I'm not good with new places, it usually takes me ages to meet new people and make friends. The first few years at my school in Dubai were hellish, I grew aloof and withdrew into my own world, I didnt like a single person in my class...and I was just 10. Things got easier over the years, I did eventually make a few good friends, but school was never "fun" for me, it was something that I had to do, because Mom and Dad put me in this sodding place, and well..because kids go to school.
College at Xaviers was a whole new ball game, I loved the freedom,the libraries, the whole place....but I ended up making just two real friends in my 3 years there.While everyone in my batch made lasting friendships, I felt strangely detached from them all.I suppose I always keep my friends at arm's length, never got too close, I didnt like people knowing too much about me.Different friends see different sides of me, I dont think anyone really knows all of me yet. So, yes, I used to be alone a lot but I didnt mind that. I used to tell myself that I'm one of those people who just likes to be alone and then I'd wonder whether it wasnt just because I found myself alone so often, that I had no choice but to like it.
And then I went to Baroda for my Masters, I was never alone here, I had friends from all over...I think things changed because I no longer could go back "home" at the end of the day, I was stuck with these guys. I am very particular about personal space, here I didnt have any. So I dropped my gaurd, and I'm glad I did because I made some wonderful friends, people who I genuinely liked and didnt just tolerate.
So, the reason I'm bringing all this up now is that I'm back where I started, once again in a new place, brand new country and its a little scary...I wonder if things I do now will shape how the rest of my 5 yrs turn out here.Is there something I should be doing, actively going out and looking to meet new people or just do my own thing and let things fall into place. Should I be extra friendly or be my normal distant self? Is there a book which will tell me what to do? cuz I could sure use one ..lol
I do have someone here though, the intrepid Super Slime mold girl ( she'll probably kill me for this, but I cant help myself...besides, all the cool names have been taken already) She's making sure I know which brand of bread to get, which streets to avoid at night, about the giant mutant squirrels here, how krispy kreme donuts are heaven sent and how to get that wierd smell out of my apartment...now this is a true friend ladies and gentlemen!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The Journey
I want to document my entire journey from Mumbai to Buffalo, New york in precise detail so everyone who reads this, knows exactly what not to do when moving to a different country for the next 4-5 years of your life
but first a few words of advice.
1. finish packing atleast 2-3 days before you leave and NOT 5 minutes before you leave for the airport.
2. Dont travel immediately after an attempted terrorist attack, those security checks can be a real bitch and everybody is paranoid that your harmless yellow folder will double up as an AK 47 or something.
3. Actually dont travel on a 22 hr journey at all...just stay at home, its so much easier.
ok, now on to the juicy details
1. I over packed, I had 3 large suitcases, but really what do you not carry when you are shifting your whole life to another country for the next 5 years. Everything seemed like it would come in handy some day, surely I would need that pretty blue completely impractical strappy top, perhaps I will have cool friends and they'll invite me to fancy parties, where people dress like strippers.
2.Mumbai airport was hell, the lines for security checks were never ending, and they just randomly picked me from the crowd and asked me to open one of my suitcases up , and then the guy half heartedly glances at its contents and lets me go...I mean, if I was really hiding explosives, he would never have found them out like that.
3.after my bags went through the x ray machine, I couldnt stack them all on top of the other, I have absolutely no upper body strength..I have actually no strength at all. Anyway, all this meant that i had to use 2 trolleys which is hard to do and much drama ensued.
4.the only good thing to happen to me on this journey was that I didnt have to pay for any of my excess baggage, they let it go...I think the whole dragging 2 trolleys and general look of frustration earned me the sympathy vote.
5.On the british midlands flight from Mumbai to London, I sat next to this old Gujarati lady for 10 straight hours. She spoke not a word of english or hindi and i made the mistake of saying a few words in my broken gujrati, and from then onwards i was her new best friend. She went on and on and I didnt understand a thing. I was the official translater for her, because the very british air hostesess didnt know what she was saying...then again neither did I, so I just made up stuff.
6. Because of all the delays, we reached Heathrow pretty late, with only an hour and half until my connecting flight to Washington. Which is not enough when they insist on almost strip searching everyone arriving at the airport.
They also confiscated a book gifted to me by the very cool Ubergeek, broke my heart to see it tossed into the trash.
7. I did make it to my United flight after running frantically through all of heathrow.I didnt even get to check out the snooty duty free shops.
8. My 7 hour flight to washington dulles airport was again long and tiring. And this time i had the misfortune of sitting next to 2 bratty 10 yr old british boys...see why cant I get the hot blonde guy sitting five rows behind me?
9. by the time we landed at Dulles, we were late again and well i got lost...again had a problem loading my luggage on to the trolley, but was helped by a nice Indian boy who had to catch his plane in the next 30 mins, but still stopped to help.
Anyway, i think i spent half an hour wandering the whole airport and asking random people where the bleeding United Airlines counters were. Finally found it, checked in my bags. This was the last time i saw my bags that day.
