Tuesday, October 30, 2007

first taste of independence!! - the series

I have no words to describe how my last 4 days have been... even now as i sit down to put in my experiences i dont know how to begin. If i were to begin with what i am feeling right now... I would say i am hungry, extremely sad and frustrated and helpless! Just now faced a girl-fight over who should cook, who shouldnt... how typical :(
THE TRAVEL
To begin at the beginning, I set out from the Bombay airport on 27th Oct at 0235 hours and as i waved to Ma and Baba, I was so sad and yet excited about the new journey I am embarking upon! As i settled into my seat in the crowded economy class, I was thrilled to see a BA plane taxing away :) Life is never a bed of roses and my journey certainly wasnt... the first leg was made memorable by the extremely fat gentleman sitting beside me and the extreme cold inside the plane! That night felt interminable... but day did dawn and i had the first taste of American breakfast which certainly was not fun! Nyways i spent the day drifting in and out of sleep and didnt really get bored and soon it was time to get off and board the next flight (11:30 am IST but 7:30 am in Frankfurt)

The airport at Frankfurt certainly left a lot to be desired... It was neither too big nor too fancy and thankkfully I didnt have to spend too much time at the airport. Got over with the security check and was waited in the lobby, chatting up another Indian traveling to Phoenix before boarding flight LH430 to Chicago...

The O'Hare airport is lovely and huuuuuuge... it has its own rail system to travel from one terminal to another!! Though i wish there was a easier way to get the baggage of the carousal... whew! that was really tough... almost got dragged away by the bag as i clutched it, trying to get it off the carousal... thankfully was able to haul off both pieces of baggage the next time! and quickly walked off for the emmigration check as the flight was already an hour late leaving me with around 2 hours only... But the emmigration check was not too difficult but the security check was... the guards threw out my Nike deo because it was too big for the cabin luggage but I was able to salvage my face wash from disappearing into oblivion!

The flight was again delayed at Chicago because.... a truck had banged into the plane!! Wow, what next? Finally the flight did take off and I looked down over Chicago for the first time and as I looked down the thought whether this was the best decision crossed my mind but I quickly put it out of my head and got out my novel! Next watched the Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix movie and when even then the flight didn't seem to get over, I started getting bored and impatient. After traveling half way across the world I really couldn't wait for the journey of a thousand miles to end!

Finally the journey did end and I walked out straight towards the baggage claim area only to see Dada already waiting there for me... that brought a smile on my tired face :) We then collected the baggage or rather Dada collected the baggage while I chatted to Ma and Baba telling them about my allergy, my blocked ears and my cold :D

Dada rented a Hertz car and we reached the Holiday Inn hotel at around 9:30 after getting lost a couple of times and as I wasn't hungry at all, we decided to call it a day. As I tucked in for the night I wondered momentarily that was I really in America? Was the journey finally over or is another announcement over the PA going to wake me from my dream?

No comments: