After 36 hours of transiting across multiple time zones, changing 4 aircrafts, asking for Asian Vegetarian meal in every flight (colleagues ate work told me horrible stories of raw, uncooked meat provided by airlines), not crapping 1 ounce of what I ate (I felt like a gas balloon we used to get in India Gate), peeing only if the bathroom was per my damn standard, standing in the US Immigration Clearance queue for 2 full obnoxious hours at Chicago and praying that our baggage does not get lost – Sheba, Hemanth and I landed at St. Paul Airport, Minneapolis, Minnesota. An orange-bluish sky welcomed us to the land dotted with 1000 lakes at 8:20pm.
A quick trip in a taxi to downtown, we reached our hotel – The Residence Inn Marriot at The Depot. The room was clean with a decent kitchenette and neat bathroom. However it was dark and carpeted with no sign of sunlight – I wouldn’t say that I was too excited. But I told myself to calm down, take a deep breathe and headed for a warm shower. I was so sleepy that I would have literally rolled back from the shower to my bed – but my infamous greed got the better of me - I ordered a portion of nachos with cheese and chicken. A typical BIG American helping came by and even though I raised my eyebrows at the quantity, I finished most of it, before sliding in to my bed.
I woke up to the phone ringing – it was Sheba and it was 9am in the morning. I helped myself to some eggs and pancakes – my breakfast for the next 14 days and headed out – the day was BEAUTIFUL – gorgeous sun, lovely blue skies, clean air, wide roads, tall buildings – my first day in the United States of America.
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