10. The plane ride from washington to buffalo was actually quite cool, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if i hadnt been almost dehydrated with my distraught running at Dulles airport. It was this small 50 seater plane which flew pretty low and this was actually the first time i was taking a good look at the place, instead of just trying to get from one terminal to the other all the time.
11. We reached Buffalo, half an hour early, this was great, what was not great was that none of my bags arrived with me.they were gone, vanished...strangely I did not panic, i was calm, the kind of calm that comes over you after you realise that things have gone so horribly long, you really dont give a rats ass anymore if they get worse.
12. these 2 Indian grad students came to pick me up at the airport and they helped me out with the baggage claim n all that jazz and then proceeded to drop me off at my friend's place where I slept until the reality of losing all my luggage hit me and then i woke up and proceeded to frantically call the helpline. I mean i didnt have a tooth brush, no clean underwear...nothing, just my passport, visa and a pen...fat lot of good that would do me.
I did eventually get my luggage back, and all is well now.
In my next post, I will give my detailed critique of buffalo, the university and the crazy people here...u know you cant wait
but first a few words of advice.
1. finish packing atleast 2-3 days before you leave and NOT 5 minutes before you leave for the airport.
2. Dont travel immediately after an attempted terrorist attack, those security checks can be a real bitch and everybody is paranoid that your harmless yellow folder will double up as an AK 47 or something.
3. Actually dont travel on a 22 hr journey at all...just stay at home, its so much easier.
ok, now on to the juicy details
1. I over packed, I had 3 large suitcases, but really what do you not carry when you are shifting your whole life to another country for the next 5 years. Everything seemed like it would come in handy some day, surely I would need that pretty blue completely impractical strappy top, perhaps I will have cool friends and they'll invite me to fancy parties, where people dress like strippers.
2.Mumbai airport was hell, the lines for security checks were never ending, and they just randomly picked me from the crowd and asked me to open one of my suitcases up , and then the guy half heartedly glances at its contents and lets me go...I mean, if I was really hiding explosives, he would never have found them out like that.
3.after my bags went through the x ray machine, I couldnt stack them all on top of the other, I have absolutely no upper body strength..I have actually no strength at all. Anyway, all this meant that i had to use 2 trolleys which is hard to do and much drama ensued.
4.the only good thing to happen to me on this journey was that I didnt have to pay for any of my excess baggage, they let it go...I think the whole dragging 2 trolleys and general look of frustration earned me the sympathy vote.
5.On the british midlands flight from Mumbai to London, I sat next to this old Gujarati lady for 10 straight hours. She spoke not a word of english or hindi and i made the mistake of saying a few words in my broken gujrati, and from then onwards i was her new best friend. She went on and on and I didnt understand a thing. I was the official translater for her, because the very british air hostesess didnt know what she was saying...then again neither did I, so I just made up stuff.
6. Because of all the delays, we reached Heathrow pretty late, with only an hour and half until my connecting flight to Washington. Which is not enough when they insist on almost strip searching everyone arriving at the airport.
They also confiscated a book gifted to me by the very cool Ubergeek, broke my heart to see it tossed into the trash.
7. I did make it to my United flight after running frantically through all of heathrow.I didnt even get to check out the snooty duty free shops.
8. My 7 hour flight to washington dulles airport was again long and tiring. And this time i had the misfortune of sitting next to 2 bratty 10 yr old british boys...see why cant I get the hot blonde guy sitting five rows behind me?
9. by the time we landed at Dulles, we were late again and well i got lost...again had a problem loading my luggage on to the trolley, but was helped by a nice Indian boy who had to catch his plane in the next 30 mins, but still stopped to help.
Anyway, i think i spent half an hour wandering the whole airport and asking random people where the bleeding United Airlines counters were. Finally found it, checked in my bags. This was the last time i saw my bags that day.
10. The plane ride from washington to buffalo was actually quite cool, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if i hadnt been almost dehydrated with my distraught running at Dulles airport. It was this small 50 seater plane which flew pretty low and this was actually the first time i was taking a good look at the place, instead of just trying to get from one terminal to the other all the time.
11. We reached Buffalo, half an hour early, this was great, what was not great was that none of my bags arrived with me.they were gone, vanished...strangely I did not panic, i was calm, the kind of calm that comes over you after you realise that things have gone so horribly long, you really dont give a rats ass anymore if they get worse.
12. these 2 Indian grad students came to pick me up at the airport and they helped me out with the baggage claim n all that jazz and then proceeded to drop me off at my friend's place where I slept until the reality of losing all my luggage hit me and then i woke up and proceeded to frantically call the helpline. I mean i didnt have a tooth brush, no clean underwear...nothing, just my passport, visa and a pen...fat lot of good that would do me.
I did eventually get my luggage back, and all is well now.
In my next post, I will give my detailed critique of buffalo, the university and the crazy people here...u know you cant wait
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