Unforgettable-- Christmas 2009(之二)

(From Teacher Mark)
之一

The flight from Calgary to Ottawa had been one of the most turbulent flights of my life and I was hoping the trip to Montego Bay would be better. I boarded the plane and discovered that the only empty seat on the plane was the one next to mine. I was in 11C which is an isle seat. The first rule of flying is: "Always claim the armrests". The great thing about sitting beside an empty seat is that you don't have to be as pushy and it also provides a space to put your garbage so that you can fold up your table while you wait for them to come around collecting the trash. I reached across the seat and introduced myself to the person by the window. Her name was Arleen. She had a sophisticated demeanour but was dressed for comfort in track pants and puma shoes. She looked like she could be in her early thirties and was obviously of Jamaican descent. We made some chit chat for a while and I found out she had been born in Jamaica but grew up in Toronto and now she was heading to a resort in Montego Bay to party it up with friends for three weeks. After talking about Jamaica for a while, my coffee started wearing off and I fell asleep for most of the flight. I felt quite refreshed by the time we landed and the second I stepped off the aircraft, I fell in love with the heat and humidity. I felt relaxed even though I had no idea what I was going to do after retrieving my luggage. I had absolutely no plans. This was probably the most spontaneous trip of my life. Even though I had toyed with the idea of getting away for a few days, it wasn't till Christmas eve that I made the call. Work ended for me at noon that day and my colleagues and I had a nice noon that day and my colleagues and I had a nice potluck to kick off the holidays. I got home and made the call to Westjet to check things out. "I'd like to go to Montego Bay this afternoon", I said. He told me I could fly through Toronto or Ottawa depending on when I wanted to depart. I wanted to take a quick nap yet, so I booked the Ottawa flight leaving at 6:15. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out cold for about an hour. I woke up, threw some stuff into a bag, and my brother drove me to the airport.

Arleen had promised to help me find a place to stay before her friend would pick her up. She told me that she didn't want my first day in Jamaica to be a disaster or else I'd never come back. I appreciated her concern. We made our way out of the airport and were immediately swarmed with taxi drivers wanting to give us a special price to ride with them. We plopped our bags down and she whipped out her cellphone and started dialing her friend. My back was already drenched with sweat and the mid-day sun seemed to crowd everyone into the shade of the airport overhang. The scene immediately brought back memories of the train stations in the Punjab which I had traveled through during much of my childhood. "I can't get a hold of my friend for some reason", she said. "Keep trying. I'll go to the information booth to try and find a cheap place to spend the night", I replied. The woman at the booth was very friendly but told me that over Christmas now, I'd be lucky to find a place for under $80US. I was hoping to find like a $10 dollar hostel or something. I had $5 Canadian on me so I knew I would need to find an ATM before I could actually do anything. There were two of them about 20 yards away so I went into one and took out my card. I didn't even know the exchange rate but I thought it was around 70j to 1cdn so I typed in 10,000. (I later found out that it was actually about 84j to 1cdn.) It said my request was denied. I tried again with no luck. I walked around the corner to a different-looking bank machine. It gave me the exact same message. I looked back to the pile of luggage and Arleen and I exchanged a sympathetic glance. She obviously wasn't getting through toher friend despite repeated attempts. I went back to the information booth and asked if there were other ATMs close by. She said those were the only two. "How am I suppose to survive here on $5cdn?" I wondered. I went back to talk with Arleen. She said she was going to try and look for her friend in the crowds so I said I would stand watch over the luggage. The people outside the airport looked quite poor and I realized that Jamaica was more of a third-world country than I thought it was. All the other white people on the plane had been whisked away in resort shuttles and I wondered if that bred a degree of resentment in the hearts of the locals. I could certainly see how it would. I mean, I'm sure ninety-nine percent of the white people spend their week-long vacations lying on beaches and enjoying the sunsets without ever venturing inland to get involved with the people. It doesn't quite seem fair to take advantage of a country's natural beauty while leaving the poverty-stricken population unaided. But who am I to start preaching against it? I'm the one coming back to the Caribbean to do an all-inclusive in about three weeks time. I stopped a police woman who was walking by and asked her if it would be safe to sleep on the beach tonight. "If you sleep on the beach, you'll be dead in the morning", she replied. I didn't remember 'death' being on the list of things my emergency medical insurance covered....not that I had spent much time reviewing the policy to begin with. I had purchased it online thirty seconds before I boarded the plane in Ottawa.

附：词汇表
1)bent over backwards (for)：竭尽全力
2)strike up a conversation：开始谈话；建立友谊
3)whip out：突然拿出
4)get its act together：organize yourself and start behaving in a proper way 有条理安排事物
5)get through to：使理解，打通电话
6)whisk away：快速移走，拂去
7)be stuck with：遇到困难无法进行下去，无法摆脱
8)but then：不过，然而，但另一方面
9)get a hold of：得到联系
10)come to terms with：妥协，达成协议，让步
11)bring back：使回想起，恢复
12)mitigate：使缓和，使减轻