I remember when I first got to Gannon University in August 2012, My dad and I didn’t know anything about the USA, let alone what to expect. My thoughts were that the US was like "Sex in the City", the movie: a huge place where you will see big buildings and everything is green every day. Well what the disappointment was it when I got to Erie, PA after leaving NYC.

It was still beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it wasn’t New York City.

We didn’t know where to get things for my dorm or where to eat. So the next day, we decided to go to Walmart. This big place that we saw in movies that has all the food and furniture we needed. We saw a big sign in Blue that said Walmart, so we decided to follow it. Mind you, we walked almost 2 miles, until we stopped and asked someone for help to get to the store.

The man was maybe in his 30s, fit and looked like he was from Erie. He kindly stopped and decided to help us. My dad asked him for directions to get to Walmart (No we didn’t have a phone with internet to go on Google map and just follow it). The man asked us if we were planning on walking there or to take the bus like normal people. In my head, I was like 2 km(~1 mile) is not bad to walk if it is not far. The man said that it would take us more than an hour walking to get to Walmart, because it was almost 6 miles away.

You would think my dad learned his lesson right ? He waited until I went to my orientation, to go to Walmart. He didn't have a phone, so he decided to print the direction, and walked to there. People... My DAD walked to Walmart with the printed directions. And he reached Walmart after 2 hours. He was about to walk with the groceries back to the school, until a kind soul stopped him and said that she will help him to get on the bus and where he will need to stop. Thank you kind woman for not letting this African man walk back for another 2 hours under the hot sun with groceries in his hands.

Story short, Ask questions about transportation before starting to walk to your destination without a phone or information.