3rd Jan 2007 5am: San Jose
I am cursing myself for booking a 6:30am flight,the things I do to save a buck. I am not a morning person...so I did not sleep all night thinking its better than waking up all woozy.Flight was long uneventful and tiring with a 2 hour stop in Minneapolis. Well everyone is aware of carrying food while flying, but we dint know it back then that the flight would starve us to death , so the stopover at Minn was a welcome lunch break.
12pm: Minneapolis
We had 2 hours, so we thought we should check out if there are any attractions nearby the Minneapolis. It was snowing in Minn and I had never seen snow in my life, but to my disappointment the snow was melting,not exactly the kind of dreamy vision that i had about snow, hopefully it snows in NYC. I had read about Mall of America, which is quite close to the airport, but by the time we made up our mind to go there, there was just enough time to take a quick glance and come back, so we saved it for our return trip.
7pm:
NYC skyline is breathtaking!!! I took couple of pics but none do justice to the genuine view, also it was a full moon so it made it more spectacular...Its like thousands of tiny stars on the ground when you look from above and as you get closer those lights just glow so bright that its surreal. I suggest if possible always plan your trip such that either u reach in the NYC or leave in the evening, coz the night sky from a plane is worth a watch and is much better than being on top of the empire state building. Wish i had some good snaps to post on this blog, maybe on my next trip I will take a better camera. Reached our friend's house at 9.30pm(took us that long to find our way). For some reason traveling in New York subway evoked a memory of mumbai locals (maybe it was the crowd or the noise the subway is LOUD).This city made me nostalgic even though it was my 1st time visiting it,I could feel a mumbai vibe in New York. Strange that 2 cities ,thousands of miles apart can seem so similar that being in one gives u the reminds you of the other. Was lucky to have some great authentic Indian food in New Jersey, awesome biryani (good Indian food is a rarity) ,this humble little place is called Baba's and its on Indian street in New Jersey.
1pm: Gettin used to the 3 hrs time shift,so tryin to sleep as we have a long day ahead tomorrow, hoping that it snows...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Travel
My trips!..thats what Im gonna write about,till i find something else to blabber on...
The inspiration for this comes from the fact that Im always advising people regarding places to go and things to do ( not that I have been around a lot), but I have done my share of traveling, and also I wanna write them down like a journal coz i fear i am beginning to forget some of the wonderful but obscure places i went to.
Well to start off with, my trip to New York...which was taken last year, 3nd Jan 2007 to 11th Jan....of course you will ask why not spend the New Year's there, nothing like New Year's in Times Square right?...there was a very good reason for it,..i had spend only 6 months in US and had only enough savings to get a cheap ticket which I got after the New Years...I got a great deal on the ticket too San Jose - NYC - San Jose round trip for $250, doesnt get better that this, thanks to travelocity,.also accomodation was taken care of as I had my friends in New jersey....a big Thank you to Neha and Bhargav for taking us in and treating us well, especially Neha your cooking saved the day.. :), thank you for being such a sweetheart.
Another person I would thank is Abhi,..with whom I took the trip, and who forced to take it...I was the usual desi during that time cribbing about money, finding every opportunity to save money, so to take a trip that might cost me around $600 atleast for 7 days was absolutely absurd,..I have study and get an intern and fulltime job, and right now I had lost my on campus job as a Teaching Assistant so had no source of income fir the next few months, not to mention fared poorly in my 1st semester (fall 2007)of my Master's and got horrible grades, taking a trip at this time seemed like a financial suicide.I really cant afford to philander my hard earned and meager savings, not to mention my have to pay off loan and there is the monthly rent, utilities and blah blah blah...these were my arguments. Abhi also is accustomed to getting brainstorms like me, he can say 'Lets go to New York" as easily as lets have Italian for dinner. I have managed to torpedo many of his plans with my fears.Plans like sky diving(fear of dying) , paintball (fear of violence), learning to swim (fear of doing any activity which might cause my muscles to ache due to exertion, they also include running, gymming or walking long distances u get the idea), las vegas (fear of becoming broke,he went without me anyways) and a roadtrip along the california coast( which we finally took during summer 2007, a post will be coming up on that as well).......how he managed to sell this idea to me... God only knows...or maybe it was the tequila...
Now that I have got that out of the way,...where were we,oh i was supposed to talk about my trip to new york, let me begin .As the trip spanned for 7 days,I will be posting it in parts according to the days....since i digressed a lot in this post my next post will be about the 1st day.
The inspiration for this comes from the fact that Im always advising people regarding places to go and things to do ( not that I have been around a lot), but I have done my share of traveling, and also I wanna write them down like a journal coz i fear i am beginning to forget some of the wonderful but obscure places i went to.
Well to start off with, my trip to New York...which was taken last year, 3nd Jan 2007 to 11th Jan....of course you will ask why not spend the New Year's there, nothing like New Year's in Times Square right?...there was a very good reason for it,..i had spend only 6 months in US and had only enough savings to get a cheap ticket which I got after the New Years...I got a great deal on the ticket too San Jose - NYC - San Jose round trip for $250, doesnt get better that this, thanks to travelocity,.also accomodation was taken care of as I had my friends in New jersey....a big Thank you to Neha and Bhargav for taking us in and treating us well, especially Neha your cooking saved the day.. :), thank you for being such a sweetheart.
