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Last weekend I drove down to Atlanta. Met Anand, did shopping & the best part visited the world’s largest aquarium!

People watching the underwater city- Click to zoom

This is the first time that I went for a long drive in US driving alone. Driving on the interstate in US is quite cool. But, as I was approaching Atlanta I didn’t know what was coming. The interstate road was mostly 3 lane at most places. As, I approached Atlanta the number of lanes started increasing and the number of vehicles started multiplying! From 3 lane road to 8 lane I reached in no time. When Atlanta was some 20 miles away I suddenly saw myself drving on a 8 lane road with lots of vehicles around me. Even though the speed limit there was 55 miles/hour nobody was driving below 70 miles/hour. My heart beats picked up great speed. For a moment, I thought that I am not going to survive. & the worst part was that there was no way for me to stop there! I was on a middle lane & changing lanes was looking impossible there. Car were swiching lanes at great speed even with very less space available. It was like a video game! But, I held my calm and started learning how to switch lanes & finally I took my exit without missing it. Within Atlanta the traffic was quite slow & could find my way with Anand helping me on phone.

www.flickr.com sheshagiri’s Georgia Aquarium photoset

Click here for the photo album of Georgia Aquarium

Click here for the photo album of Atlanta visit

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Long drive in car, photography & skiiing…..these were the highlights of my weekend at Mt. Jackson in Virginia. This surely is one of the most memorable weekends for me. Also, this is the first time that I drove for long distance in US, so I am going to remember this trip for a long long time.

Lake at Mt. Jackson, Virginia -Click to zoom

www.flickr.com sheshagiri’s Mt. Jackson, Virginia photoset

Click here for the complete photo album.

We had a beautiful house reserved for us for the weekend at Mt. Jackson. Actually, this house was given for the weekend to Vishal as a gift cos’ he was the employee of the year at their company! We drove down from Charlotte and reached there late night. The house was located in forest and it was quite a scary place to be at night. It reminded me of the movie ‘Evil Dead’. But it was an awesome location and a damn good house loaded with everything that can be asked for — cooking materials, toileteries, indoor games, TV, dish antenna……etc…etc..etc. It had everything that a full fledged house will have! People from different cities arrived at different times. Finally we bacame a crowd of more than 10 people!

Saturday morning we went to the skiing resort. I did skiing for the first time in my life! Rahul initially taught me how to do skiing. But he forgot to mention how to turn and how to stop!! Thsi led to a big funny situation. First time I started from the top, I started picking up speed. Then I see I am about to crash into a woman & I don’t know how to turn or how to stop! I started shouting …..’heeeeeeyy’…. & somehow I missed her & proceeded ahead. Then I see her child is sitting on the snow and I am about to crash into it!! I once again started shouting…’heeeeeyyy’…but this time I couldn’t avoid crashing into the child. But I spread my legs & the child got through in between my legs (as the child was sitting) & then I fell down! It was a real comic situation!

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Here are some of the photos taken during my daily life at Charlotte. You might also like to read this article In Charlotte, my appartment and daily life because the photos and the article are related.

Night view of Charlotte from terrace of a building (where cars are parked)

A view from my office

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Life in US without having a car is as good as not having life!

As such going to office has not been a big problem for me. Here we have got buses at regular intervals which go to down-town where my office is located. But, if I have to do anything more than that like shopping at Wal-Mart or anywhere else, or if I need to visit people around or if I have to visit other towns/places during weekends its extremely difficult without having a car. But the best thing about US is that here renting a car is quite easy and affordable. Its a big business here and there are lots and lots of car rental companies in US which makes renting a car a simple task.

The last weekend I decided that I have to rent a car and start driving in US soon. That’s the only way towards freedom here! Since my company is not too big I don’t really have many contacts at Charlotte. So, it was quite difficult for me to find people who would help me to rent car and drive it back home & then to teach me a bit of driving fundas of US. Somehow finally I got a friend free for sometime, hired a taxi and went to a car rental company and hired a Dodge Neon car. He helped me drive the car till my home & then he was out for his personal work. Then I got hold of another person with great difficulty and went for a 40 minute drive with him. Well, after that even he went out of my reach. Then it was just me and my car! My car was waiting for me in the parking lot and I was sitting in home wondering whom else to catch. But, it looked like the people on my small contact list of Charlotte were busy that day.

Then suddenly, out of the blue I got a phone call. It was my cousin Harsha from California. He told me that even he faced similar problems like me when he first came to US. He told me that I should take the car out myself & there is no better way of learning a car. In US it’s difficult to find people who can spend lot of time for us & if we keep waiting we may end up learning car very late by which time I would have lost lot of valuable time in US. But for him his wife was with him when he first came to US & she was always there in his car guiding him where to drive by reading maps. But, I am all alone here!

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I have just landed in the Land of Dreams. Had quite a big journey of 40 hours from Bangalore to Charlotte.

My journey was something like this. Catch flight from Bangalore to Delhi. Then wait at the Delhi airport for 6.5 hours. Then fly to Paris. Wait in Paris for 6 hours. Fly to Atlanta. Have immigration and customs check. Spend 4 hours at airport. Fly to Charlotte in North Carolina, US.

My father and Madevi (our cook at Mysore & also my childhood caretaker) helped me pack my luggage & dropped me to the airport. I made sure that my ticket, passport, travel insurance & invite letter are with me. Checked in my baggage and boarded the Jet-Airways to Delhi. Got a window seat (got it in all the 4 flights). So, most of the time I was looking out of the window & it was quite interesting. It made me realize once again how small Earth really is.