I left Toronto on Friday to go and visit my cousin that lives in New Jersey. The airplane that was supposed to come and pick us up, for some un-explained reasons turned back on half way so they send another plane for all the people that were left here. It took 3 and half hours to finally get on the plain and fly for 1 hour. Such a short trip that there was not enough time to finish the small peanut pack they give you along with a juice. Arrived there and got a cab, the driver had no idea where was the place I was going. Luckily, I had checked the map on Googles one night before and I was able to direct him right at the door step. At the end he turned and asked me, Have you been here before?, and said No, I just looked at the map last night. With his very strong african accent, he turned and said to me , You are a smart woman, believe me! Yes I am, I told him and smiled. Believe it or not, that was the best moment of the day. Got in my cousins apartment and find out that she had moved to Code Red-Emergency Level One. The only place she hadn't called yet was Police. Told her that airplane was late but she was worried that a taxi driver might have kidnaped me on the way to her. She also forced me to call my husband right away and then, she came and gave me a hug and said "Welcome"! My daughter was a surprise to her, she never thought my girl would be so pretty! (I kind of took that as a personal offense but it's not worth it to think such a things if you know my cus') After a lot of laud talking and laughing and big-bear hugs, my daughter got so sick that she started vomiting and it didn't end till 2 o'clock in the morning. Changed her 4 times from head to toe, bathed her 2 times, run to the bathroom 6 times and spend a lot of time cleaning one of the couches. When finally we decided to sleep, heard a big "BANG" at the front door of the building (she is the superintendent of the building and lives at the first floor, very close by the door). The police showed up before I said "What the f*** was that" and they asked if everything is fine. The front of the building was covered by police man searching with torches for something, there was a Rescue Unit and the street was blocked for 2 blocks so no one could driver there, just walk. By 3 in the morning, her husband came home as well (he works in evening hours) and we had had time to talk, guess about what could have happened, rumor all other cousins and said more than 20 times, Let's go sleep now!
My daughter was much better next day and that made everything easy. We didn't go a lot around but made it to get to a mall with some indoor playground where my girl had fun for a while. At the end we stopped to this small place where there were a lot of toys around and children could play for free. Now, I should have known better to trust a place that offers something for free in America. The kids that were playing there, were WILD and VIOLENT. After the first 5 minutes, my daughter came and told me "Mom, these are bad people here!" Had to move and save my girl from becoming hispanic or some sort of african-american, actually mostly american, as I have a great respect for africans from Africa! Had to do the mandatory stop at a Victoria Secret's shop (hasn't arrived in Canada yet)but nothing more than that.
At my cousin's house, I said "I'm sorry" to my husband from deep inside my soul. See, my husband, always tells me that I have an aggressive way of approaching things sometimes, but I do not agree with him. But there, I finally understood that there must be a family problem here. I looked at how my cousin talked to her husband and how he talked back to her and I felt that I must be like that sometimes as well, much moderated but my husband is not like her husband either so, I can understand where he gets the "aggressive" from. And, good girl as I am, I did tell my husband sorry when I came back home, putting him in a status of shock for a good 30 seconds!
After spending 3 days in Jersey I know:
-1- Jersey is black, hispanic and white, in this order.
-2- People in Jersey are very angry and it is not recommended to talk or have a conversation with them. Keep it short!
-3- There is probably a family problem that I have to work on and find a better-softer-smoother way to approach to my husband and maybe even others that don't tell me.
-4- Kids learn fast. My cousin and her husband tried to teach my daughter some of our language, but always in the funny-bad-not_appropriate_way. She did learn all that fast and when she used all those words we would all laugh and she arrived in the conclusion "Mom, I'm funny"
-5- There is so many bad habits and things that we should introduce to our kids in the same way we introduce all the good ones. At that mall, when she came and told me "These are bad people", I felt that she was not ready to face the World like the other kids were, and that made ME feel not good. I want my girl to be the best on any situation and if the situation is to face bad people, she should be strong enough to do so.... not to be like them but not to let them bully her either... altho' as a friend of mine told me just last week "After a lot of training in the army, they were told that the best move to do when faced by danger, was to RUN"
-6- When traveling with a child, do not take anything to read with you as you won't have the smallest chance to do so. You can very well replace the reading material with a pack of Crayons.
And since tonight is Christmas Eve, let's all wear red underwear and pretend we have been nice last year so Santa will bring us what we were looking for. HO-HO-HO
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