Extranjero

Is this your first trip to New York?" asked the man sitting next to me on the plane. He had noticed that I was reading a guidebook of the city.
"Yes, it is," I answered. "I've alwayswanted to go there."
The man's name was George and he was very friendly. He was from New York and worked as the chief editor of the arts and leisure section for The New York Times,the city's most prestigious newspaper. He told me that he was returning from visiting a friend who lived in Madrid. We talked for the rest of the flight and he told me a lot ofinteresting things about New York that weren't in my guidebook. I told him that I really appreciated all the information he was giving me. I explained that I wanted to feel what it was like tolive in New York and to meet real New Yorkers. George laughed.
"What do you think a real New Yorker is?" he asked.
"Someone like you or my father," I replied. "He was born and grewup there."
"Well, I grew up there but I wasn't born there," George said. "I was born in Athens."
George explained that his parents were from Greece. Shortly after he was born, theymoved to New York City.
"My father worked very hard," George said. "First he bought a small fruit store in the Bronx and made it popular. Then he sold it and bought a bigger one. Afterthat store became successful, he sold it too and bought an even bigger one. Now he's got an enormous fruit market in Queens. He's the definition of a real New Yorker.
"People fromdifferent races and cultures have been coming to New York to make a better life for themselves since the city was founded. It has always had a mixture of cultures and religions. You'llsee that there are people there from every part of the world and they're all 'real' New Yorkers. That includes your friend Jason, who has been in the city for less than a year.
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