My first vacation at Uncle sam's

Its been a while since I made sense in this viscious space of mine. It all started when my boss announced that she was gonna be out of station almost the whole of august and requested us to match our holidays around august. I wasn't really thinking abt taking some time off as I vouched myself that I will go to India only after the succesful completion of my Ph.D comprehensive exam. I knew my best friends were getting married in late june and early july. Just a thought arose in my mind why not lemme plan a trip to U.S. to meet them. And it all started there.............


Thanks to Haran for pushing me to plan things early. I only expected things to go the way I planned. Am sure its not such a huge expectation. Gotto know that Yamini is arnd in Newyork as an intern in IBM. I was planning to visit Usha nd her huubby since long time. I planned things well in advance. I got some good deals missed a few but hit the major ones.

And here I am waking up at 4 on the morning of 29th July, with cool and a chilly breeze all arnd found myself on a easy conversation with a 30 yr old lady, driver of my cab to Charles terminal, Kitchener. I never knew I was so good in making a healthy conversation with a stranger. Reached toronto early 7 ish. Wandering a while all around the University avenue and Front st, Toronto for a good one hour, looking for the NEON board, I finally spotted the neon bus arnd 8:30. It was quite a long drive to Newyork from toronto that costed me 10 hours of sleepless day time. nevertheless with 3 movies, free wireless internet and power cord for your laptop, I cudnt ask for more. Yamini picked me up and dropped me at the bus stop to board peter pan to Hartford. With Kungfu panda in the bus another 3 hours passed. Usha and Raja picked me up from there. After a really long day in the bus, I finally dozed into a long nap at Usha's place.

Amherst, Masachasseuts, its a university town, loads of greeny stuff all arnd, a quiet graduate housing, newly married ph.D couples doing their own research work and leading a life full of carnatic music. I cudnt ask for more. Took a shower in Raja's melodious flute everyday in the morning and lovely home food prepared by usha. Loads of talking. Evening walk arnd Quabbin reservoir, unlimited bowling, Boston Harbour, MIT, Get Smart movie. Thanks to Usha, the new driver and Raja for providing me such a good time. http://picasaweb.google.ca/k.dhanaraja/Masachasseuts


Saturday morning, I got all set to leave to Newyork. expecting a bus for my 15$ ticket to commute from Hartford to Newyork, ended up in a small CAB. cudnt complain beyond that. Yamini picked me up. dropped my luggage at a frnd's place and went to a pakistani place for a quick lunch. Her order wasn't upto the mark, nevertheless compensated with saravana bhawan at the 29th street, Newjersey. Got down first at the remains of WTC crash site, a quick tour arnd the church converted to a museum, followed by an actual Museum that lasted for atleast 3 hours. After a satisfactory dinner at Saravana's stepped into the Empire state building. It was close to 12 in the night and the crowd looked like the one warming up for a dharshan of Mr.Venki at tirupathi. Had a glimpse of the outrageous night life of Newyork. Got back for a short nap at 3 in the late night and got up at 8 to make my way to meet the glorious liberty madam. Again a long line lasting an hour. Took some really nice pics of the manhttan skyline and the lady liberty. I am not sure if the americans feel proud of being an american or not but sure it gives such a sensation to the visitors when they look upon the US flag flying soaring high at all tourist hotspots. After a quick sandwich at sub, and a disgusting snap near THE BULL, continued our walk into the Wall street. I got sick of walking all the way across till I saw the Brooklyn bridge. I appreicate yamini's efforts in planning it all out really well. But humans have their own limits with respect to walking mine is a lot lesser than an average human being. Had dinner with yamini's brother after watching a regretfully stupid musical movie, Mamma mia. Wandering around Times square marked the end of the day. http://picasaweb.google.ca/k.dhanaraja/Newyork_nagaram




