The plane was about to land. I took a deep breath and looked through the window. My family and I were going to go to Bangladesh to visit some of our relatives there. We left during winter break, and I was excited and nervous at the same time. We left the plane and went to the airport. I saw my step-uncle and my other uncle. It was pretty awkward since I have never met them. I only saw a photo of them on my dad’s phone. I always wondered if I would ever see them in real life. Now, look at me, meeting them for what felt like the first time.

My uncles and my parents told me to walk to this blue-colored car. I walked to the car, which was my uncle’s car, and I sat in the middle. I hated the middle seat because you can’t relax your head on the window. You’ll only be squished on both sides by two people. And I hated that. It wasn’t fair that my sister got the window seat.

Then, my step-uncle was telling me some things about Bangladesh. He tried to talk to me in English so I could understand, but it wasn’t that good. He told me, “Anisa, you know, in Bangladesh there are lots of rice farms and animals like a cow. There are dog too, and be careful, they can bite you and you will be scared.” 

“Dogs? You mean stray dogs?” I said. “Mmhmm.” “What’s wrong with dogs? They are just...dogs,” I told him. From my understanding, dogs were four-legged creatures that can bark and there wasn’t anything wrong with them. Some dogs are cute. So, I just ignored him. “He’s probably saying that to make me scared,” I thought. Then, he went on to talk about some animals that I might see, like Bengal Tigers.

I pushed my sister so I could look out the window. "Stop pushing me!" she said. “Woah!” I looked out the window and saw that there were lots of rice fields and animals. I mostly saw cows. At some point, I saw a guy riding a horse. I saw lots of green fields and farmers working. My mom then told me that we were on the rural side. She said that tomorrow, we would meet her side of the family, and they lived in the capital of Bangladesh called Dhaka. She told me that Dhaka is like the “New York City of Bangladesh.”

We arrived at the house. There was one large hut that was probably made of cement and it was painted with salmon, red, yellow, and orange paint. There were white designs painted too, on the wall near the roof. There was a large space in the front of the hut and then it was another hut, but it was much smaller and less colorful. The space between the large hut and the small hut was not grass or dirt, the floor was made of cement. But, when we went behind the smaller hut, there were a lot of grass and dirt pathways, and roads. My dad said if we went farther, there would be other huts, but they would look different than the hut we were staying in. “This is your uncle’s house,” my dad said. “This house is way smaller than our house in New York City,” said my sister. “We are on the rural side, so there won’t be no tall buildings like in the city. But, you’ll see a lot of tall buildings on the urban side,” said my mom. I looked at the house again, and it indeed was smaller than our house in New York City.

When we were done packing, I decided to explore. I put on my sneakers, took a tote bag, and filled it with snacks, and I asked my sister if she would want to come since I didn’t want to be alone. “Did you bring chips?” asked my sister. “Yeah, I did.” “Then, let’s go!” “Okay, we’re leaving.” But, before we left, I asked my step-uncle if we could go explore. He let us, but he then said, “If you are going to go, I have to come with you so you don’t get lost.” So, he was going to come with us, too. We walked behind the small hut up to the dirt path, and I told them that we should follow the dirt path. 

While walking, I saw lots of farms, and a few hills, and then my step-uncle told me to turn when I asked why, he told me that the road ended in this area, and if we went further, we would be falling off a cliff. I looked ahead and saw that there was no path further ahead, so we decided to turn. I went past a zoo and I thought I saw a tiger.

I kept walking and we were on a dirt road now, but the road wasn’t a road, it was like the whole land was cut off except for the dirt road, so I had to be careful to not fall. Below were ponds and rice fields. If I accidentally fell, I would probably die instantly, or just get injured. So, I was careful not to trip, especially since there were lots of small rocks on the road.

It then turned evening, so we decided to go back. Once we came back, I went in front of the larger hut so I could get something from the smaller hut, but then I saw a dog half my size. It was brownish-tan, and it wasn’t cute like those dogs I see in New York. It had dark eyes and large, sharp teeth. It looked at me and started growling and snarling. I was so scared. It snarled and growled even more. I stepped back, but then it started chasing me. I was screaming and running to the larger hut. I quickly went inside the house, but the dog was there, near the few steps in front of the house. I was terrified. I remembered what my step-uncle said, and how he said that they can bite with those large, sharp teeth.

But then, my other uncle saw me and the dog. He just got a twig and started shooing it away, but when it didn’t listen, he threw the twig near the dog, since he didn’t want to hurt it. The loud sound scared the dog, so it ran away. 

When I went inside, my uncle told the other adults about how I was scared of that dog, and all the other adults started laughing! I was so embarrassed and angry. “How are they not scared? That dog was half my size! It could’ve bitten me! And, why are they laughing?!” I thought to myself. 

Then, my mom said, “It’s okay! Don’t be scared, it’s just a dog.” “It’s just a dog,” I mimicked to myself. I didn’t say it out loud since that would make me get into trouble, but inside I felt a bit angry that they couldn’t understand how scared I was of that scary dog that was half my size. But, I was relieved that the dog was gone.

One morning, my aunt, her husband, their two sons and my uncle said they were going to drive to the shops to get some things. When we arrived, it was crowded! There were lots of stores and people selling fruits, vegetables, and fish. Some of the shops weren’t even actual buildings. Some people were selling things in big, round, plastic trays. We then entered an Indian sweet shop. There were a lot of house flies, probably because it was scorching hot and there was raw fish on the round plastic tray that people were selling while sitting on the floor outside. “What do you want to get?” my aunt asked. “I don’t know. Are there any white-colored rasgullas?” My aunt looked at the sweets behind the clear pane. “Oh! Yeah, they do have it.” She looked for the cashier. “Excuse me, can I get one pack of rasgullas?” The man gave her the clear box of rasgullas. She handed it to my sister. I went closer to her so I could count how many rasgullas were in the clear box. “One, two, three, four, five, six!” There were 6 big rasgullas. I couldn’t eat it all by myself, so I shared it with my 2 cousins and my sister. For the rest, we decided to save it to eat later. 

We left the shop and entered other stores. We even went to a salon and I just trimmed my ends. I didn’t want to get a big change to my hair since I wanted my hair to grow long. After a long day, it was evening. We all went back to the car and drove back home. “So, did you have a fun time?” my mom asked. “Yeah!” “For sure!” We ate the remaining rasgullas, and then it was time to sleep. My mom put my hair into a simple braid and I hopped onto the bed. “Good night,” my mom said. “Good night.”