Please read Part I here.
Flight
It was also one of the first times, I had used the escalator. I stepped right on the yellow line and almost fell backwards with my stroller while moving up. All through my wait at the arrival lounge, I was hoping to have a glimpse of the aircraft that was going to fly me, to see such a thing for the first time in close quarters.
After a wait for sometime, our boarding passes were checked and we were led through what appeared to me to be a passage into what appeared to me to be a big waiting area with columns of seats. For the first 10 minutes or so, I didn’t understanding why we were put up in this second waiting area when it was already time for take-off. Only after sometime did I realize that we were inside the aircraft already 
. My knowledge of people boarding aircrafts came from watching MGR movies, where MGR would climb the staircase to the aircraft in the final scene and bid good bye to everyone before “Subham” appeared on the screen indicating the end of the movie. I assumed that this was the only way to board aircraft . Moreover, the aircraft itself was so huge and its capacity was way beyond my imagination and hence it was difficult to realize I was actually inside one.
After overcoming that initial shock, passengers were bombarded with an array of announcements and instructions and a little later, the aircraft actually started moving, albeit backwards. The aircraft was in motion for sometime and then everything came to standstill. It was pitch dark outside, save for some violet lights, and the view didn’t change for quite sometime. I assumed that the aircraft had already taken off and that the violet lights were how the ground looked from above . To my dismay, for the second time in half an hour, the flight actually took off only a short time later and only then I realized that the violet lights were the runway lights.
Transit
At Frankfurt, I didn’t read or follow any of the instructions. I just followed my colleague who took me to the terminal where we were board a different flight to Philadelphia. Again, I didn’t understand “through checkin” and all through the transit at Frankfurt, expected to collect the baggage that I checked in. The Frankfurt to Philadelphia leg of the journey was uneventful, except that the food was more alien than the one in the first flight.
In the US of A for the first time
If I had assumed that all my mini-adventures were to end when I landed in Philadelphia, I couldn’t have been more wrong. We were to proceed to a different state from Philadelphia by cab. The cab driver took sometime to get the route for what should have been an hour long journey. Only when we reached our supposed destination did we realize that the address that was given to us was that of an apartment leasing office and it had long been closed for the day. I’ll ever be grateful to my wonderful manager who provided that address to first time travellers. My colleague informed the cab driver that we had another friend that we could call and crash at his place for the night. At this point, I asked the cab driver to stop in an “STD booth” so we could make a call. He gave me a reaction that I still cannot forget . Understanding out plight, the cab driver arranged for a conference call, so we could talk to our friend and get his address. Again, as the cab driver drove and searched for the new address, I amazed him by asking him to stop the car and ask a passer-by , that too in an interstate. “WHAT?”, he asked me and I never opened my mouth again .
The whole of my first stay in the US had a lot of these adventurous moments that keep coming back to me whenever I think of an overseas travel. I never tire of repeating this story to anyone and everyone and hence wanted to register this in my blog too. I must confess though that it was not even half as fun penning down the story as it is usually talking about it. Though recalling these incidents always brings a smile to my face, I cannot forget how nervous I was during my entire first flight
