My Trip to US of A

When I landed in New York JFK Airport on December15th 2005 , I was not excited as I used to be when I travel to other countries!.We were a big gang,Myself,Dad, Mom,Brother,Sister-in-law,Sanky,Aunt,Uncle and cute little Tarika.....It was morning 8am but we were feeling sleepy...That's what is called jet lag!
We went to our rooms and slept like we haven't slept for days! It was a long journey..so we were relaxing!Then myself, Sanky, Vijay my bro and Usha my sis-in law, sat up on the bed at 4 am..we were in the same room....It was totally dark out side...I and Usha peeped out of the balcony....the streets were empty..and the funniest thing I still remember is that...Tarika was playing happily jumping from one bed to another holding her heart shaped balloon in her hands so early in the morning...We were very hungry we didn't know what to do..we didn't even dress up..we just walked out in our night pants and went down the streets to get some food!..There was a chinese food shop opened & we walked in...The fried rice and noodles and the chicken in sauce and fish fry all looked very yummy...we just grabbed everything we wanted and brought it to our room...and we all(four of us) sat on the floor in a circle and opened our boxes...food looked great...when we started eating it tasted yuck...those sauce were tasting bad....but we were damn hungry we ate it all!...and at that moment I wanted to eat stuffs like idly, dosa , sambar which i use to ignore when it was kept for breakfast in chennai!

It was 9 am and we started our New york city tour!..We ate our breakfast in Mc.Donalds and Lunch at KFC and I was longing for Indian food....In the evening we..took a train and reached New Jersey to meet our cousin Selvi and Saravanan ..we reached their home by 9pm....and she had prepared delicious dinner for us!..The menu was Chicken Biriyani, chicken gravy, rice, chicken fry, fish fry, raitha, rasam, sambar , curd...and Ice cream for dessert .. and I was like"Oh My Good God!"..... we just enjoyed our dinner...we were eatting for one hour I guess!I have never longed for food in my life at all...I visited all the other countries with travel agents where they take us to Indian restaurants for both lunch and dinner....so I never noticed the urge for food!This tour ,we were on our own...so we just had to grab food in the nearby Mc.Donalds or KFC or Panda express or whatever!
I should talk about my dressing here.....all I bought to this country is just 12-13 sets of fancy jeans and beautiful short skirts and fancy belts..and nice Low cut T-shirts...I just wanted to rock here..but the stupid thing was that..I dress up so beatifully but when I land outside the hotel....I had to cover myself with thermal wear, sweaters, leather jackets, gloves for hands and stupid cap coz we landed there in winter.....and all my beatiful dressing were covered inside those warm clothing!
Things just went the same way...we went to Buffalo, then Ontario in Canada...and the climate was very cold that I never stepped out of my room one full day!There was a small indoor heated- up swimming pool in the same floor where my room was located...I walked in and got inside the pool...I was all alone in the pool...thinking about my beautiful Chennai and my native place Thirunellveli...."what a beautiful place it is and and how good my people are and what the hell am I doing in this country?"....all I can do is just laugh to myself!
Well then I visited Toronto, then came to Las Vegas, and it was the first time I got excited coz the city looked colourful and crowded......I was very happy seeing so many ppl enjoying themselves gambling....those gambling stuffs made me curious...I started bugging my dad for dollars...and he gave a $5 bill in hand and I went and sat on a slot machine and my $5 turned to $15 bill...I won 10 $...I was so happy...then we went to our room..rested......my mind was fully set on the slot machine....Iwanted more money!Gambling made me addictive in 1 min. So I slipped out of my room taking only 5$ bill in hand and went to the lobby were the slot machines r there and played on the 25cents slot machine.....and I played for only 3 mins and to my shock I had no money left ... I had lost all my five dollors!!!! I walked backed to my room...I wasnt able to sleep.....next day morning I wanted to get my money back so I went to those slot machines and put another 5 dollars and I earned 7 dollars in total...I got 2 dollars+!...I was happy....I wanted more money so I put all the 7 dollars and finally lost everything....but still I went to my dad and asked more money..he was bugged..he gave me a $100 bill and said "Use this! Dont ask me any more coz thats ur spending limit!".... I jumped out of total excitement...but 100 dollars is a huge amount and I didnt want to spend it....so I kept it in my purse and didnt go next to slot machines for 2 hrs.....I dunno why?!....then I headed to the slot machine changing my mind!...when I went there to put my 100$ bill inside the machine...one fellow stopped me...he was this guy from the hotel...he asked me for my id card...I showed my passport..he said i am not supposed to gamble coz i am only 19 yrs old..the age limit to gamble is above 21yrs!....I was like"WTF?!?!?!?".......I felt like crying.....I just went to my room and sat alone..while my bro, sanky, usha all were downstairs gambling happily....the next day I went to another gambling place and sat on another slot machine and put my 100 dollars...and again another man stopped me and asked for my id!...I acted so smart saying that I have my id in my hotel room and that I am 21 yrs old!!..he stared at me up and down and said u look like 18 and said I am not supposed to play unless i have an id card...Gosh !..all the excitement I had just went in one day!

Then we moved to Los Angeles.. visited the Universal studios...It was not very interesting as I have visited a similar place in Australia.....then we wet to Six flags theme park..rides were not very interesting to me....all that I liked was those games where we play and win a prize...I won a bugs bunny stuffed doll then a dog, a tweety, a dino...lots of stuffed toys!..then we moved to Seattle to visit my brother-in-law's family there..Anand and Sweetha ...who recently had a baby!..As soon as we landed there..we had a baby naming ceremony function in the evening..and we named the baby Rahul!
We had great food cooked for us daily for a week by aunt( sweetha's mom!) and we did a lot of shopping there!..It was great fun..then we went to Vancouver in canada by car it was great fun!
We were now 12 of us!..and we went to the seattle tower on New year's eve to see fire works....and the place was really crowded..and at the stroke of 12 am the fireworks began and people were yelling saying"wow!, great!, superb!, awesome!, excellent!" But I was standing still and wondering.."how these americans will react after seeing diwali celebrations in chennai?!"...lolz
Those fireworks were nothing compared to the ones that I used to do it on the terrace at my home!
On Jan 3rd at 4am in the seattle airport..there were two groups....my mom, dad, tarika, bro, sis in law, leaving to India via new york and I was heading to LA with my uncle and aunt and sanky!.....another gang were staying in Seatlle for some more days..so we were split into 3 groups....We looked at each other as if we r missing something....each one going in one direction..we were the happy 12 ppl for so many days....but now everyone was sad..even though they will meet up soon in chennai in 2 weeks time..!But we cant enjoy like this in Chennai coz everyone will be busy with their work once they reach chennai... I decided to stay here in LAfor somemore days and have fun!....even though I didnt like it at the beginning ..I started liking the way we were enjoying!Wish I was just a kid like Tarika running around without knowing what is happening around us, not worring about food coz only milk and ceralac will help and just few barbie dolls and stuffed toys to keep myself occupied every second!..no worries , no confusions, My mom always carrying me in her arms, and someone taking good care of me and pampering me!...Life will be Just Beautiful!