When I arrived in New York. way back then we were picked up at the airport and were taken to a hotel (Hotel Saint George) in Brooklyn. The place was set up to receive us, the refugees. It was nice, we all got our private rooms, which was a change after living in dormitory style for nine months.
They told us to go downstairs to a large cafeteria where I think soldiers were helping out. There was food in trays and we just had go around and point and ask and were served. Interestingly, for most of the food we had no idea what they were and since nobody spoke Hungarian we couldn't even be told even though they tried to enlighten us. Regardless, we ate.
We were not locked in, and this was the first time we were not restricted in our movements. So, we just went out and wondered around (not too far) the streets. I think I had a few dollars in my pocket so we went into a little grocery store next to the hotel. Me, the big internationalist and linguist said "one kilo narancs", meaning one kilo oranges.
The guy was very friendly, I guess he knew whom he was dealing with, and patiently explained that here there is no kilo but pound. At least I think that was what he said. So, we bought two oranges. And, this was the story of my first American purchase.
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