Thursday, January 22, 2009

Amreeka tales

Ahh, finally I get the time to make a post. I have been itching to get online and update my blog, but have failed to do so everytime. Some of the following updates were what I scribbled down on my notepad to post on my blog, being the procrastinator that I am, didn't post it at all.

Hopefully, I'll keep this updated from now on.

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Waiting at the Chennai airport, I had great fun watching what was going on around me. It was pretty noisy. Some college girl was happily calling all her friends in Chennai using the free Airtel phone & I had to stand right behind her for 15 mins trying to make a call home. I gave up. What is it with free phones? Are we so addicted to freebies that we don't have consideration for others waiting behind us? Hmmm, before my comrades go "See, he went to America & is now whining. He doesn't understand the Indian way of doing things". Uh, really I didn't understand it when I was back there too.

I glanced at the free water dispenser but not much of a crowd was there. Upon inspection, I found that these were placed right next to the restroom. Wah re wah, a masterpiece of architechtural design. I took a walk and saw the new CISF hulk like guards manning the airports. One of the things 26/11 did was to improve airport security a couple of notches.

I boarded the flight to Singapore and my journey to the land of Obama started.
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3 hours and 45 mins later, I reached Singapore. I spoke in Tamil to a couple of Sri Lankan Tamils & had a great time just exploring Changi International Airport. The airport is a mini tourist destination in itself.

I loved walking on those walk-alators or walking escalators. Singapore was just waking up that morning & I got to see 50% of airport employees as well as Singapore Airlines staff were Indians. Jai ho!
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South Korea (Seoul) is one place I hated. The airport is half shut down and really filthy to move around. I donno why, but I kinda hated going around the place with a lot of loud conversations going on. I thought we Indians were loud but whoa, South Koreans can match us in decibel levels.
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Reaching SFO, I got through the whole Homeland Security / Immigration formalities and walked out into the US as a student visa holder. Heh. I met my brother & spent a couple of days with him. Jan 10th, the time had come to head to Sac State.
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Initially, the cold weather here took a lot of time to get adjusted to. For a guy who'se used to beaches and Chennai's sun, cold weather is almost tabboo.

Ok. Gotta run now. Shall keep this blog updated from now on. Going to get my HP laptop soon. From Monday, HURRAY for student life. It kicks some A.