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US Trip Contd….

Thought of posting every day about my experiences in US… but look at the dates when I posted about my Day 3 and then Day 4. Its a whole 2 weeks gap 😯 That’s a really loooooong time. Became so busy here that could not even update my blog. So, atlast thought of summarizing my experiences in the last two weeks at a time.

Actually I have got lot of things to write…..and I even forgot some…… On my first weekend here I thought of going to San Francisco but could not go as my friends here were shifting their house and I was with them helping to move things. Then on sunday we went to mystery spot…. about 30 mins drive from my place. Unfortunately after taking just two snaps my camera had some problem 🙁 so could not take pics any more 🙁 . In the night I went out along with my friend nandhini to go around Stanford University. She did her Masters from stanford. Had dinner at some Indo-Chinese restaurant. Food wasn’t that gr888. But stanford campus was too good 🙂 . This was my first weekend here in US.

The following week was a bit hectic. Got busy with work. Booked my flight tickets to Vegas. Was planning to go to Vegas, Grand Canyon and LA. And by second week itself I started eating mexican food…..chalupa chicken and cheesy fiesta potatoes in taco bell were good. Also tried many other things over the week.

Now comes the interesting part of my trip…. my weekend trip to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Los Angeles (Disneyland). When I started out for Las Vegas I didn’t knew that hoover dam was on the way to Grand Canyon. I was so happy and so excited to know that….. bcoz going to hoover dam was like some dream come true 🙂 ….. yes , I mean it. I was a big fan of it since the the day I watched its construction in Discovery Channel some 9 years back. Maybe the dam might not be the biggest in the world but that was the first time when I saw the construction of a dam in such hostile conditions….its like my first crush 😀 ……….after that I had seen so many programs in discovery and NGC but hoover dam was always special to me 🙂 ….maybe you might be thinking that this guy has gone mad 😡 ……talking more about hoover dam than the casinos in Vegas….but the fact is that I felt more happier to see the dam than the casinos in Vegas 😎

Let me talk about the vegas trip now 🙂 …..we took our flight from san francisco at 11.30 pm. The flight time was about 45 mins. Then took our car from the avis office at the airport and started off to vegas strip…. for people who don’t know what vegas strip is…its just the whole stretch in vegas where we have all the casinos, hotels, etc…….basically the actual happening place in vegas…. more to come about my vegas trip in the next update 🙂

keep watching……………………………….

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Day 4 in US

As usual had a nice breakfast in the morning and went to office. Booked my tickets to new jersery. I had to postpone my trip to NJ to 28th as I could not find any good deals for tickets to travel on 21st. It was actually my uncle who had booked my tickets 😀 . I should say I am really lucky as I have an uncle who books my tickets to NJ, a friend who takes me all around san jose, takes me to restaurants, weekend trips, driving lessons, etc 🙂

Today I had a chicken pizza for lunch and this was the first thing I liked here after so many days. In the evening I went to my uncle’s place san ramon…..its around 30 miles from san jose. Had a nice time over there. Atlast had good indian food cooked at home 🙂

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Day 3 in US

Things started settling slowly………one thing I forgot to mention was about the breakfast in my hotel……I must say this is the only part of the meal that I enjoy the most 🙂 ….rest of the day I just eat to fill my stomach 🙁

Anyways today I found some indian dish for lunch in the cafeteria…..took that but as usual it wasn’t that good….then later in the day I went back to cafeteria again as I was too hungry….. and this time there were very few options and I had to settle down for a salad 🙁

Imagine what kind of a situation it would be wherein a guy who never eats any green salads had actually bought one for $3 😀 . I used to call it ghaas-poos 🙂 when I was in India and now I am forced to eat it. Anyways I din’t like it and just had half of it. So, by evening I was so hungry that I left my office and went to my friend’s place. We went to McDonald’s and had a burger and fries.

And for dinner…..looking at my situation my friend took me to another indian restaurant swagat which was supposed to be a good one. Here we ordered an egg biryani. My friend told me that this restaurant was running for more than 17 years now and the person who came to take our order was working there for the last 17 years 😯 . This time the food was good….but not that great. Anyways I had very less time as I had a conf call and had to go back to hotel soon. So, did not go out anywhere after dinner.

Was feeling vey sleepy…so went to bed immediately after my call……

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Day 2 in US

This was my first day in office…..took a shuttle from the hotel to office. Met my manager….he showed me all around the office…..then got settled in my cubicle…..In the afternoon, went to the cafeteria for lunch with my manager and other team mates. This is where the real problem started 🙂 ……there were so many food options but not even one that suites my taste 🙁 ……there was pork, beef, tukey, chicken, salads n a whole lot of other stuff….ohhh I forogot to mention they even have burritos 😀 Atlast after going around all the counters twice I settled out for a chicken sandwich….and luckily in the deserts I found my all time favourite chocolate mousse 🙂

In the evening went out to meet another friend of mine…nandhini. We had dinner at an indian restaurant called Bombay Garden. Was happy to see some indian food….so I happily ordered a rogan josh……..but you know the burrito was much better 😀 …..the mutton pieces were like pieces of rubber…..except the gravy there was nothing to eat 🙁

So, for the first two days, the dinner I had was hopeless……this might be the first time that I had spent around 1200 rupess (ofcourse I should not actually convert the $ into rupees) for each meal and ate almost nothing 🙁

Lesson#2: Never order any mutton dishes

Also I had taken a new at&t connection in the evening….a prepaid connection for a month. It costed my $25. Also talked to some more friends of mine.

Forgot to mention….today I actually drove my friend’s car. That was the first time I drove in the US. Its definitely going to take some time before I can get used to driving here. Once I start thinking of the rules n lane changes, I tend to forget abt keeping to the right and vice-versa. Anyways its just going to be a matter of time before I would be comfortable driving here.

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My US Trip

Staring from today you will see a series of posts about my US trip. I will be in san jose for a month on official work. In this month’s time I am planning to visit as many places as possible. I will also be going to New Jersery on a weekend.

So, let me just start right from my journey to san jose. I started from bangalore on 10th march. Took singapore airlines flight…..bangalore —> Singapore —> Seoul —-> SFO. Only the last part of the journey from Seoul to SFO was a bit boring as it was a continuous 10 and half hours flight without a break. From SFO took a taxi to reach my hotel in san jose. I did not had any jet lag problems and after getting fresh went out along with my btech friend rahul. He had done his Masters in US and is right now working in Cisco. He showed me all the big companies here in silicon valley…..then we went to have dinner at a mexican restaurant “On the borders”. My friend has ordered a burrito for me…….I just had a few bites and left it 🙂 …..Lesson#1 : Never order a burrito again 🙂 Then went to starbucks n had a frappuccino n a cake. That was my dinner on first day 🙁

More to come in the next post….keep checking 😀