US - First Glimpse

I got my first glimpse of Albany, US at about 1 AM , June 22, 2010 when the aeroplane in which i was travelling finally broke the clouds, above which i ve been flying for around 16+ hours now. After such long travels, sometime one gets really silly, so the first thing i did from up above, this i remember vividly, was to look for my apartment complex!!! haaah! i remembered the layout of the apartment complex we were booked in to stay from what my husband showed on Google maps which i so unwillingly stared into coz of his endless prodding (sorry huh! ;)), back in Trivandrum.. but now, at this moment, flying a few 1000 ft above Albany, suddenly, everything seemed so important!!..

I must say i ve never felt so really tired before...my eyes felt like it had some needles on it which would poke into my cornea if i tried opening them...i had a 4 month old baby in my lap who had refused to sleep anywhere else but my lap for the last 30 hours..  i was suddenly feeling ecstatic!!! Touching ground! Going to a hotel room and freshening up.. sleeping on a flat bed.. a pillow..everything left me wanting to land ASAP..Landing happened and i must say a lot smoother than a Kingfisher/Jet/Air India etc.etc. back home. (I love my country, am just talking about the planes!)

Albany airport was so beautiful, quiet and neat.. after all its the capital region of New York!..everybody from the plane were standing in a circle, waiting for their baggage and all were wishing each other good night and most of them dint forget to tell me how beautiful my lil girl was!.. it did bring huge smiles to my sleep deprived face every time.. We (read my hubby) had a huge challenge in finding out a taxi for us at 1 AM in teh night.. with a lil baby and a 'by now hungry and crazy' wife, that hurdle must have seemed ever so huge for him! But he is a smart guy!!( i married him coz he is! ) he managed to get a SUV coz we needed  huge space for all our luggage which had stuff enough to create a 'lil India' in our new American home!

My surprises starts here.. At 1 AM in the night, we got a taxi, which had a woman driver, all by herself!!! Gosh! I was happy coz i was so sleepy and groggy that i dint want to feel intimidated having a gigantic pot bellied guy as a driver at this time! i was prepared to feel weird sitting in a car going through the right side of the road, but surprisingly i felt nothing! my husband who seemed to ve regained all his energy on landing in US finally, was still (STILL!!!!!!) trying to point out boards and places which flew past us in the dark (which he had studied about in Google maps)... i controlled my temper to save him!

Finally we landed in Hotel Marriot where we would be staying for the next 2 days before moving into our new home. The lady behind the counter helped us with the keys and told us about the breakfast next morning.. there were some frozen food in the freezer but by then my hunger was totally killed, probably beacuse i was thrilled!!! I am in the US of A finally!!!

The room was good with a kitchenette(was my idea!) though it dint do much help! all of us had a bath and baby was finally changed into crisp new clothes. It was 4 AM by then and all three of us slept.......

i woke up with a jolt.. there was sunlight everywhere and i had no idea what the time was!! i knew my watch is wrong but....... i called hubby darling who was still so fast asleep.. clueless.. clueless!... haaaah! the TV..switch on the TV for time.. its 4:30 PM...!!! Goodness we slept  without breakfast ( that was complimentary), lunch, and in time for tea!!!!.. hmmm.. i lazily got up, made tea, chit chatted, changed diaper, still it was nt getting dark.. so went out for a stroll...

That, my friends, was amazing.. the freshness of the air, which i could feel inside my lung, thrilled me! .. the red big button, which we could press each time we wanted the traffic to stop, left me agape..(none of my friends in US ever told me about this!!!) ... soon after, one more things left me wonderstuck.. that the sun actually set only at 9 PM that day!!!..

I knew by then US has lot more in store for me...