The Country/City I would like to Visit

Its been quite a lot of gap (3 months) since I updated my blog. But here I'm back with the biggest one... Ooops!!! I forgot to mention that its 2nd anniversary for my blog. I started it on 5th June 2006 [Check out the first one] and here I complete 2 years and so new layout (matching the situation) and the biggest article of mine.

Year 1993, about 15 years back I was in the 8th standard. I was an average student and not so good at English (I can hear the background voices saying "As if good now..." Believe me I have improved a lot now). My favorite teacher was Sathy Achen who taught us English and as well as was the class teacher at that time. I liked her not just because of the subject but because of her nature. She was one of the best teacher I have seen in my life, not so strict, makes the class interesting, teaches very calm and patiently. She once gave us an assignment (used to call it as homework those days ;) and it was to write an essay on the topic "The Country or City I would like to Visit". Neither was I good in English nor had the creativity to write something on a given topic. More over I wasn't good at General knowledge, I mean I dint know many country names and where they were on the map (Of course we had geography and all the maps - locations but trust me it was very difficult to memorize them and remember them till the exam itself). I dint know what to write and how to write. Luckily Dad had some essay book (which I believe he would have never used it much) and asked me to use it. As I browsed the pages, I was surprised to see an article exactly on the same topic. Hurray!!! I was telling to myself and started copying from it. But as it was big, I skipped few lines here and there. Submitted the assignment next day and Mam returned the home work book after couple of days. I dint even look at it in the class but when I went home and as I vaguely turned the pages I could see something more than the tick mark. She had marked a V.Good and I was surprised, happy and amazed. Usually the top 3 or 4 rankers only get that and as I got that one, I felt a bit great. Guess what, after that only I started reading what I wrote :) It was about United States of America and more about the New York City - one of the busiest place in the world. I wont say that the essay was extraordinary but it was in simple english without any grammatical mistakes and to the point why I wanted to visit that place [Wanted to see how the people are in New york, what is their culture, what do they eat and how do they live ...] After all this is what is expected and not so easy for a 8th grade student. [Mam - If you get to read this... please forgive me for using a reference book but still I think this had encouraged me]

At that time I would have never even thought that I would travel to US. But the fact is, Yes Im in US right now (for those who dint know it, please consider this as an information). And Guess what, My office is in New York and I'm staying in New Jersey. I never had a dream to come to Newyork or any part of US. But ofcourse I wanted to travel in a Flight and wanted to visit foreign countries. I have travelled to few other countries before UAE, Ireland, Singapore, Hongkong, Thailand & Indonesia . I have also come to New york couple of times but all were short trips for a week or 2. This time its different, Im with Uma and this trip is for a year or 2. Its already a month now and I have been planning to write a blog about the udpates. I was thinking of a different start from the usual ones and the result is the one you are reading now ...

Here is the update starting from travel, stay, searching of house, getting stuffs for house, about the place, food, weather, people

From Chennai to New York

Let me start from the travel from Chennai. As usual did many things in the last minute for the travel. This time as uma was there she did most of the things, right from purchasing, packing and arranging. Major concern was the weight of the luggage. Each is one allowed to carry 2 checkin luggage each one not exceeding 23kgs plus 1 hand luggage. We had 5 checkin baggages, 2 hand luggages and still more stuffs. My manager and my collegue was also travelling together and so planned to give 1 baggage to manager and few stufs to my collegue. After doing all this we had to remove lot of things and rearrange everything to make sure the weight doesnt exceed 23kgs. I was very much concern about this as I already had an experience of excess baggage and removing things right in the airport when I had very less time to checkin. I was hoping that there was no issues. Reached the airport much ahead of time. Bid good-bye to all friends and family, went inside the airport and first level of security was the baggage screening. I never expected any problems there but to my surprise the security people found some thing in scanning and asked whose bag was that. I had to open the luggage for them and they searched for something. They asked me if I had something like Camphor or ***Sambrani***. Took the camphor out, they screened that seperately but said it is something else that was shown on the screening. Then they asked if I had similar bag and I had to open up the other bag. And that one had the sambrani which they removed. By the time I came out of the screening, I was sweating a lot and was telling to myself Aaramabame Ippothan!!! - This was adventure 1.

