USA :- Prologue

This might cringe y'all out a little bit but yes I was very much excited about my trip to USA. Obviously, because it was my first international trip, also, I was traveling solo, at least for the initial part of the trip. :P

If I put everything I saw or did there in one blog, it will be nothing but a congested and long boring blog that no one will read till the end. So I've decided to break it in parts. This blog does not contain anything about the cities mentioned below. It's just and overview of my trip and the highlights of it. I will post separate blogs for each cities. So, here we go.

I visited 6 cities in USA, namely
1) New York
2) Buffalo
3) Washington DC
4) Los Angeles
5) San Francisco
6) San Jose

Please don't judge me for excluding Las Vegas and San Diego from the trip. There are few things which I cannot control and exams is one of it. Also, my brother asked me if I wanted to visit Los Angeles (LA) or Las Vegas. I said, "VEGAS!! OBVIOUSLY!". Then he said, "WHO VISITS VEGAS WITH FAMILY YOU DUMB GUY?" Trust me, my respect for him literally boosted to infinity. So this is the reason I could not make it to Vegas.

My trip to USA was almost cancelled because of my semester exams but somehow my parents managed to convince me. (Yes it was me denying it, such a fool.) The main reason of my trip to USA was to attend Convocation Ceremony of my brother. He just graduated from Charles Davidson College of Engineering, San Jose State University. So my parents went there, and I had to stay back because of exams.

When you have a great vacation planned ahead, you just cannot concentrate on your exams; and I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to it. I was literally packing my bags in PL instead of studying; obviously, because I had to leave the very night my exams were over. In addition to this, my parents used to send hundreds of pictures everyday from their trip to Vegas and San Diego. But I'm smart, I didn't download any of those. XD

I won't quote every single detail, but there are few highlights which I want to share.
My brother warned me that after getting your visa, immigration part is very important. If they feel that you are not going back, they won't let you leave the airport. And as I was traveling solo, I had no one to look up to, I was scared.

My ticket was till San Francisco, and to get there, I had a layover of 9 hours at Hong Kong airport. After reaching Hong Kong, I realized that my knowledge of English is useless. Their accent is so different, that I had to wait for a second, process the question in my brain, and then reply. While I was in a security check interview at Hong Kong, the officer called me and asked me few questions, and trust me; till date, I don't know what he asked. I was just nodding and saying yes to every alternate question, hoping that I am not wrong. I felt so ashamed of myself. He let me go. After reaching to San Francisco(SF), I had to take a flight to LA immediately. I was supposed to meet my parents in LA.

At SF, my brothers friend came to pick me up at international terminal, and dropped me at domestic terminal. I took my boarding pass, checked in my luggage and was all set to board the flight. My flight was scheduled at 8.25 pm. At around 8 pm, they announced that my flight was delayed. I said alright, no issues. I was chilling on free airport wifi, face-timing my friends. After a while, they announced that my flight was cancelled, and at that moment, I was devastated. I was traveling for last 30 hours, I was about to meet my parents within 2 hours, and now you're saying that my flight is delayed? They rescheduled my flight at 6 am on the next morning. Till then, I had to find a shelter to sleep. I called my brother and told him that flight is cancelled and now I have to stay at airport for another 9 hours. My battery was running low, so I claimed my bag and was roaming around the airport looking for a place to sit as well as a charging slot.

Americans are cool as well as weird. I mean, I've never been so friendly to someone whom I met just 10 seconds ago. A guy named Garry, who missed his flight, waved at me randomly, and asked me "Hey, what's up, dude?" I didn't know how to react. This was new for me. So we kinda hung out there for a while, and then my brothers roommates came to pick me up. Brother called me and said "Go to my room, rest for a while and come back." So I left for San Jose. I made a new friend!

On the next day, I boarded my flight. Finally I was feeling good that I'm going to LA. But god had different plans for me though. As soon as I fastened my seat belt, the captain announced that "There is some issue at Terminal at LA, the flight might be delayed, and we don't know when we will take off." I felt so helpless! I literally wanted to cry, I was so tired of this transit and carrying this heavy bag everywhere. The flight which was supposed to take off at 6.00 am, finally departed at 7.45 am. The flight was 1.30 hours long. After landing in LA, I almost hopped out of my seat, and everyone started staring at me awkwardly. Then someone said "We're not there yet." Come on, I knew that, it's just that I was feeling restless. I was about to see my brother after 6 months, my parents after 15 days. I sat down, awkwardly. And then I realized, I had to go to restroom. As soon as I sat down, captain announced that "Keep your seat belts fastened, don't get up. We don't have a boarding gate as of now, but we might get one any time so be prepared. This way, he kept us waiting for another 45 minutes in our seats. I did cry there without anyone noticing it, and to make things worst, my bladder was constantly calling me to empty it and I couldn't help it because captain asked me to remain seated. We landed in LA at 9 am, and I got out of the plane at 10 am.

I finally felt good after coming out. I rushed to my brother. He was waiting for me in the baggage claim area. Everyone was happy after seeing me. Even I was happy after seeing myself with them.

So this was all about how I got there. There are few experiences which I would like to share, and which I found to be very weird.

I realized that my face is so much Indian, that few Americans literally started to talk to me in Hindi. I'm surprised. When I was at Times Square (NYC), I was just passing by, and there are few people disguised as cartoons so that tourists can take picture with them. It's paid, obviously. So I was in an effort to avoid all of them, and suddenly a girl dressed as Minnie the Mouse came to me and said "Namaste!" I was like, "Whaaaatttt?" I walked away (more like ran away).

Another time, while visiting Empire state building, a cop was voluntarily trying to help us with the route, and he asked me "Empire State Building ke Upar Jaana Hai ki Nahi Jaana Hai"? in fluent Hindi, but in American accent; and I thought, "Am I so Indian that people here are literally talking to me in Hindi? My 12 year education of English is vague."  Seriously man!

As I said earlier, Americans are cool and weird. They wave at any stranger, and they talk like they know each other for a lifetime. I was kinda getting used to it. So, there was this one time when I was in NYC, I was in a mall called Macy's. My mom and brother were busy buying some make-up stuff, me and dad were just roaming around. So I was feeling kinda bored and went to the electronics section. I was just checking out a Mac-book. There was this guy who casually said, "Hey man what's up?" I said, "Hey, nothing I was just checking this thing out." What he said next was totally upsetting. He replied, "Yeah, I don't care, I was just saying hi". Dude, why did you want to play with the innocent me? I went into self analysis after this insult. But after that, even I started waving at random people and asking "Hey dude, what's up?", and yes they did reply in a good way.

So, that's it for now! There are many things I wanna share and I will share in the upcoming series of my blogs. If I bored you, I'm sorry. Thanks for making it till here. YOU ARE AWESOME AND I APPRECIATE THAT.

Stay tuned!