed my phone from my hands and ran nearby to another food truck. Terrified that he was going to steal my phone, I ran after him.
"No no no no no, take it easy," he said in his rough foreign accent. "Stay here." He motioned for me to watch his food truck as people were coming up to place orders. I decided to put my faith in this stranger because it's all I really could do at that point. I awkwardly told customers he would "be right back," desperately hoping what I was saying was true.
Sure enough, Mohammed comes running back to me with my phone in one hand, and a nice Android charger in the other. I was relieved and extremely surprised, with a splash of gratefulness.
He hopped back in his food truck and plugged my phone and the charger to the outlet in the wall of the truck and began taking orders from the customers. "Come, come," he motioned for me to come in the little truck while my phone charged.
And that is how I worked in a food truck in NYC for an hour.
Inside the food truck was warm, and Mohammed and I talked about New York and our lives back home while he grilled hotdogs and I handed out drinks. He happened to be from Cairo, Egypt and has been in New York for only six months.
When a lady changed her mind about wanting chili cheese fries, Mohammed offered them to me instead of throwing them away. And although I don't eat beef, I took the fries and ate them, discretely picking off the chili. I wasn't even half way finished with the fries, when Mohammed started making me another batch.
"No no, please! You don't have to do that!" I told him. I was already stuffed.
"Take it easy, take it easy," he said again like it wasn't a big deal. I realized "take it easy" was his go-to expression as English was most definitely his second language. I winced and graciously accepted my third serving of cheese fries, with bacon this time instead of chili, at least.
I scarfed down as much as I could, trying to be polite, but I had had enough fries by that point. He said "no problem, no problem!" and took the leftover fries from my hands and replaced it with a bottle of his three dollar Sprite.
I told him I didn't need the Sprite and showed him the still-full bottle of water I had bought from him earlier. He didn't care, and gave me the Sprite anyway.
A couple of minutes later, my hands were beginning to freeze so he grabbed my hands and hovered them above the warm fryer. It felt so relieving to my ice fingers.
We made more small talk and I soon realized I had been with Mohammed in his food truck for an hour now. My phone was at a 50% charge (must have been a second hand charger), so I told him I needed to go. This news bummed him to no end, and of course, he asked for my phone number before I left.
Although I didn't owe him anything, I gave him one of my business cards so at least no one could say I used him for his phone charger and food completely. In return, he gave me back the ten dollar bill I had paid him with earlier for my initial order of cheese fries.
Obviously I said no and tried to refuse it, but he was not taking no for an answer. So I took my money back and was able to get a picture with this kind man named Mohammed. The advice I've read so many times held true; talking and making friends with the locals is one of the best things you can do when traveling to a new city. You never know who you may meet, and how they can help you, or vice versa. Plus, it's always good to have connections everywhere.
Oh, and if anyone's interested, Mohammed told me he is looking for a wife from Alabama aged anywhere from 30-35. ;) He said he is a traditional man and that he will do all the work and make the money..... he just wants someone to make jokes with.