All said and done,I started my next 5 hour bus trip to Washington D.C. Kyle XY was there to entertain me all the way. With not such a high expectation of looking around places but to spend quality time with Kaka and kola, having missed their marriage in Chennai got thrilled and very happy to see them together back in the capital. With the time they took to reach D.C from Virginia, I had a quick walk to the so-called White house in the Federal triangle. The life in D.C was so different compared to Newyork. I soon realised every city had its own flavour. Kaka and kola moved into this brand new appartment which is atleast half an hour away from Vienna filled with all luxurious things one can ask for. Bitter truth is they are yet to find the path that leads to the swimming pool in their own appartment. Sleeping till noon, Major lachcha session, gossips of BITS, motivated kola to watch KYLE were the only few things that I did at their house. Went to D.C, temple, and a private screening of Mummy 3 with the couple. Ramnath was at work the whole day and wud take us out in the evening. Had the glimpse of calm and composed lifestyle of Ramnath, the after-effect of a terribly poor american style social life. Ever bubbling kola with all liveliness made me wonder at the reality of life. On thursday I had my first horrible bus journey of waiting in the traffic away from my own home country. Hurrying to the airport in a taxi with a Bangaldeshi driver, I came to know the reality of moving families across borders. I waited for almost couple of hours inside the flight just to take off from the Kennedy airport to fly to Minneapolis. http://picasaweb.google.ca/k.dhanaraja/WashingtonDC





Reached MN at st.pauls close to 1 late in the night. I was so thrilled to see Deepak haran after 3 years. I felt like thrashing him when he told me that he was watchin me from a distance for 15 minutes soon after I got to the exit of the airport waiting for my baggage. I woke up almost middle of my sleep when I heard the calm and silent voice utterring "KD....KD, shall I make some coffee". Middle of the day, after speaking to Deepak's dad and mom, and my mom, started to look around the twin cities downtown, University of minnesota and proceeded for lunch with Ramji. Arnd 5 ish myself and deepak started the 350-mile drive across Wisconsin to the northern most tip of the Door county. After the 7 hour journey, we reached sister bay and checked into the hotel room that was booked. The next day morning after a heavy breakfast, we set on a ferri that also carries cars to the Washington Island. Its a small island that has a number of tourist spots in and around. after walking up a mile, we rented couple of bikes and travelled all around the island with it. First stop was a 1 hour halt at mini golf. I should mention Don't ever play Deepak in miniGolf. He gets too clever in cheating. Then we proceeded to a ostritch farm followed by a long drive to the Mountain tower view point followed by the beach. Where in the world wud they charge you 500 $ for moving a pebble in a beach ? We walked all the way back just in time to catch the last ferry back. Had pizza in the night followed by a drive-in theatre to watch "The Dark knight". That was my first experience in a drive-in theatre. It was quite windy in the evening, so we were pondering abt keeping our windows open to hear the sound track. I was quite amused to know that they had tuned and stream-lined the audio to FM 101 and the theatre effect was amusing to sit inside the car with heaters on providing good warmth and also hearing the audio thru FM with video right before your eyes projected onto a giant screen. The next day we started our way back with stopovers at Fish creek, Egg harbour and Peninsula park ( all these are places where u get an amazing view of the beach/shore and an island). We reached back Minneapolis the same day evening arnd 10 ish. except for a brief half an hour nap, we spent the whole time talking the whole day about everything that happened in life in the last 3 yrs for me and for him. I really enjoyed that part of this trip.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/k.dhanaraja/MinneapolisWisconsin




The last part of the trip went completeley away from what I had planned. It was a disaster/terribly hard but a new learnin experience. I had to fly from Minneaplis to Newyork with a brief stopover at Atlanta (which is in no-man's land) for 3 hours. It all started when I figured out that the airTran flight I was supposed to board at Atlanta was late by 4 hours. I had an allowance of 4 hours at NY to board the bus back to Toronto. I was thinking of a deadly, neck crunching finish if I make it to the bus. It was disastrous feeling when I came to know that the delayed flight was actually cancelled becos of traffic congestion in NY. I felt annoyed and being grounded in no-man's land with the feeling of being lost in an unknown place. I panicked. The hard grip slowly started releiveing me seeing the people around suffering the same way I was. I reached NY at 9:15 p.m when my bus to Toronto had already taken off at 8:45. To add oil to the wicker, I found my luggage missing. I was asked to give a written letter indicating the address and phone number to contact if at all they get my luggage back. I was feeling so annoyed as I didnt know how to tell them I am an international student living in Canada and not in Newyork. A little ray of hope arose when the lady at the counter told me the next flight was arriving in 15 minutes. I waited patiently for an hour.I experienced what it means to walk on cloud nine, when I saw my black american tourister turned upside down rolling happily on the conveyor belt. After a quick trip in M70/subway, I reached the Grand central to look for the timing of the last bus to Toronto. After seeing 3 closed counters finally managed to see one open and boarded the last bus for the day at 11:45 P.M. And finally, with some unknown acquaintance experience at the bus, I felt like home sweet home when I set foot on Toronto coach terminal after 12 hours. I reached Waterloo at 3 P.M to mark the end of my first vacation to the United States of America.