Adventures in US:

The time came to deal with my US Phobia.

1st January,2010, at 10:30 PM Me, Chandan & Srivatsa went to Bangalore International Airport for my 3:30 flight. Awwwwwww, I didn't feel like leaving India. I was definitely going miss everyone here. We reached the Airport and then we went to CCD. To my Surprise, Srivatsa gave me a perfect gift of the 3 famous Dan Brown books which were going to be my companion all the time in US. I was so emotional but was not able to express it out that openly to him that day. We were talking in the Airport till around 12:45.

I went inside the Airport and first we were suppose to go through some immigration check . I waited for my turn on counter no 7. They person on the counter doing the checking gave me a doubtful look. Once he was done with the immigration check of the German lady, He called me for my turn. I went and smiled at him. Such sadist he gave me a serious look. He took my passport and asked me where was I working and where I am going . I answered him briefly but instead of send me through the gate he asked me to go to the last counter. I was so happy. I started giving him all my good wishes, thinking that they will not allow me to fly. Alas, the next counter guy asked me the same questions and asked me to proceed for security check. Flight was delayed by 5 mins which according to Indian standards is right time. :)

Now here I enter Luftansa Airbus and I find hardly 10 Indians in the flight.Luckily my seat was placed beside Indian Uncle. I chatted with him for some time then we got dinner. My go the flight food is awful. The flight food made me realize how wonderful I cook. :) Then again I started talking with that uncle and he seemed amused by my blabbering. After exhausting all my energy in talking I dozed of. When I woke up in the morning , "Kaminey" was getting screened.

I watched that having breakfast and after the movie was over we were 30 mins away from landing to Frankfurt. I dozed of till we were about to land. The plane landed and we reached Frankfurt. It was chilling cold and my legs were freezing as I didn't had brains to wear some socks. It was a 5 hr halt in Frankfurt Airport. I found Supreet who was travelling with me till Frankfurt and we thought we will look around in the airport. We went to the Restaurant and ordered :French Fries" & Cappuccino & passed about 2hours. Then we did window shopping in all custom free shops.

I went to board my next plane to Denever. In this flight, I was allocated the first row seat with 2 ABCD(American Born Confused Desi) as my neighbours. I didn't talk to them in the whole journey. This journey was a boring compared to the previous flight. Can you believe I didn't talk at all for about 9 hours except for choosing my juices and food.

I landed in the Denver Airport and was suppose to go through my immigration check in. I kept all the documents ready. I was just re-checking my documents and thought of reading my "Port Of Entry" letter once. And there came a shock, in my Port of Entry letter it was written that I am visiting my client "South-West Airlines" in Dallas, TX. My eyes almost popped out. I had already filled the "Reachable Address in US" of my California Hotel. And I didn't knew any valid address of Texas also to fill in the form. I stood 2nd last in the queue to buy sometime to think what to say when asked about this. Finally, I decided not to hand "Port of Entry" letter till they ask and once they find it out i will tell then the truth that it was a printing mistake. It took about 1.5 hours ion the line and finally when my turn cam all the counters were closing except the one for me and one for the guy behind me. I went to the officer when he called and handed over my passport and the filled form. He said that I filled a wrong form,I was suppose to fill the white form as I had the Visa already. He handed a white form and asked me to fill. The second last counter also closed when i was filling the form. The officer of my counter was in hurry to leave, so he took my form and passport and asked me how long do I plan to stay. I answered less than 90 days. Then I started feeling nervous thinking that he will now ask for "Port of Entry" letter.Then he told me that "You look very tired. Take some rest if possible and Have a good day." And I smiled at him and told "You too have a good day." He smiled back and I was so relieved. Then I had a next flight to catch and my same seat was allocated to some Chinese girl too. The whole flight was full as per the announcement. We both went to the Air-hostess and told her the problem and she called at the flight counter and they gave me another seat and I slept of in the whole flight till San Fransisco. I took a Taxi to San hose and that driver was a chatter box and started to peep in my personal life. I kept my answers short and avoided him. Finally I reached hotel and unpacked my stuff. I slept off in the bed like a "Dead Meat'.

In my next post, I will write about my first week in US.