English practice 13
Going Underground
[1] When I left my home in rural Missouri to attend college in New York City, I didn't consider myself a veteran subway rider.31 [2] Luckily, I was able to overcome this fear by having my first trip by subway guided by a neighbor, named32 Sasha. [3]?He had grown up in Manhattan, so he was familiar with the dense, intricacy33 subway routes. [4] During his childhood, he had taken34 the subway almost every day as a child with his family, and so I was encouraged to set off with him to learn the ins and outs of the New York subways. [5] Because of my family's warnings,35 I was afraid to take the subway at first. 
Sasha showed me to the stop nearest our building and led me down the steps from the busy street, steering me skillfully through the fast-moving crowd. I couldn't decide whether to buy my token from the imposing-looking woman on the left or from the imposing-looking woman on the right, but Sasha confidently tugged me right up to them.37 I managed to squeak out, "Canal Street, please," and the woman silently scooped up my change and slipped a token through the slot in the window.
I couldn't tell to which platform to descend, if38 I had always used landmarks to find my way around my hometown. After a little searching, though,39 I saw the sign that read "Canal St." suspended above the escalator, so Sasha and I climbed aboard and rode down to our platform.
I felt very conspicuous standing on the platform, waiting40 for our train to arrive.40 Sasha distracted me by pointing out a performer across the tracks on the other platform. At first, I was confused like a whirlwind in my mind41 about what the man was doing. Then I saw that he was juggling all kinds of objects: milk crates, thick books, and even bowling balls. I wondered if he would of been42 there when we returned.
When we were seated on the train, Sasha looked at me with a pleased expression, I suppose,43 he was proud of how well he had served as a guide. "You look like you belong here in the big city," he said, nudging me playfully in the side, which I44 shrugged and elbowed him back. I gazed at my reflection in the window and wondered if I had already changed.
We arrived at the Canal Street station, and we rode up the escalator toward the street, taking care to stand well to one side to let more impatient passengers by. I might just as well have been exploring an undiscovered continent and was emerging, with treasures and new wonders, from fantastic caverns.45 I'll always remember my first subway ride, when "going underground" took on an entirely new meaning.