It was my first time outside of the US and it felt strange. Here I was, an American student ordering drinks and giving large tips to the bartenders. The roles had suddenly reversed for that one night. I gave one of the bartenders my phone number and asked him to visit me. "One day I will" he replied pointing at the lights in a short distance. Over there was America. His dream of getting there was no less stronger than was mine a few months ago. It was probably even more desperate as America was literally within eye sight. Akira and I spent the night at one of the local hotels. On the way back there was a slow and long line of cars waiting to cross the border back into the States. I thought of my parents and that first trip to Berlin. How before getting back to Poland we stopped at a parking lot to eat all of the Salami we had bought so they wouldn't get confiscated by the border patrol. But that was a fun memory. Here, we were surrounded by small kids knocking our windows begging for money. It didn't really feel like Christmas at all.