Evansville

“Passengers, the seatbelt sign has been turned on. We are going to be landing in Evansville in 20 minutes. Thank you for flying with us, we hope to see you again. Enjoy your stay.” Those voices in the speaker awakened and welcome me.

While the flight attendant was talking, I could not help looking down through the tiny window. To my surprise, the only things I could see were country fields, a river and a big smoky factory. I remember thinking that most airports are far away from the cities, so I relaxed and got prepared for the landing.

Some students were waiting for me. The anticipation of seeing the city of Evansville was growing every second, but I kept thinking in “haft an hour”, we need to leave the airport area.

While driving, I was getting impatient. The only thing that I could find on Internet was a picture of Main Street and the knowledge of the existence of the Ohio River. That information made me compared Evansville with Boston... big mistake.
Suddenly, one of the students pointed to the right, and said “that’s downtown, and those are the two bigger buildings.” I was shocked. We kept driving. It was getting dark and it looked like USI was never going to appear. At that moment, I wanted to see the university, to see if my imagination was right, because I’ve made a slip with Evansville. The campus did not disappoint me. It was gigantic.

The third day somebody took me for a tour around the city. I discovered it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I discovered that the Ohio River made me feel as peaceful as the Charles River. The little coffee place Penny Lane made me feel like home. I started to see things differently. I understood that I need it to get in touch with this place that was going to be my home for some months. Getting used to the idea that some parts of the downtown area look like a ghost city and nothing to do with my idea of a city. Nobody walk around; people were hiding inside the buildings or stores. Some walk in and out of the Court Building.

Evansville, the first time I heard that name I run into my room to look for an Atlas. Never heard about it before, nobody back home did, but now few argentines knows there is a city called like this and it is in Indiana.