The California Thing..

It wasn’t an all of a sudden affair. But I took it lightly since I already had a bad experience in a similar situation. So, I kept it low. Did not get excited about it…did not make any plans in advance… Finally, when things looked like a reality, I had very little time left to arrange things properly. This does not mean that I had no plans. My plans got interfered by many others. When you stand alone against many, it’s a different experience coated with frustration and pity. I always believe in planning in advance and I believe that some times we need to compromise money over convenience if we can afford it. When one is doing things alone, one can stick to his plans otherwise it’s not easy.

26-Nov-2009, Thursday

We are supposed to travel tomorrow. This is a long term assignment and hence we need to carry lots of things but even the packing was yet to start. There were many things to buy plus lots of things to move out from our apartment since we are going to let it out. We had one dinner invite too. My wife and I had to be at our apartment till almost 9 and thus reached the dinner place bit late. We stayed at my in-laws place. I could not sleep coz of two reasons – I was very tired then I did not get enough space to sleep (might sound silly but its true that I prefer to sleep alone in the bed…but this time the whole family, the three of us, had to share a single bed).

27-Nov-2009, Friday

Woke up with headache since I could not sleep last night. But there were still lots of things to be done, including some last minute shopping. I decided to do the out door chores and my wife decided to start packing. She did not get enough support since she did not want to blindly follow others opinion and thus it became a tiring job for her. I was running around till 6 pm that too without drinking enough water. Thus I was really tired.

We left at 10 in the night ( I wanted to leave at least by 9-9.30). Since we could not get the boarding passes early, we did not get window seat. Our first flight was from Bangalore to Hong Kong (Dragon Air). The flight was at 2.35 in the early morning. Couple of people in the flight had cold, it seems. I heard some sneeze and finally, I too started sneezing..then I had a tablet to arrest sneezing and headache.

28-Nov-2009, Saturday

I could not sleep well again and hence there was terrible headache. I wished I could lie down somewhere. This is the second consecutive day without much sleep. So, as soon as I boarded my flight (Cathay Pacific) I tried to sleep. The headache did not stop but increased heavily and hence I had one more tablet. Headache was not affordable for me since we had lots of luggage (we carried the maximum that airline allowed, in terms of number of suitcases and weight. This wasn’t my idea and I always prefer to travel light). We got two window seat and one middle seat. But we exchanged the window seat (a Chinese guy…this poor guy accepted one Indian vegetarian meal delivered to him which was supposed to be ours). I lied down on my wife’s lap for almost the entire trip (18 hours) but I could hardly sleep coz of the headache. The third tablet started suppressing it..

We reached San Francisco around 10. The officer who interviewed us was a Chinese man and he was very friendly and he gave 3 years permit though we had only 1 year visa. Now we can stay here for 3 years in one go (if we go out of US after one year, once again we need a new visa). My sister-in-law (who live in Seattle came here just for this purpose)was there to receive us. And within a few minutes, there came another relative (who are settled in SF). As soon as I came out of the airport I felt the coldness and this made me very happy (I love it, though my body might not like it many a times).

We straight away went to that relative’s house and within 10 minutes I went to a nearby Chinese store to have an idea about how the US stores are like….Then we had lunch, Indian food. It was a nice house and they had an apple tree in the backyard. Since we were surrounded by our own people, I did not feel like I am really in the US. It was a surprise for all of them seeing me not sleepy coz of jet lag (my wife and son were sleepy). Yes, I wasn’t sleepy though I could not sleep for couple of days plus this long travel crossing time. (But this doesn’t mean that my body does not need sleep. It does need sleep just like anybody else. For me, this happens so coz of my mind. But body warns me with headaches and heartburn/acidity and sometimes even with chest pain).

In the evening we checked in to our hotel and then went to Starbucks to have coffee. Most of the malls here are not single huge building with escalators but lots of small but independent buildings/shops. It was cold and windy outside, but sunny too.

For dinner, we went to a place which sells pasta, pizza and some Mexican and American food. I did not much like the food but I had no issues in eating them. Everything had lots of cheese. Food was expensive.

29-Nov-2009, Sunday

Woke up very early. The complimentary breakfast wasn’t good. Re-arranged and re-packed stuffs and came to know that baniyan (an inner vest for men made of cotton which is worn under shirt/Tshirt) and the sandal that I bought as last minute purchase turned to be wrong size (they showed me something and packed something else). The only Indian traditional dress I brought got spoiled by some mango pickle (we were not supposed to bring this, I guess. But I was helpless…the one against many issue again).

Checked out many apartments. The houses were spacious and neat. There was one neighborhood full of Indians and my personal choice was to keep away from that. Finally we decided on one and told them that we are interested.

Did some essential goods purchase. Sister-in-law, who was driving the car, bought a GPS. We even got Indian roti/chapatti from one store. The variety available here in the US is amazing. We have lots of choice here. Even eggs come in many different varieties and sizes. Same with milk, it comes in different fat levels. One particular store called Costco sells everything in big quantities but at lesser price. There are so many chain shops specialized in different stuffs like food, grocery, stationery, saloons etc…I really enjoyed the shopping experience. Happened to be at a McDonald’s which did not have any vegetarian stuff and thus I had to go for a burger without anything inside.

30-Nov-2009, Monday

First working day after we arrived here. But woke up little late and hence had to hurry. We had so many things to do. First was to return a mobile phone which did not work and when returned, came to know that it was billed more when we purchased. There was a difference of $5. The we proceed for the most important thing in the US, the Social Security Number. I will never forget this visit, coz…

We entered the SSN office and parked the car. I got down from the car and started walking and heard a lady saying:

“Excuse me”

I saw a tall, athletic looking blonde lady saying that to my wife. She continued:

“You made a dent on my car”

Then my sister-in-law interfered

“There is no dent, nothing happened, its just a..’

She tried to wipe it off

Then that lady took her wallet and took an id and showed it. The first thing I read was

“POLICE” in bold red….

She was a police officer. I checked her car and yes, there is a dent. And that was caused by our car when my wife opened it…it ended up in claiming insurance…