Post Brexit - Pre Trump
Post Brexit and pre Trump taking office - a recipe for great success (insert Borat’s voice)
However despite all of this, I decided to do it again 7 years later with my friend, and aside from avoiding all the political and economic instability that came from last time arounds trip. This time my goal was to avoid being stopped by US Airport Security (TSA).
Quick flashback: 2016 (20 year old me) 2nd year university student, gets stopped by the TSA for around an hour.
Why? No idea, well maybe I have an idea, but anywayyy - for anyone reading this, my only piece of advice is to know your relatives full name, rather than using a title for example; I know my aunty as ‘Ada’ - and then we add ‘Khala’ an urdu word for auntie. Now, when tough guy from TSA asks.
‘So, who will you be staying with?’ - I instinctively say ‘Ada’ - full name he demands. Hmm, I reply, Ada (with a slight pause) then say Khala and explain what that means. He looks at me as though I’m messing with him. I reiterate that I genuinely do not know her full name. He subsequently keeps for another 20-30 minutes.
It was at that moment, I knew I screwed up. Eventually I was freed from the TSA. Not before giving them some made-up social media profile names when asked, haha.
I told my sisters and uncle about the story, and now I never forget what my aunt is called (for privacy reasons I cannot disclose) but you get it.
Oh and a funny quote which lives rent free in my head, is when he asked about my family in Karachi, and where my grandfather had lives, see quote below.
“Defence Phase 5 - is that some sort of army camp?”
I honestly could write a whole section on that airport security integration and maybe I will keep this to just that.
It was an interesting experience and one which made me learn how to stay switched on when speaking to someone who really has no motive other than profiling you simply for your name or the way you look. Being direct and to the point (where possible) is the best way out of a situation like that.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the trip in 2016.
Tune in for the 2023 NYC & LA Blog
