| Aug. 2nd, 2005 @ 06:09 pm Getting to the other side... |
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Current Mood:  tired
Of the globe.
After a couple of days in the US, I'm finally finding some time to blog about the experience.
So the final day arrived and then on that day I did nothing much. Maybe except go for a haircut and ended up with an extra short haircut and it doesn't seem to look so good on me now :D.. Either way, it will be fine by the time I head to the university I guess.
Ok, so final days dinner was at home itself. Reached the airport and a friend was supposed to come and see me off, but then unfortunately there was a slight turn of events. Which I will explain later. Left home in 2 cars all packed and piled in, and then reached the airport sometime later.
The last time we had gone to the airport was to drop of my sister and bil. During that time we were allowed until the security checkin and before she left we all gave her big hugs and then she left. This time however, when we went in, they never even let all till the security checkin. Instead there was a barricade b/w the visitors and the travellers from the moment you entered the airport itself. Not knowing that we just walked through.. Now the problem was, I couldn't leave my luggage on the other side without anyone to look after it, and neither could I also get over to the other side.
Besides that there was no one to help me with the luggage, in terms of lifting it and stuff. Instead I had to lug around 64 kgs from the start.. I got it wrapped up and went off in search of a trolley to put my luggage on. When I reached inside and found one lone trolley I saw another lady run after it. Like I could do anything, with me lugging a total of 11kgs on my back (my laptop and my backpack) I couldn't race in front. Plus I didn't bother to. And she just took the trolley and looked at me and was like "sorry"... Yeah right... Sorry my ass...
Then I wandered about a bit more and found another trolley. Took that and went back to my luggage, and with a little help from the wrap guys loaded my stuff onto the trolley. Man was it heavy :D... I was wondering how I was going to lug that all around the airport. Then I went to the security checkin counter and that guy said that the Lufthansa check in would start only at around 10:00. Went back out to the barricades to say a final goodbye to all. Said bye to mom, dad, aunts, unc, cuz and all. Then finally went inside to check in the luggage. Went in and checked in my luggage all the way to Houston, else I would have to do another round of lugging luggage in Frankfurt. Got my boarding pass and came back.
Went back inside for the final time after saying all the goodbyes, sat down filled up immigration forms and went to the immigration counter. Once through the immigration you definately cannot come back out. Well I had no other choice anyway, since I never did know how long things would take. So went inside through immigration after being asked a couple of questions (since mine was an F1 status) and then went through to the security check part 2.
Once inside the security check, there is a waiting lounge. Suprisingly Bangalore International Airport has only 1 Terminal with ONLY 1 gate. If you compare this to Frankfurt which has just 3 terminals and more than 60 gates per terminal, you'll wonder where India stands in the scheme of things and they call it the Silicon Valley of India (Bangalore I mean).
Anyway, once inside there I went and plonked my ass and then messaged and called people and then said final goodbyes and all. Then left. After almost a 1 and a half hour wait they made the boarding call to Flight 755 leaving from Bangalore. That was my flight. Got up and went through the boarding gate to the plane. Once inside the plane discovered that I had gotten the last window seat, 46 K, that was my seat number. Anyway, can't help. It wasn't a bad seat though.
Once settled in, sent the last few messages from my cell and then that was it. I switched it off as you are supposed to.
I really felt bad after switching off my cell phone :( No more messaging, my cell phone had seen its last message and last call. I was hopefull that no one would come sit in the seat next to me. Or rather that person would miss their flight :D.. I know that its mean to think like that, but I was just hoping. Anyway, after some time a lady came and sat down next to me. She happily settled in and then went to sleep. You want to know how? She's a frequent flyer. How do I know? I asked her later. Well so much for my no one next to me...
After some time they started serving dinner/extremely early breakfast. I chose the non veg, and a soft drink ( I don't drink hard drinks/wines, they all taste bitter to me and I've never felt like "acquiring" tastes for it). Anyway's, ate my food and was getting ready to catch my 40 winks.
Then it happened... After a couple of hours (maybe 1 or 2), my stomach gave in. It started behaving weirdly and then I knew that something would go wrong. I had a stomach infection. So I struggled through the remaining journey until Frankfurt. During the last hour of the flight the person next to me woke up. And I asked her whether she was a frequent flyer. As it turns out she has her kids in the states and one of them is working as a lawyer. Didn't bother to ask many details. I think she was heading to Chicago. Then just had some general talk about the flight and how the connecting flight would be and some general information that might be useful to me when I got down.
