The first time the cruise ship sailed into New York Harbor, Yudhi stayed up all night, perched on the highest deck, watching the city skyline appear over the horizon, heart ham-mering with excitement. Hours later, he got off the ship in New York and hailed a yellow cab, just like in the movies. When the recent African immigrant driving the taxi asked where he'd like to go, Yudhi said, "Anywhere, man—just drive me around. I want to see everything." A few months later the ship came to New York City again, and this time Yudhi disembarked for good. His contract was up with the cruise line and he wanted to live in America now.
游轮首次航入纽约港时，尤弟整个晚上没睡，站在最高的甲板上，注视城市的天际线出现在地平线一方，心中兴奋异常。几个小时后，他在纽约下船，招了一辆计程车，犹如电影情节。新来的非裔移民计程车司机问他去哪里，尤弟说："哪儿都行，老兄——就载我逛逛吧。我想看每一样东西。"几个月后，船再次来到纽约，这回尤弟永久下了船。他和游轮的合约届满，如今他要住在美国。

He ended up in suburban New Jersey, of all places, living for a while with an Indonesian man he'd met on the ship. He got a job in a sandwich shop at the mall—again, ten-to-twelve-hour days of immigrant-style labor, this time working with Mexicans, not Filipinos. He learned better Spanish those first few months than English. In his rare moments of free time, Yudhi would ride the bus into Manhattan and just wander the streets, still so speechlessly infatuated with the city—a town he describes today as "the place which is the most full of love in the en-tire world." Somehow (again—that smile) he met up in New York City with a crowd of young musicians from all over the world and he took to playing guitar with them, jamming all night with talented kids from Jamaica, Africa, France, Japan . . . And at one of those gigs, he met Ann—a pretty blonde from Connecticut who played bass. They fell in love. They got married. They found an apartment in Brooklyn and they were surrounded by groovy friends who all went on road trips together down to the Florida Keys. Life was just unbelievably happy. His English was quickly impeccable. He was thinking about going to college.
他最后来到新泽西郊区，和在游轮上遇见的一位印尼男子住了一阵子。他在购物商场的三明治店工作——又是天天工作十到十二小时的移民式劳工，这回的同事不是菲律宾人，而是墨西哥人。他在头几个月学的西班牙语多过英语。尤弟在他少数的空闲时间搭公车去曼哈顿，漫游街头，对这个城市依然怀有说不出的迷恋——是一个如今被他形容为"全世界最充满爱的地方"的城市。但不知怎么地（又是他的笑容吧），他在纽约市遇上一群来自世界各地的年轻乐手，于是开始和他们一块儿弹吉他；与来自牙买加、非洲、法国、日本的优秀年轻人整晚表演即兴音乐……在其中一场演奏会上，他认识了安妮——一位弹奏低音提琴的康州金发美女。他们坠入爱河。他们结了婚。他们在布鲁克林找到一间公寓，他们和一群绝妙的朋友一同开车南下前往佛罗里达礁岛群（FloridaKeys）。生活快乐得难以置信。他的英语很快地臻于完美。他考虑上大学。

On September 11, Yudhi watched the towers fall from his rooftop in Brooklyn. Like every-one else he was paralyzed with grief at what had happened—how could somebody inflict such an appalling atrocity on the city that is the most full of love of anywhere in the world? I don't know how much attention Yudhi was paying when the U.S. Congress subsequently passed the Patriot Act in response to the terrorist threat—legislation which included draconian new immigration laws, many of which were directed against Islamic nations such as Indone-sia. One of these provisions demanded that all Indonesian citizens living in America register with the Department of Homeland Security. The telephones started ringing as Yudhi and his young Indonesian immigrant friends tried to figure out what to do—many of them had over-stayed their visas and were afraid that registering would get them deported. On the other hand, they were afraid to not register, thereby behaving like criminals. Presumably the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists roaming around America ignored this registration law, but Yudhi decided that he did want to register. He was married to an American and he wanted to update his immigration status and become a legal citizen. He didn't want to live in hiding.
9月11日，尤弟从布鲁克林的公寓屋顶目睹双子大楼倒塌。他和每个人一样，对所发生的事感到哀伤，不知所措——怎么会有人对全世界最充满爱的城市下此毒手？我不知道尤弟对国会随后通过的爱国法案——立法制定严厉的新移民法，多条法规针对印尼之类的伊斯兰国家——留意多少。其中一条规定要求说，定居于美国的印尼公民皆须向国土安全部（DepartmentofHomel and Security）登记。尤弟和他年轻的印尼朋友们开始互通电话想方设法——其中许多人签证过期，担心前去登记将被驱逐出境。但是如果不去登记，又怕被视为罪犯。而游荡在美国各地的基本教义派恐怖分子，则看样子对这条登记法规视而不见，不过尤弟却决定去登记。他娶了美国人，想提供自己最新的移民身份，成为合法公民。他不想过隐姓埋名的日子。