Sharmili chali Amrikaaa!!!

SAIL - 2008.... First part of this program was painful when we had to juggle our classes, submissions, not get attendance for bunking for a legitimate cause and finally entertain our guests from Stanford.... But the second part - IS BLISS!!!

So, after a memorable visa trip (I stayed in a 5 star hotel, had a chauffer driven car at my service and had awesome time with GS), I was all set to go to Amrika.... My trip was planned well - thanks to the hajar efforts put in by my awesome "kiddo".... Packed bags in one and half hour - thanks to 2 back to back end term exams and left ON-TIME with Vivek and Shyam....
Random things then happened as soon as I started my journey and till the point I reached LA Airport...

1. Cab driver - Random that he was - kept unnecessarily talkin to me... and me more idiotic insisted I sit there on the front seat beside him... (Well, in my defense - I did not know this was goin to happen).... And icing on cake - he was drunk tooo (Now, plz ppl - dont panic on reading this... By drunk I mean social drunk not "I cannot drive well" drunk)

2. Dingy Dhaba - I was hungry, but more than me was Shyam.... Thanks to huge tax and rentals, CCD at airport would be extremely expensive... So, AWESOME me came up with a brilliant idea of eating at CCD before we reach airport.... Net result - Ate in a random, shady looking dhaba.... Good part - AWESOME food at a very reasonable price.... Good part 2 - Driver dint charge waiting time :)
Bad part- shaaaaaaaaaaady place but thank God I was with Vivek and Shyam....

3. Immigration Hassles - Despite having done eveyrthing right, I was asked to wait for 30 min before the immigration counter.... Thanks to the jhols Vivek and Shyam did :)

4. Charger Woes - What was exciting during the wait mentioned above, was me talking
continuously on phone to P and saying things these guys were scandalised to hear :)))... Me dying to find a charger at the airport in the loo which apparently doesnt receive power (2 cleaning ladies told me this after I waited there with the charger plugged in for 5 min), me rushing to get security checked - not because I wanted to be on-time etc. but coz there was a charging station in the waiting lounge.... Me using the one-rupee wala phone after haajr years :)))

5. Time trouble - And where I was short of time till now, in Singapore I had excess time - for 4 hours dint know what to do... Surfed, frehshened up, roamed around, tried to shop, drank coffee, woke up S in middle of night to talk, etc. Time JUST DOESNT GO when you are all alone....

6. Too much food - Singapore airlines believes everyone is from Somalia and they need to be fed... While I was desperately trying to not be jetlagged, one meal after another was shoved into my face by the stewardesses.... Finally, when I just managed to get deep sleep, air hostess wakes me again to get down at Tokyo for a re-entry in same plane again.... I till date have not understood what was the purpose of this....

Finally, it was 10:30 LA time and I was there, with kiddo waiting for me with a sign - "Welcome to America Shamu.... Love Kiddo" and just like that all the random things just culminated into a BIIIIIIIIG SMILE....

More about the trip.... Laterssss....