Coffee,Lattes,Decafe?? Kaapi kudungapa...

It was stil day zero and my uncle decided that i better not sleep the moment i arrive cos my sleeping schedule is gonna be all screwed up with the jet lag looming large over my shoulders...jet lag is a very irritating thing he maentioned, i laughed to myself...lag ku kay lag aah?? :) bring it on i say... In any case since i would have dozed off if i was just left to laze around in the house, he took me out to check out Best Buy, one of the many thousand chains to sell everything and anything that u mite ever need at the best prices...u see u should have got that from the name Best Buy. So we head to Best Buy, and frankly it wasnt anything special, like any other super market that namma bharath matha mite have, this was just only slightly bigger...we got some items, right now cant even quite remember what those were...anyway we finish with that and knowing very well, i was very much a coffee person like my mom(we easily do like 3-4 cups before noon everyday and the only coffee i had taken over the last 20 or so hours were a Thailand cold coffee which was heavenly btw and black coffee on my last flight to san francisco) my uncle offered to buy me some and hence introduce me to starbucks...

As i walked in, i looked at the sign board with awe...we have cafe coffee days all over the place in chennai and two on every street corner in b'lore (no i am not exaggeratng!! its mad i tel u in b'lore...i do not understand the fetish that our IT capital has with CCD) but this was starbucks...the most common coffee place most romantic movies u watch start with... the same place you expect someone as beautiful as julia roberts to rush in and say "the usual" and leave with the same urgency...So we enter and wait in queue...my first starbucks coffee in the states...for most of you, that might sound normal but for a coffee afficianado this was in fact a big deal...from the back of the queue i take a look around...it was like any other coffee place that i have been to.... we got the counters displaying all the eateries available and in the back all the coffee making...hmmm shall i call it equipment? anyways i sat back and let the smell of hot coffee enthrall my senses. as my turn got closer i managed to get my first look at the girl taking the order and boy was she cute... and i aint saying cute like i call most gals...this girl really was cute, and i wasnt jus talking bout her freckle filled face...well that was cute too but the way she seemed to have a really infectious smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye...yeah i could not see the sparkle until i got close enough to give my order but even at a distance i could sense it... with an utmost ease and grace that could have shamed the most graceful of whatever that can be considered as graceful( i wanna say all those 18th century women but i dont want my extremely limited female fraands...yeah yeah i knoe...ISS ,to take offense...see i told u, we need to be more considerate and polictically aware of what u say around here)

When there was only a single customer between us, i got a better look at her... she was about 5 foot 7, give or take a few inches with this radiant energy about her( no i am not swept away by americas ability to market and sell, well yeah a little but there was somethin about this girl)...hmmm i began to ponder if she did this as full time or it was just her way for paying thru college...u hear about all these students hu put themselves thru college by part timing and one look at her and u knew she was one such student...it was almost like u could sense that behind that million dollar smile and sweet girlish voice, there was a woman who wanted to succeed at all costs even if it meant serving coffee with that fake smile and "oh so sweet"voice for about 10 hours everyday...

As she efficiently finished with the guy in front of us with that smile again (cue coldplay music...god put that smile upon ur face, honey honey...), my 7 yr old cousin, my uncle and I stepped up to place our orders( in baseball terms, the batter has just stepped onto the plate and the pressure mounts)...while my cousin placed her order for hot chocolate with a little peppermint in it, she took up a styrofoam cup, made a note of the order on it and put my little

cousins name on it with a little heart symbol next to it(cue awwwwwwwwwwww sound now), she looked up with her big black eyes and smiled...wow i am not quite sure what beautiful eyes look like, but i was pretty sure that that couldnt be far from this...As i navigated myself back to the real world after being lost for a while there, i found that i was holding up the line and worse i was just staring at her dumstruck as she kept smiling back waiting for my order... i blurted the first thing that came to my mind... "KAAPI" i found myself screaming at her and my cousin was the only who found that funny. I looked around to see the suprise+condescending look on everybody elses face but not her...she still kept smiling like she is used to having 21 yr old grad students from india shouting "kaapi!!" at her...god stop smiling at me with those big dark eyes woman, this is hard as it is..

Excuse me ,she said, ahem-ahem i cleared my throat to indicate that sore throat is the reason why my coffee might be misintepreted as kaapi...yeah right like anyone would fall for that!! anyway with a little more confidence or rather the fear of looking like a complete neanderthal, i forced myself to say co..ffff...yeah thats it i almost got it..eeee...

Sure sir, she said(still smiling though..shebbaaa good safe i self congratulated myself with a mental hi five!!) and did not stop...how do you like it sir? (Ennadhu sir aah...peelings...if i was mel gibson in what women want, this is the point where i lean on the counter and tel her to call me nut and let her know i was nuts about her+ask her for dinner but since i am not) i had to settle on figuring out what she meant...so i quickly looked up at the menu board, aahh much better no smiling face with dark eyes...damn spoke too soon, now i am thinking about it!! concentrate, concentrate...lets try and read the board...enna omgwtf!! latte, decafes,dark...dai dai dai enna idhellaam...the whole board could have been latin or greek for all i cared cos nuthing made sense to me... As the big fat guy with a lotta tattoos told me to hurry on, in a slip of tongue+fall of mind i asked for filter kaapi...as soon as i said it, i realised how i stoopid i sounded...wogaad!! luckily she didnt hear me properly and went excuse me again (thats twice in like 40 seconds...not good!!)...

