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07/07/08

Amreeka Discovered Again...

  • The land of the Eagle....
  • The land of shorts with formal full sleeves shirts...
  • The land of polo neck t-shirts with formal shorts and shoes...
  • The land of sports shoes...
  • The land of large man and women...
  • The land of loooooong cars, huge SUVs ( now I really know why they are called trucks) and larger than life trucks ( what are they called here?)
  • The land where being on the road feels like being in the mirror...
  • The land where the flag can be worn anywhere in any form...
Flags at the O'Hare Airport, Chicago ( seen in the background is our Tiranga too)

  • The land where flights and flight attendants and amazingly casual about things...
  • The land where there can be a thin line between being rude and being to the point...

Welcome to the land of Amreeka !!!


The flight was long by any standards... took a total of 15 hours from take off to landing... pathetic collection of movies, and not even average food with ultra casual attendants most of them over 40 yrs of age... so was American Airlines !!!

anyway... when I reached the Chicago O'Hare Airport I could not get any information about my connecting flight except that I should go to terminal 3. I did, checked in again and realised that non of the display boards had my flight number out of the about 60 flights they were displaying... Felt a li'il strange and manage to find an agent ( here the people who are associated with the flight, but are not Crew members are called agents) and after a couple of understanding and misunderstandings I was told that the flight was cancelled and I was moved to the next available flight... It added about 2.5 hours of waiting at Chicago with nothing much to do... If it was not for a few lovely words and I had read and heard when I left Delhi, I did not have anything much to think about either!

Anyway, I reached alright... hungry, tired and with a backache :) as expected from the long flight !!!

The balcony at my Inn...

I had talked to a guy here a couple of days back and he was kind enough to come over and take me to a super market to get some bread etc and then show me around a few restaurants and my office which thankfully is just about 5-6 minutes away...

I am happy that subway tastes the same in India and London and now Minneapolis too... Just stuffed myself with a footlong and two laaarge glasses of Nestle Iced Tea...

Back at the hotel room now and trying to pass sometime so that I sleep only when its evening here... That would help me wake up properly tomorrow morning! Maybe !!!!


Lamps in my Inn Room...

I will crash now, Just can't keep my eyes open anymore...

29 comments:

  1. :) Hope amreeka treats you well
    god bless

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  2. So far, so good then! I can understand your disappointment with the casual, 40+(how did you know?) attendants :-P

    The larger than life trucks are called "Monster Trucks".

    Enjoy!

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  3. I love the lamp pictures!! And hope you have lotsa fun and click even more pictures to show us all.. :) Take care!! :D

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  4. So far.. so good...

    mixed feeling after reading this post... but u take care and enjoy your stay till it lasts

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  5. Amreeekaa....

    njoy ur trip dear:-)

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  6. I love the trucks.. anyday.. thats my kind of 4 wheeler.. buhahah !!

    I always keep a stock of fresh fruit, milk and bread. Else its a pain..

    Have a good time in Sam's land.

    Flights are always long.. I keep walking up and down just to keep the circulation and avoiding backache.. sigh..

    Food tip:
    Always go for the "low calorie" option when you travel long. Its the best food. No masala, all boil vegetables and meat.. and light on the stomach. It digests well and drink lots and lots of water.. :)

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  7. abbe saade tu pahaunch gaya re launda, ghani badiya baat hai ye to, aur bhaiya ram ram

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  8. yaar aap to mere aas paas hi ho abhi ..hehe. bhelcome to amrika. ab to mausam bahot acha hai ..enojoy the beauty.

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  9. # Vaishali...
    i did... thanks..

    # Anony...
    it better...

    # Subbu...
    Shakal bata rahi thi... 50+ ho sakti hain bhai....

    Arre nai monster trucks to pata hai mereko.. wo regular bade wale cargo trucks... unko kya bolte hain?

    will do :)

    # Sam...
    thank the you :)

    Uncle sam to yahan hai !!! Tum kaunsi sam ho bhai?

    # Aqui....
    will do :) thanks buddygirl..

    # chakoli...
    haanji amreeeeeka...

    :) will do..

    # Pallavi...
    a good handful of tips there eh :) thanks a bunch :)

    I had the lovely sub :) plan to use the subway more :) and my fridge used to be full of juices and fruit when I was in the UK... plans to repeat here too :)

    # Tushar...
    tujhe phone kiya thaa bhai... for some reason it did not go through....

    Ram Ram hai...