We had booked through Continental Airlines, Chennai-Mumbai & Mumbai-Newark. At the Checkin counter we asked for a through checkin to newark so that we need not take the baggage out and check it again in Mumbai. The guy at the counter did it in few mins for my manager but took a long time for me. He was saying that there was some issue in giving sequence tickets for me and uma. Then after few mins he said that his friend in next counter will help me. That guy took another 10 mins and my collegue (Sankar who had just come in) finished the checkin process. Finally he completed it but said that I had to get the boarding pass for Mumbai to Newark in Mumbai only but it is through checkin while my manager and collegue got both the boarding passes. This was adventure 2.

Then the security was all cleared. The moment we boarded the chennai-mumbai flight Uma was all in tears and was saying lets go back. She was also afraid about flight travel as this was the first time. As the flight took off she was all the more scared and was saying that her ears were paining a lot. Once the flight reached a reasonable height and the seat belt sign was off she was feeling better. Flight reached mumbai, we came out of the immigration, took the shuttle bus to the international airport and was about to join the security for mumbai-newark. All the way Uma was saying lets take the next flight to chennai. Just then we saw all our luggages kept outside which was suppose to be through check in. The Contentinal airlines security person was asking our L1 docs and we dint carry them thinking that L1 visa stamping in passport would be enough. But he said that they might send us back if we dont show the L1 docs and may charge fine to the airlines as well. Then they asked if we have some kind of invite letter from the client or us office. Sankar atleast had the appointment letter but I dint carry that as well. Manger contacted our mumbai office and luckily other manager was in mumbai. Our office was also near the airport and so asked him to get our L1 docs. But as we dint have much time we had to cancel the flight and were planning to take the next day flight. At this time I looked at uma as if things were happening her way :) We checked for other availabilities and there was a Air India flight at 1 in the mid night (two hours later) to JFK, New york. We tried for tickets and got them. Meanwhile asked the other manager to bring our docs, who had then left back home. This was adventure 3. Finally we boarded the Air-India flight from Mumbai to JFK. Normally I dont sleep much in the flight and used to watch 4-5 movies. Unusally this time slept a lot and just watched 2 movies but again not a good sleep, as the neck pained a lot.

Updates from US

Flight reached New York on Saturday after 16 hours of continous travel. We cleared all the immigration and no where they asked the docs. The moment we came out, uma was shivering. It would have been around 8 degrees and it was cold for me as well. I had atleast faced it earlier but for uma it was new. She used to shiver for the chennai weather itself, so just imagine. Took the taxi from JFK airport to Howard Johnson hotel in Newark. We stayed there for 2-3 days and shifted to another hotel Econo Lodge in Jersey City as it took long time to travel to office.

There was another adventure while shifting the hotel. When we shifted from Howard Johnson to Econo Lodge we asked the hotel for a cab. We were ready with all of our luggages in the lobby. As it was taking some time for the cab, I removed my laptop bag and kept it near the chair where my manager and collegue was sitting. I then took a walk outside to have a look outside. After few mins the cab came, it was van like vehicle. We loaded all the luggages and got in the van. This guy had GPS but inspite of that was taking some wrong directions and so had to roam a lot. And when we were near the hotel he exactly missed it and so he took a long u turn, trying to reach the back side of the hotel. He missed that as well, went again in the same road but finally made it to the hotel. We were unloading the luggages and then this guy asked $140. We were shocked because we had paid only $125 from the airport to previous hotel which was very far and more over the taxi to office was $80. We argued a lot with him but he was saying that it was companies rule (companikku katupidiyagatham). We got fed up and decided to give him the money but he dint have a receipt. My manager said that he wont pay unless he gets the receipt. Just then i realised that my laptop bag was missing which had the laptop, my passport and the currencies. I immediately tried to call the hotel Howard Johnson from Econo Lodge but the guy (indian) at the reception said he cant make calls unless I book the room. To book it I needed the passport which was in the bag. I was worried because my passport itself was in the bag. Explained him the situation and made a call to the hotel. They said there is no bag like that and i was tensed, shocked and upset. Then Sankar asked me to cool down and made a call again. Thank god it was there only. Meanwhile the van driver said he will pick the bag as he was anyways going back to get the receipt book. But we couldnt trust him and said we will take care of the bag. All the three of us went (sankar, my manager and I) took another taxi to the hotel. Good that Uma was in my brothers place otherwise she would have also got tensed. By the time we went there the Van driver had already taken the bag which shocked us all the more. We came back by the same taxi paying him $80. Thank God this driver had left the bag and the receipt. I had to take the same taxi ($25) to my brothers place to bring Uma to the hotel. This was adventure 4 - the biggest of all.