I put this "deer caught in the light" look on my face and looked at my uncle pleadingly and he understood that i had no idea what to order and said i wil have a triple latte with lactaid milk and half a splendor!! and i thought to myself..ennadhu? i have seen chemical compounds in Govis class which were simpler than what he has just said...She took it down and looked at me and managed a smile and nodded like an idiot to reassure thats what i will be having.. i made a mental note to find out what every part in that order meant...

So we got our coffee+hot chocolate+brownie and got out of there...Not my ideal first starbucks experience but atleast i got a cup of hot coffee at the end of it...damn if i had that before, maybe i would not have faltered before...note to self: always sharpen urself with a cup of kaapi before u enter a starbucks to order one... on our way home i asked my uncle what that order meant...well atleast parts of it... some i had already realised...

i am putting it up for future reference:

single/double/triple- amount of the coffee "digashan" u want added...its not digoshan exactly but something like that... triple seemed ok for me and i like my coffee strong.

latte- normal coffee ie with milk in it. u can also ask for coffee with cream, its the same i think. decafe is coffee without the caffeine!! (wtf?? i know!) and black coffee..well we all know thats just digashan.

lactaid milk is milk without lactose in it, its healthier i hear. u can also get normal milk and skimmed milk as well (parthiban-vadivelu otaga paal caamedy comes into my mind now!!)

and splendour is sucralose, its an artificial sweetner with no calories, once again healthier but u can always get sugar if u want...

natesh

"i am too old for this shit"

The Freeway IS101

So I finish customs and stuff and come out to meet my uncle and his 2 daughters...we exchange pleasantries most of which includes how well my body is built up!! :D anyway we leave for san jose where I am gonna crash for the next week or so before I head to Amherst...

And as we make our way there after i fumble with the seat belt a little...well what do u expect, life la munnadi laam seat beltam pottadhae illa but inga its 250 $ fine apparently... I get the first taste of travelling on an American freeway and let me tell u, the experience is awesome!! It was huge concrete snake like monstrosity that went on and on till ur eyes could see with roads leaving at some places and joining in others. So many a car just literally flying past u!! On the freeway ,which btw are like really big highways, most of them 3-4 lanes minimum running for huge distances often covering many cities. (my uncle explained that many relativley small pockets are made into cities and within 30-45 mins on a freeway, u can pass 3-4 cities!!)...as i was saying, on the freeway most cars travel at around 80-90 mph and at 1 mile=1.609 km, u do the math on how fast everyone is going (enakku 70-80 kmph la ponnalae vayatha kalakum, idhula 100 mph na shebba!!)...its almost like everyone is in a rush...but it made me realise why americans are quite serious about their traffic rules :1) it can land you insanely high fines... talking without an ear peice without driving is straight 300$ fine (300X50=15000 rs!! ada kadavulae...adhukku na oru kodi ear pieceae vaangiduvaen!!) 2)at the speeds these guys drive, one small mistake na sure body thambi... andha speed la laam accident aachu na body kooda kadaikadhu nu nanaikiraen...

As cars whizzed by me and changed lanes, I began to see a pattern emerge in the way the freeways were planned and constructed. Though I am not going in detail to explain them, it was pretty easy to see a very well defined system with sign boards indicating directions and distance at regular intervals, digital electronic boards and proper areas to stop on case of breakdowns and more.

And I also got to see the idea of a carpool lane in work (a carpool is a vehicle having 2 or more passengers...you might think that as ineffecient but on close observation, i noticed that they were only single drivers in most cars and the carpool lane was relatively empty and hence much faster. As i ponder over it, I am told that these lanes are completely full everyday at around 8 in the morning and at 5 in the evening when kids are dropped and picked up from school and...and parents have till 6 to pick up their child from school or else they are fined 10$, yep 10 frikking dollars for every min after 6 that they are not there!! You might say that it sounds extreme but I kinda like the idea of a heavy fine...hitting someone where it hurts is good way to remind us to be careful).

I keep my eyes fixed on the road trying to take everything in...the cars, the signboards and the people. On our way home, I passed thru Mountain View and managed to catch a glimpse of Google HQ...it was quite surreal.( Their campus has around 40 odd buildings occupying what was once Silicon Graphics). I also managed to see the offices of Cisco, Microsoft,Novell and every other tech/soft company who came to our campus last yr and did not pick many :P From a distance, I also got a look at the California division of NASA (the name itself inspires awe doesnt it)!! Its not the launch station though( thats at Cape Canarval)...idhum veruma construction and training centre aam...ada paavigala evalo perusaa irruku idha paathu veruma appadi sollitaanagalae!!

