The first flight to US

As usual, I was planning to write this blog for a long time. I was thinking that in job you always have enough time every day. Thinking this, I kept postponing my next entry day by day.

Anyways, I was thinking of blogging my first journey to US.

After consulting many of my friends, I decided to join University of Minnesota for my Masters after getting admits from Minnesota, USC and Ga Tech. (Why???. It’s a long story I will blog later ? ).

Finally the day arrived when I had to go overseas for my higher education. This was the first time I was going that far from my family. While in job time in India, I used to visit my family every 2-3 weeks. It was evident that I will not be able to come back to India at least before a year. Thinking all this and along with nervousness of the first International travel, I went through all the formalities of airplane boarding.

While boarding, I met another student who was going back to US after a visit to India. During the conversation, he mentioned when to graduate, how to look for job, how to manage medical benefits while looking for job, OPT, CPT etc. I started thinking that getting student visa is just the start of whole trouble. Life will not be easy in US :(

The flight was full and my seat was in the middle row. Next to me was an NRI family with 2 kids. I had normal conversation with the lady of the family. She was sharing her 15 yr of experience in US. I started realizing again that life would not be easy in US.

In the mid night, I was surprised to see that people were sleeping on the floor of the aircraft. Sleeping between the legs of people is much wired for me. I think I slept well in the flight as I can sleep anywhere.

I kept many medicines which include Vicks inhaler, Allergy medicines, Disprine, Digine etc in my backpack. And the time arrived when I was thinking I might need them: the time when my aircraft landed in US. Before leaving the plane, I checked once again whether I have all the medicine.

After leaving the plane, I took a deep breath and try to feel whether I had any allergic symptoms or not in US weather. Realizing that there was nothing wrong I moved toward the immigration checkups .

I had to catch another flight to Minneapolis from Chicago airport. The airport is very big and I got confused which inner train I had to catch. The family which was sitting next to me helped me in giving the right direction.

After reaching my terminal for flight to Minneapolis, I felt little bit hungry. I started roaming on the airport. It was morning time around 7 am. As I am a vegetarian, it was tough to find a vegetarian dish. Before leaving to US, I tried to learn what is veg and what is not from internet. I tried to recall that list anyhow. I figured out some dishes, I converted the price into rupees. Then I said ‘it is dam expensive’ . Even the tea costs 200 rupees. After thinking a lot, I dropped the plan of having breakfast.

I had to call one of my senior from my undergrad college (MNNIT) with whom my temporary accommodation was arranged. I moved toward a public calling booth and get to know that to make a call you need 50 rupees (1 dollar ) per min . I said this is again very expensive as compared to 1 rupees per min in India. After thinking for 15 min, I decided to spend 50 rupees only for one min.

After reaching Minneapolis, I had to call one gal who was voluntarily picking me up from airport and dropping me to my temporary accommodation. I called her and told her I would be out of the airport at Gate B by spending another 50 rupees. The name and voice seems American but I was expecting an Indian gal.

To pick up my two checking bags, I went to pick a cart which cost $5(250 rupees). I pushed a $5 bill and went to other end to pick the cart. While reaching to other end, I realized that carts were locked again. I tried to find a number to complain malfunction of cart renting but at the end, I realized that I had to take them from the end where I inserted the bill. Again I inserted $5 bill to get the cart (Loss of $5 just after landing in US). I was very upset. I noted down the number and was thinking of calling when I would reach my temporary accommodation.

I was standing outside Gate A of the airport and surprised to see that the girl was American. This was the second time I was talking to an American. While in car, I asked her there were no bikes on the roads. She told me bikes were not allowed on these roads as they are slow. I told myself that I read it that US bikes are best in world. It was little difficult in finding my apartment.

After reaching in my temporary accommodation, I told my friends about bikes. They told me bikes here mean bicycles and Motor bikes mean motorcycles :P