Not Miami, like you'd perhaps thought.
Nothing could've prepared me for that REALLY LONG journey than perhaps the craziness of American college football (which you get only here, so there goes that plan)! It was something like this: Kolkata to Delhi (2:30 hours), transit at Delhi (5 hours), Delhi to London (9:30 hours), transit at London (4 hours), London to Miami (9:30 hours), transit, immigration and customs at Miami (4 hours), followed lastly by this 1:30 hours' flight from Miami to Tallahassee.
I'm yet to see that last bit of the flight, as I think they had to carry me to that American Eagle plane since I was snoring loudly somewhere on the terminal floor. Yes, literally. They had to shove me up, "Sir! We've landed!" said the steward for perhaps the last time, while crash carts were prepping beside him to revive me back into consciousness.
I met some really interesting people on the flight. There was this cute girl I forgot to ask the name of in the Delhi to London flight, who sat beside me. She was going to start her Master's in 'Tele-communication and blah-blah' from some university in Denver - I didn't catch the name, and stayed shut up. It was a long flight and we talked about the things like why I chose research in biological sciences, and why she chose to work in telecommunications and all those feelings about leaving Kolkata and New Delhi, and what sort of life we expected after this. She seemed nice, quite composed and disciplined compared to others who came to the States for their Master's and "to have some fun". It's a pity we didn't exchange contact details. Both had to rush as soon as we landed at Heathrow.
On the next flight I met this really cool guy named Jay Green. He's an American freelance photographer who lives in Cyprus. And what makes him awesome? Well.. here's that one golden sentence for you:
He takes photos of conflict zones.
Yes, he's an American photographer in his 50s (53 to be exact), who shoots photos at conflict and war zones and stays fit by riding miles and miles of bikes along the mountains and the sea. He was traveling to the US to meet his girlfriend in Texas and two kids who were just a little younger than me. So we chatted about India, Pakistan, habits and differences in habits, life in the United States of America and women. He really wanted me to drop my studies of cancer and try to find the ways around a women's brains. He was convinced that it's a Nobel-worthy research work. And I was all ears!
Now he was flirting with the two stewardesses all this while. One of them, named Susie (must've been in her 30s) was flirting back. He gave them some kind of written recommendations - something that went above my head - and Susie invited him home. Both of them turned out to be brought up in Georgia. He almost monopolized Susie's time but she didn't mind. At the end of the flight, she turned a heavy and large packet of 'gifts' over to him and said "Compliments from the crew, sir" and winked.
I wonder what it was. Jay was confused out of his wits as well, but was polite not to look in it right away.
I was picked up at the airport by Johanna, a friend of my roommate's and she took me to this amazing burger place - where I had a sandwich which was filled with a little of all the good things in this world: sunshine, music, hot-water bath and deep sleep. It was so heavy that I had to pack up the rest of it and have it as dinner later in the night. Phew, I still get the smell of meat when I burp!
Oh, excuse me.
It's been 4 days and a little more, and I think I've totally grown out of the jetlag by now. I lived the first 4 days without my roommate as she was yet to move in so I went exploring the town with Radhika, who is a fellow graduate student here this year - PhD in Neuroscience. We shopped around a lot, cooked food and I met her roommate who turns out to be a Bengali from New Delhi, four years senior working on some super amazing neutrino cosmic proton structural quantum energy nuclear Physics shit that went above all our heads. But she's nice and has a car, which makes me think that she's even more nicer. Kidding.
I met my undergraduate college junior from India - Divya - she's here for her PhD in Chemical Engineering. Earlier yesterday, we had something like a potluck. I cooked aloo-matar-curry (recipe for which I checked from the internet) and jeera rice. They cooked dosas and some lip-smacking chutney to go along with it. It was nice and amusing in a way that all this while, I never really missed India! It was like India is here all along.
This being a summer break period in a university town, it is all but empty. The streets are empty, the parking lots are empty, the trash dumpsters are empty and the departmental stores are empty. Also, much to my inconvenience, the bus routes are infrequent and less in number too. I have to walk all my way to the campus, which is not so weird for me, but for some reason, people here get freaked out at the thought of walking!
You have a greater chance of running into a cyclist or a jogger on the pavement than meeting a pedestrian.
My roommate walks in yesterday evening, and declares two things - one, her car has been attacked by ants which is weird; and two, she's brought an Xbox along with her from home. Best roommate ever. Period. Lets see how the days go by as I get busy in my work past all these orientations and sessions and workshops. Will get back to you guys if I get anything noteworthy worth sharing! Tata, till next time!