So ippadiyae car la timepass panni about a hour went by and I reached my uncles place at 1026 Ivy Glen Drive, San Jose, CA. But its never about the destination is it? its always the journey that matters!!

Natesh

"I am too old for this shit"

PS: Most of these cars come up with these GPS systems and shebbbaaa mudiyala pa...over technology... everything comes on the screen and there is superb detail!! Aaaah indha madhiri tech paatha ennakku pull arikadhu :)

PPS: And i thought we were going fast till i saw this biker, fully clad in black leather speeding past us with his super hot girlfriend(how do u know that u mite ask? they must have been wearing helmets for sure and must have past u in a matter of seconds aana yosichi paarunga ....remba gethu bike, full black in color... driver gethu get up la going at around 120-140 easily...the girl has to be hollywood level hot!! or else something will be terribly wraang with the picture... ore jalpiya mudinjirkum!!) clutching onto him tightly and all englees movie kinda songs strted to play in my head with the long guitar solos...not sure why though...

The journey...

------>The following started at 0000 hrs on 15th August. All events occur in real time<------

(Oru 24 effectu...terror kalapardha!!??)
After my failed attempt at writing an half decent blog, I have decided to have another go at this again and hit me that there aint a better time to do this than now. I arrived in the United States of America on the afternoon of the 15th of August at 11:10 PM (which i found out later btw) which was awesome cos i got to celebrate our Indy day twice!!Anyways lets back up a bit and start from the first aaaaaand when i say backup, its not to the whole how i got here at this point in my life kinda rewind because its just too long and boring. Lets rewind to the part after all the goodbyes at my place and at the airport (and thank u all who came to my place that night ...meant a lot to me). So i am in the international departures and enter to check my luggage in. Luckily since i was 'hooked-up' with someone in the AirIndia department, i managed to get all my luggage in even though they were all majorly overweight.
So luggage gets done, then comes security check ups and this and that and blah blah...this blog really aint about my trip...i like to talk more about how i find life here....Anyway i get on board, window seat cos i always like to see the flight take off...its a stupid childhood thing...a fetish of sorts...like for red hair and er...hmmm not the place to discuss this i presume....
So 2-3 hours later, i am not really sure cos i decided to take a page outta the book of the guy sitting next to me and just sleep and when i woke up and we were about to landa)i did not have a watch b) my cell phone was switched off and c) everyone kept referring to the local time, so i did not have a clue how long it was and i really did not want to ask the only ok-looking air hostess (yeah i am objectifying her...i cant help myself).

The flight landed at the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok in the wee hours of the morning. One thing i could tell immediately was that the airport was brilliant. It looked magnificent with huge corridors and shopping complexes and spas!! I wish i had a camera to capture the awesome structure as the red sun rose in the background and i thought to myself in a inner-legolas like voice "red sun rises...blood has been spilt in the night" and then my mind wandered away thinking about how,where,when and what ways blood can be spilt till it was time for my next flight to Narita airport in Tokyo. This is where i tel all those to whom i have not already polambified before, my travel agent did some Kaamedies with my ticket and in the end, all he could get me was a ticket to San Francisco thru Bangkok and Narita,Tokyo which is a very weird route on an Al-Nippon airlines...yes very weird airlines...pera kettalae kidney thirudara gumbal madhiri dhaan irukaanga...Btw before i go on about my flight to Narita, one thing i do wanna mention is the absolutely horrible accessories that the counter lady who gave me my boarding pass was wearing...shebba jingja jingaja kinda coat, earrings which made the hanging gardens of Babylon ridiculously small and last but not the least, a ring the size of a board game...monopoly or scrabble aadirkalaam!! and it kinda looked like it did have that game where u need to keep moving the board to direct the ball thru the maze!!

Anyways off to Narita airport in Tokyo...slept again for most of the 6 hr flight, was woken by the slightly better looking hostess somewhere in the middle(i think!!) and asked if i wanted some food...well i told her i was vegetarian and asked for something in that category like salad or even just plain bread...she asked me which i would prefer- pork or fish!!??? omgwtf!! The rest of the flight was ok... we were a bit late but i was happy to get there with both kidneys intact...

So i was in Narita airport for about 20 mins before i caught my last flight to San Francisco about 13 hours away... as usual slept most off the time, caught "i love you man"...totally not worth watching. Tried watching "the soloist" a couple of times before i gave up but from what i saw, its TOTALLY worth staying up for. Nothin much other than that...the food was decent, i could say vegetarian and did not draw a blank look on the face of the air hostess or on board service provider( to be polictically correct i presume...have to do a lot of that here in amreeka)....

And 13 hours later landed in San Francisco,CA around 11:10 on a bright afternoon, "great day to fly" according to the captain... i could not see the bridge as i landed though,was stuck in a stoopid aisle seat!!

In any case I was here, got thru immigration very fast indeed...a bit too fast, that I was bit worried in case I forgot to go somewhere and I had just wandered out, I do that at times... but luckily no such comedies... I was here, and a whole new life had started!!

Natesh

"I am too old for this shit"

PS: sorry this too so long to come up...by the time i post this, a lot has already happened about which i will write more but I have been quite tied up here.