I left for India on the 31 st of January at 2 am and arrived to the United States of America ..the land of wonder on the 31st itself( It's 11.5 hours behind the IST) at precisely 6.30 Am.
The flight was dot on time without any delays even though we encountered fog.
I decided that there will definitely be a big change in me as soon as i start this journey. I would grow as a person even more in this one month of Internship than i would ever in the same time duration in my home country India. the primary reason why i though so was because this was the first time i was out on my own,with a very dear friend Avinash Bansal(from the same class in DTU) but the bonus was there was no family around. why i say this is because i feel its an Indian tradition that even though you are as old as the UIUC(founded in 1867) itself your parents would always and always treat you like a kid.(mom and dad no offense)
So here i was dreaming big and happy that i was taking another major step in my happy go lucky life.
The first major change i saw in myself was that my impression of Air India airlines changed quite a lot.From being a shitty airlines ruled by Aunty's and Uncles, the age of my grand parents it was changed to well maintained professionals who did not remind me that my mom was travelling along.:P
Yes we ate like habshis on the plane asking for dinner twice..after all how much can you change engineering students when it comes to eating habits :P
During the flight me and my friend made an elaborate list of why we were taking this trip ,what we wished to achieve . We also jot down the points on a piece of paper which not sticks to our refrigerator in our apartment. It helped us focus and reduce our nervousness of stepping into the unknown.
When we landed at Chicago airport O'Hare it was anything like what i had imagined. It was a small airport ,very small indeed.There was just one place ..our friendly neighborhood hero restaurant Mr McDonald to eat in.There wasn't even a waiting lounge for people waiting for their connecting flight.
Anyway while waiting for our shuttle to arrive which we had pre-booked before leaving i was jumping and bouncing like a popcorn waiting to go out.The temperature outside was -7 degrees.When the doors of the airport opened and we started to walk towards the shuttle a burst of fresh air hit my face and i felt rejuvenated. I thought it was the cleanest air i had breath in a very long time(keeping in mind the dust and pollution of the capital where i come from).
When we were walking towards the shuttle we had to cross the road to reach it . At a distance i could see a police patrol vehicle approaching near...I wanted to run and cross the road but i resisted the Indian Urge.To my surprise the police man stopped his car at-least 10 meters away from me and waved me to carry on . This is not a very big incident but i was impressed ,even though it was on the slightest scale.
We boarded the shuttle and made good friend from South Africa ,the driver Logan. He told us that he had changed his name because the Americans couldn't pronounce it very well.He had changed his name form Orkert to Logan the wolverine. He told us about many such examples that for tourism and job sake many people tend to change their names within a months time of arriving in Chicago.
As we moved on we could see the high rises of the Downtown towards our left.I did not pay much attention to it because i was busy in the mind-blowing beauty of the falling snowflakes in front of me.Felt like i was in heaven.!!!!
Ps: Post written in a lot of hurry as i have a Basket Ball Match between Champagne and Urbana to attend to ;)
The flight was dot on time without any delays even though we encountered fog.
I decided that there will definitely be a big change in me as soon as i start this journey. I would grow as a person even more in this one month of Internship than i would ever in the same time duration in my home country India. the primary reason why i though so was because this was the first time i was out on my own,with a very dear friend Avinash Bansal(from the same class in DTU) but the bonus was there was no family around. why i say this is because i feel its an Indian tradition that even though you are as old as the UIUC(founded in 1867) itself your parents would always and always treat you like a kid.(mom and dad no offense)
So here i was dreaming big and happy that i was taking another major step in my happy go lucky life.
The first major change i saw in myself was that my impression of Air India airlines changed quite a lot.From being a shitty airlines ruled by Aunty's and Uncles, the age of my grand parents it was changed to well maintained professionals who did not remind me that my mom was travelling along.:P
Yes we ate like habshis on the plane asking for dinner twice..after all how much can you change engineering students when it comes to eating habits :P
During the flight me and my friend made an elaborate list of why we were taking this trip ,what we wished to achieve . We also jot down the points on a piece of paper which not sticks to our refrigerator in our apartment. It helped us focus and reduce our nervousness of stepping into the unknown.
When we landed at Chicago airport O'Hare it was anything like what i had imagined. It was a small airport ,very small indeed.There was just one place ..our friendly neighborhood hero restaurant Mr McDonald to eat in.There wasn't even a waiting lounge for people waiting for their connecting flight.
Anyway while waiting for our shuttle to arrive which we had pre-booked before leaving i was jumping and bouncing like a popcorn waiting to go out.The temperature outside was -7 degrees.When the doors of the airport opened and we started to walk towards the shuttle a burst of fresh air hit my face and i felt rejuvenated. I thought it was the cleanest air i had breath in a very long time(keeping in mind the dust and pollution of the capital where i come from).
When we were walking towards the shuttle we had to cross the road to reach it . At a distance i could see a police patrol vehicle approaching near...I wanted to run and cross the road but i resisted the Indian Urge.To my surprise the police man stopped his car at-least 10 meters away from me and waved me to carry on . This is not a very big incident but i was impressed ,even though it was on the slightest scale.
We boarded the shuttle and made good friend from South Africa ,the driver Logan. He told us that he had changed his name because the Americans couldn't pronounce it very well.He had changed his name form Orkert to Logan the wolverine. He told us about many such examples that for tourism and job sake many people tend to change their names within a months time of arriving in Chicago.
As we moved on we could see the high rises of the Downtown towards our left.I did not pay much attention to it because i was busy in the mind-blowing beauty of the falling snowflakes in front of me.Felt like i was in heaven.!!!!
Ps: Post written in a lot of hurry as i have a Basket Ball Match between Champagne and Urbana to attend to ;)
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