For 2 weeks we roamed almost all the streets of Jersey City looking for the apartment. Normally we used to search the craigslist, fix an appointment and visit the house to have a look. But on the way used to see the "For Rent" board and contact them. Thats how we found the apartment that we are staying now. It is pretty descent one, with a rent of $1100 + utilitites (that includes Heat, Electricity and Gas depending on our usage). It was 5 streets away from my brother's place and it was because of him that we easily found the place. Sanki's house was also 2 blocks away but had to cross couple of avenues. US is mosly with streets and avenues (that cross the streets perpendicularly). It was because of Sanki that I got many things quickly as he used to do a lot of research. In 3 weeks we got a lot of things done. Applied for SSN (Social Security Number) something similar to our PAN, Opened a Bank Account, Got a mobile connection, Found an apartment, Got basic things for house like Bed, TV, Sofa.

Travel to Office was already familiar to me as I have been here couple of times and have travelled from Anna's house to office in New York. Its a 2 mins walk from house to the Bus stop. There is this small bus shuttle, kind of van that keeps going from New Jersey to New York. The ticket rate is $2 and there would be lot of buses coming every 2 mins. It takes about 30-40 mins to reach Port of Authority in New york. This bus takes us through the Lincoln tunnel that goes under the Hudson River. From Port of Authority, we have to take the subway train. There are 2 levels of subways where these Metro trains run. The ticket again is $2, we got to get a Metro Card for any amount and keep charging it in the machine as and when in reduces.Just 2 stops and there is pfizer's office in 42nd Street, just opposite to the beautiful, skyscrapping Chrysler Building.

Adventure 5 : There is an interesting event that happened to me with the Metro Train. During the initial days when we (My PM, Collegue & myself) returning to the office, we took the subway to take the train. As we were going down the stairs I could see the Train and so I climbed down faster and entered the train. Its all automated doors and sometimes it will open for a 2nd time. I was thinking KK & Sanki would make it as well but by the time they came the doors got closed. I was feeling bad that they missed and was showing signals to Sanki. As the train moved Sanki was showing me the hand on the opposite direction and only then I realised I have taken the wrong train (that goes in the opposite direction). I hit my forehead with the hand, saying to myself Enna Kodumai Saravana!!! The adventure doesnt end here. It took a longer time to reach the station and as it reached I came out just to see that there is parallel platform to take the opp train just like we had it near our office. I had to go out of the subway to the main road, cross it and take the opp subway to come to the stop. I only 3$ in hand was wondering how am I going manage train and Bus (I needed $4, 2 for train and 2 for the bus. Was hoping Sanki and KK were waitig for me in the bus stop). I was doubtful If i taken the opposite subway or is it the same side one. Thinking about the same I took the wrong ticket (took some single ride ticket instead of Metro Card). I swiped the card couple of times and it dint work. Now all I have is $1 and dint know what to do. Then I searched my bag for coins and managed to get some. Used them and got a ticket finally. Then took the train to port of authority and luckily they were waiting for me :)

NewYork and NewJersey are quite opposite in terms of place & people. NewYork (esp Manhatten) is fully with skyscrapping tall buildings, while Jersey has small small houses so its like Vertical vs Horizontal. Newyork is one of the busiest place and you can see a hell lot of crowd walking in all directions especially when you get out of the train in the subway. Where as New Jersey is very very quiet, calm, hardly people come out. If you look at the picture you can see both sides cars parked but all houses closed and it looks as if bandh :) As far as food is concerned I have no issues as Uma cooks south indian dish all the 3 times a day. We get all groceries here, but have to take the Mini Bus to Journal Square where there is a street full of Indian restaurants & shops. There is another walkable place which leads to Central Avenue, where there are lot of shops but not much of Indian. We can get the vegetables, other house-old items etc. People are very disciplined and they greet you even if they dont know you. Coming to the weather, it was pretty cold when we landed like i have said earlier. After 2 weeks it suddenly got very hot touching 98'F thats about 32'C. Now its come to normal in 80's. (I'm slowly getting used to the US terms like Farenheit instead of celcius, Pounds instead of Kilograms, Miles instead of Kilometers etc). One good thing is the prediction of weather is accurate here and so you can plan your day well.

Have gone to few of the places like - Newport Mall- Bridge Water Temple

• Manhatten => Grand Central Terminal, Chrysler Building
• Bryant's Park
• Empire State Building
• Times Square
• Wax Museum
• Ferri to the Staten Island
• Ganesha Temple

I will update the details about the places along with the pictures in the next blog.