Mora's Experience In USA

My name is Mora I. Siregar, and you can call me Mora. I am from Indonesia. In this essay I would like to tell you a story about my experience in coming to the USA. I was very happy when my sister Vera registered me at a school in the USA. The school was the English Language Center in Provo, Utah. Sometimes, I felt nervous, because it was my first time to go to another country which used a different language than my country. I also had to leave my family for a long time. However, I tried to keep strong and calm. I knew it was a good choice to study in the U.S.
I departed from my hometown (Batam) to Singapore on April 23, 2000 at 6:00 p.m. I went by ferry and got there forty minutes later. Singapore time is one hour earlier than Batam time, so I was there at 7:40 p.m. Going from the World Trade Center to Changi Airport took 20 minutes by taxi. The taxi driver deceived me about the cost. I was supposed to pay him $12, but he charged me $22. I realized that at that time, but I just thought about the fact that I was in another country. I didn't want to make any trouble.
In the airport, I went to the Northwest Airlines counter, but it was closed. I asked a security guard about that, and he said, "You have to wait, because the counter is closed now. It will open at 4 o'clock in the morning." I worried because I didn't actually have a ticket in my hands. Actually, my sister had already booked an electronic ticket for me. However, I needed to go to the airline counter for the ticket. I could do nothing about that until the next day. It was a boring thing to wait until the next day at the airport. I walked around the building and took a seat to read a book for a while. I went into a cafetaria to eat some food and a soft drink. I couldn't sleep the whole night, because I was afraid that if I slept, the aircraft would be gone when I awoke. Therefore, I stayed awake the whole night.
The plane took off from Singapore to Japan at 6:00 am, and I was in Tokyo airport four hours...