    # Geet...
    you are in the amreeka too? nice nice... kahan?

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  10. Oh, you mean the 16+ wheelers? I thought they are simply called trucks and the huge SUVs are called "pickup trucks". Please find out.

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  11. # Anoop...
    :)

    # Subbu...
    haan wo waale... pressure horns wale !!!

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  12. Oh, ok, Minneapolis mein ho. I thought Chicago was your destination.

    Funny thing about Chicago! In the last 11 yrs, I have had flights through Chicago about 10 times, and each and every time the flight got canceled or delayed!

    Trucks...lets see. The really big ones are called 18 wheelers. Then there are the SUV's which take about 5-8 passengers and then there are those that are the size of an SUV, but with a flat bed to carry samaan. Those are trucks :)

    Abhi dekhna postman ki gaadi kahin dikhe to. Those are the only vehicles in this country that are right-hand drive! I was told that this is so that the mailman can simply drop off the mail through their window if the mailbox is accessible enough!

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  13. Hmm... I hope meri return flight na miss ho na cancel or na delay :)

    I have seen better cars here than anywhere else... some of them with WOW factor...

    and the trucks... love them... saw a few from FORD, GM today in the morning... just my kind of vehicle :)

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  14. kashimra already told you, those are 'TRUCKS' amazing na people here actually own & drive trucks !!

    We can't even think of it in India...:) No space :)

    chal keep updating what else you see in this land :)

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  15. # Tanu...
    I wish I have one of those...

    I saw a red beauty today... just kept staring at it for a while... just super ka duper thaa wo !!!

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  16. oh wow... thats great... so where in US of A ? East west or central or south... and for how long...

    anyways... hope all is well :)

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  17. # Neeku...

    Central... for a couple of months at least !!!

    thanks.. everything is great :)

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  18. hubby wants to buy me a truck...says I will look cool driving one :)

    I had a ride in a friend's truck once, that was a monster, he drove up a curb, pata bhi nahi chala.

    Do you like the Hummer?

    And have you seen any of those itty bitty smart cars? yeh waali: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/how-smart-is-the-smart-car.php

    Am seeing quite a few of these lately here.

    And where else will you be traveling while you are here?

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  19. I think you should... some of the trucks are so dropping hott !!!

    I know the smart car, designed by Swatch and powered by Merc... I don't really like the hummer for some reason... My personal favorite is the Jeep...

    I am not sure about the travel part, but I am not going to leave any opportunity to travel around :)

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. We are a weird bunch for sure. The big car thing is really over-the-top here. It just seems so wasteful. So true abt the shorts, formal shirts and sport shoes thing!! That made me laugh! I have to say it is all very embarrassing sometimes. That's why I pretend to be Indian sometimes - even though I'm whiter than white.

    Living in New York, there is a slightly wider mentality and even though we have our fair share of SUVs whizzing by, I've been noticing more and more of those cute little toy-like cars one sees in Paris. It is refreshing to see them. We have a long way to go though...

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  22. # Shireena...
    good to see here, and no offence meant please !!!

    Its just too different from where I come from :)

    I love the trucks... I so want one of those.. black/orange or a red/black one... I see them everyday and I so want one....

    I would like to see NYC someday... lets see if I can manage it in this trip !!!

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  23. No offence taken at all, :)

    Yes, come to NYC if you get a chance someday - an incredible place to visit.

    Take care. Enjoy your trip!

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  24. I might get one...but not very big. I like the Honda Ridgeline.

    And Hummers are a total waste, I agree. SUV's mein I like the Range Rover and the LExus GX series.

    If possible, rent a car and nikal pado ghoomne, you will have fun.

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  25. # Shireena...
    thanks :)

    I might come for sure..

    # Kashmira...
    get one quick... I so love a few from GMC that I have been looking at :)

    Hummers are total waste... they don't run in kms per gallon, but gallons per km :P

    Lets see about the renting part... thats the plan for weekends... first I need to find out about places around... and some traffic rules, and most importantly would a India license be good enough (I guess for a rented car it would be)

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  26. international license hai to that will suffice.

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  27. nahin hai...

    infact I checked with a few people... even with the international license, I need to give the written test etc and pass to get the license and all..

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