Like how to shift b/w the terminals or where it might be. Things like that. Then got down. The landing was awesome. Very nice landing (as opposed to my landing in Houston). Either way, disembarked in Frankfurt, and the plane didn't join the terminal. Instead we had to take the shuttle to the terminal. Then had to find my way to the destination terminal. Luckily my luggage was shipped all the way to Houston, so I didn't have to go about doing anything about that.
I was a bit worried at Frankfurt since generally they link up the plane to the boarding area where you can disembark. This time though we had to take the shuttles and go. Also the person on the flight told me that this usually doesn't happen. Either way, Frankfurt is a huge airport and I had reason enough to worry (First time flyer). Got onto the bus and then went to the terminal.
Over there there was a huge chart which displayed the flights and their gate numbers. Although Frankfurt only has 3 terminals or so, each terminal has 60 odd gates. That's really really huge!! But I'll give them one thing, the organization is excellent. You can just look at the boards with arrows and it will take you where you need to land up. There is a skyline (tram) which takes you between terminals and then you can walk to your gate.
Before you reach your gate though there is a security check. It was weird, I felt really bad when that dumbass asked me to remove my shoes so he could check them. (Later I found out it was the norm after some bomb blast occured and the source of the bomb was the shoe. This was some time back though). They even made me remove my laptop and vaccumed it to check for lord knows what. Was I bringing dust into the country maybe?? Man, sometimes can't figure out these people. Anyways, then I went into the waiting area to board my next flight.
On the next flight, I went in and bad enough I was again towards the end of the plane, this time sitting next to some guy who barely knew English himself. Anyway, just after the flight took off, one of the flight attendants came and asked me "Are you a Hindu?" and then when I replied affirmative, he put a sticker on the back of my chair and went along on his way. Now I was wondering why in the hell did he do that? While they were serving the first meal, I got the answer. When the hostess reached my chair, she was like "Here's your special vegetarian meal", Now the weird thing is that I was wondering if they didn't do this for me in the previous flight then why this one? I couldn't really figure that one out. But who cares.
I was unhappy that they gave me the veggie meal without asking me in the first place. But then later I was happy since the non veg was either turkey or salmon or some other thing which I never was fond of or hadn't tried and didn't want the flight to be my first place to try it. Plus, my stomach wasn't really keeping well either and I really didn't want to eat much. I just wanted something simple and kept myself mostly on breads. I also took some medication to help my stomach settle down and I tried to get as much sleep as I could.
Touch down, and then I got off and headed towards immigration. There was a huge queue there and even though I had arrived on time, I knew I wouldn't get out before at least and hour. I also knew my sis and bil would be there, but then there's nothing I could do to inform them that I was on my way out. I am sure they were getting worried (and they also told me later that they & my mom did) coz I was to land at around 1:35 and by 3:00 I was still not out. My sister was worried that I would've blabbered about the food stuffs at the immigration and they would've held me up for some or the other reason. Hmmmm.... she doesn't give me credit in those areas of managing :D...
That wasn't the reason tho'. The reason was coz 3 flights had just landed (Lufthansa, British Airways & Singapore Airlines) and they had to do the immigrations and customs for some 3*400 odd people. Finally finished the immigration. The guy was pretty cool, just did his work and then went on, asked me if I was carrying any food. I said no. Then asked me if I was carrying alcohol... I laughed and said no.. then realized I shouldn't have laughed :D.. I laughed coz I was wondering why the hell is he asking me such a question? I'm a student and on top of that I never drink. So do I look like a drinker?? :D... I know its a routine question, but it still sounded funny to me.
Then went to pick up my luggage. I thought I might struggle like hell with it, but then that didn't happen. I managed to load it onto the trolly and then take it out to the customs area. I just gave him my form and then he let me through. No checking, nothing. When I went out I saw my bil waiting and was wondering where my sis was. It seems she had gone out to call my parents to find out whether I had got held up in Frankfurt or lost my way or something :D.. Man... that was too much :D... Anyway, she came in and then we went to the parking lot. Everyone was excited and relieved to see me as much as I was to see them :). Something missing though, it didn't (and somehow still doesn't) feel like I'm in the US of A.
Anyway, got out to the parking lot and into the car seat. Then went home. |
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