Another person I would thank is Abhi,..with whom I took the trip, and who forced to take it...I was the usual desi during that time cribbing about money, finding every opportunity to save money, so to take a trip that might cost me around $600 atleast for 7 days was absolutely absurd,..I have study and get an intern and fulltime job, and right now I had lost my on campus job as a Teaching Assistant so had no source of income fir the next few months, not to mention fared poorly in my 1st semester (fall 2007)of my Master's and got horrible grades, taking a trip at this time seemed like a financial suicide.I really cant afford to philander my hard earned and meager savings, not to mention my have to pay off loan and there is the monthly rent, utilities and blah blah blah...these were my arguments. Abhi also is accustomed to getting brainstorms like me, he can say 'Lets go to New York" as easily as lets have Italian for dinner. I have managed to torpedo many of his plans with my fears.Plans like sky diving(fear of dying) , paintball (fear of violence), learning to swim (fear of doing any activity which might cause my muscles to ache due to exertion, they also include running, gymming or walking long distances u get the idea), las vegas (fear of becoming broke,he went without me anyways) and a roadtrip along the california coast( which we finally took during summer 2007, a post will be coming up on that as well).......how he managed to sell this idea to me... God only knows...or maybe it was the tequila...
Now that I have got that out of the way,...where were we,oh i was supposed to talk about my trip to new york, let me begin .As the trip spanned for 7 days,I will be posting it in parts according to the days....since i digressed a lot in this post my next post will be about the 1st day.
Begining
It struck me as how most ideas usually do hit.........as soon as i woke up.....today morning...9:30am..
"Maybe I should start my own blog"......hmm forgetting the fact that yesterday my orthopedic told me the after effects of staying on my laptop for more than 6 hrs a day is causing my shoulder muscles to cramp and ache, i pick up my laptop....to create a blog...oh but 1st i have to check my mails....or maybe I should have breakfast first...or check mails while eating breakfast.
1:00pm After checking my numerous mail accts, facebook,orkut, new lists on listverse.com ..and stumble (damn neat firefox add on if you ever wanna waste enormous amount of time), trying out different wallpapers, finally got down to writing my blog...then the phone rings...damn distractions
4:00pm After a long conversation, lunch, some Japanese anime ( im a sucker for anime i tell u)
I thought enough of procrastination, lets get down to it. But i couldn't...well circumstances led me to go and meet my friends in college and disrupt their homework session by a blissful gossip interlude that lasted for a few hours. This was followed by another more hours of phone conversations.
9:30pm Its been 12 hours since i got my brainstorm,this is it, the day is almost over and I have not worked on my blog yet......If i dont do it today I will never do it so i finally sign up on blogger, and to my surprise I already have an account and a blog name ( and to think i spent one of the phone conversations thinking of a good name for my blog). I couldnt recollect when i had created an account or why i named it "writers bloc",and isnt even worded properly ,seems like a organizations for budding writers,.. guess its not the 1st time i though about blogging......I reckon my blog was created around a year back
So it took me a year to write my first post,(height of laziness, or of procrastination). I remember the reasoning behind the name....i dint know what to write about so i had a writer's bloc......must have thought it was pretty funny back then,...dont think so anymore...o great now i am criticizing my own blog which i haven't even begun yet.... I am gonna stick to the name anyways.......need to start somewhere,and besides not much has changed I still dont know what to write about, but will spell it out correctly as writer's block.
Did i just write 20 something lines on how i dont know what to write on??, Man i drone on and on about mundane stuff
Ok next post is sure gonna be something useful,or informative, or entertaining, or funny...or whatever the hell i feel it should be, sure hope its not gonna take me another year to come up with my 2nd post...
12:30am Oooh my arm hurts,...maybe i shouldn't spend so much time on the laptop,...
"Maybe I should start my own blog"......hmm forgetting the fact that yesterday my orthopedic told me the after effects of staying on my laptop for more than 6 hrs a day is causing my shoulder muscles to cramp and ache, i pick up my laptop....to create a blog...oh but 1st i have to check my mails....or maybe I should have breakfast first...or check mails while eating breakfast.
1:00pm After checking my numerous mail accts, facebook,orkut, new lists on listverse.com ..and stumble (damn neat firefox add on if you ever wanna waste enormous amount of time), trying out different wallpapers, finally got down to writing my blog...then the phone rings...damn distractions
4:00pm After a long conversation, lunch, some Japanese anime ( im a sucker for anime i tell u)
I thought enough of procrastination, lets get down to it. But i couldn't...well circumstances led me to go and meet my friends in college and disrupt their homework session by a blissful gossip interlude that lasted for a few hours. This was followed by another more hours of phone conversations.
9:30pm Its been 12 hours since i got my brainstorm,this is it, the day is almost over and I have not worked on my blog yet......If i dont do it today I will never do it so i finally sign up on blogger, and to my surprise I already have an account and a blog name ( and to think i spent one of the phone conversations thinking of a good name for my blog). I couldnt recollect when i had created an account or why i named it "writers bloc",and isnt even worded properly ,seems like a organizations for budding writers,.. guess its not the 1st time i though about blogging......I reckon my blog was created around a year back
So it took me a year to write my first post,(height of laziness, or of procrastination). I remember the reasoning behind the name....i dint know what to write about so i had a writer's bloc......must have thought it was pretty funny back then,...dont think so anymore...o great now i am criticizing my own blog which i haven't even begun yet.... I am gonna stick to the name anyways.......need to start somewhere,and besides not much has changed I still dont know what to write about, but will spell it out correctly as writer's block.
Did i just write 20 something lines on how i dont know what to write on??, Man i drone on and on about mundane stuff
Ok next post is sure gonna be something useful,or informative, or entertaining, or funny...or whatever the hell i feel it should be, sure hope its not gonna take me another year to come up with my 2nd post...
12:30am Oooh my arm hurts,...maybe i shouldn't spend so much time on the laptop,...
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