My first visit to USA

USA….United States of America. Yes I am here. I never had a dream to come out of India. Actually I never thought that long. Being an average student in school and college I never think of a day like this. However the most important thing is I am here.
The journey started from Pune itself. From Pune I went to Mumbai Airport and then I took the Continental Express flight CO49. Once I entered into Mumbai International Airport, I was in a mixed feeling. A bit tensed, a bit scared, a bit happy, a bit sorrow, a bit excited too. Before taking the boarding pass, one guy from CO airlines asked me some general questions like who packed my bags, am I aware of all the things packed in the bag or not etc. After that my luggage got scanned and I was told that my bag is overweighed. I had to come out of the queue and had to shuffle certain things from one bag to another. But that was not sufficient. I had to do it again. Finally my luggage got checked in and I headed towards the emigration area. Emigration…. Huh!! Some more stupid questionnaires. They put stamp on my passport. Once done I went for security check in. Then once I reach the gate from where I boarded the flight, had one more round of security checking. This time they even asked me to put my shoes also in the scanner. Anyways after all these things finally I boarded the flight to Newark. It took off after almost an hour delay due to the maintenance work going on in the Mumbai Airport. Once I get into the flight, I found it’s so different than domestic flights. Here they have three columns of seats of three instead of two. One monitor is also attached at the back of every seat. Once I explored that, I found they have stored movies of different genitures, games, popular tv shows. And if you don’t like either of them then you can see the flight map. Flight map is nothing but a set of information about the flight. The altitude it is flying. Outside temperature, the miles travelled, the miles to travel, time to reach the destination, time in the destination and time in the original departing city, ground speed etc. the most important thing it has shown is the graphical rather satellite view of the entire view of the path the flight is following.
In the flight they served food three times with drinks as well. The food was entirely fitting US food habit, but I managed. Because either I don’t like any rich food.
Before the landing they provided two forms. One for customs and one for emigration. Once the flight landed I headed towards the emigration. They asked me some questions about my profile here, took finger print, took retina image and finally stamped my passport that I am arrived here.
After that I collected my luggage and for that I had to borrow a trolley for $5. This was not checking those out but just the verification of my luggage. After identification I went to customs and don’t know why they asked me to step away and go through one more round of checking of luggage. This time manual checking. After all the processes I re submitted luggage I had to go to Terminal A from Terminal C. Terminal A is domestic one. I had to take the flight to Minneapolis. To go to terminal A I had to take the Air train. Now what is this air train?? This is nothing but a small train made of glass and runs between the terminals. Once the train got out of the terminal I had my first view of USA. It was raining, just a drizzle. Most interestingly it doesn’t appear to be as a foreign land. I don’t know why the looks of the airport and surroundings were very similar to Mumbai and Kolkata.
After reaching terminal A I headed to Gate 20A security check in. the format of the checking is same. One interesting thing happened there is with my t shirt. I didn’t ever notice what exactly was written in it but the security person asked me the same and gave me a strange look. I was bit scared by that time. I thought might be something is written wrong about their country or culture. Then he asked me if I am a musician or not. I said yes I play table and described what the Tabla is. He just smiled.
After all these things it was a long 3 hours of waiting for next flight CO 2370. This flight is a small one. 30 seater only. I never boarded small flight like this. Anyway it took another two and half hour to reach Minneapolis airport. I came downstairs and collected my luggage and started looking for Ashok, my onsite PM who said that he will be coming to receive me from airport. I gave him a call and he said he will be there in next 15 min. I waited for him outside the airport and he took me to the apartment where I am going to stay for next 15-20 days.
Now how is St. Paul city. Well it’s a small town here and not exactly what we think about USA which is shown in movies. It’s calm and quiet. On a first glance I was disappointed but overall it’s a good experience. Let’s see what all are waiting for me.