Weekend in San Fransisco
I had been in the US for a week and by this past weekend, I had already been driving (and getting repeatedly lost) on the US freeways.
I live here in the Calsoft apartment in Milpitas-California, with my two roomies - Siva and Vivek. We shop, we cook, we wash our own clothes, we do everything on our own! This isn't so much of a big learning experience though - nothing new for me.
This place is what is known as the "boys apartment". Any girls who need to come to the US get their own accomodation (sponsored by Calsoft of course). Dhanashree is one such girl... She lives in ... well frankly I have no real understnading of where she lives... I just followed the navigators (Vivek's) directions to her place.
This Saturday all four of us decided to go to San Fransisco for a trip. We got up pretty late because it was Saturday. Called up Dhanashree at about 9:30 - she had just woken up. We three boys got ready, got dressed, and we drove off in my car, with Vivek being the expert navigator. We picked up Dhanashree and then she was the navigator for the rest of the trip.
Everything in the US has a specific way of doing things... You stay on the right track and you'll reach your destination in the shortest possible time. If you get lost, then the roads are like the world biggest maze. On the first 2-3 days I was driving, all I did was get lost and get honked on. btw, getting honked = being rudely insulted. Its like someone verbally cussing you.
After a weeks worth of driving, now I am beginning to get a hang of what to do when I get lost or miss an exit, etc.
Everything is ordered, and rules are obeyed ... in most part.
Its a total departure from the chaos that you'd experience on Laxmi Road or near Tulshi Bag. Even the Bombay Pune Expressway, with all its lanes and supposed lane discipline is completely insignificant to the freeways here.
Going on the Bombay Pune expressway is something of a speciality wrt normal life - by which I mean that common commuters like you and me usually wont bother going on to the Expressway unless we need to go to Mumbai.
Out here, the freeway is the standard mode of travel. There is nothing special about it. You don't use it because you're going out of state or to another city.
An appropriate comparison would be to use the freeway to go to Kothrud - without any potholes or the "one-inch-maximum-distance-between-vehicles"
Anyway, back to the San Fransisco trip -
Dhanashree took us to the Bay Area Rapid Transport (BART) in Fremont. There we bought tickets to go to San Fransisco.
BART is a standard train sevice between several cities and San Fransisco.
This train service goes from one end of the bay across to the other by going under a small stretch of the sea. At this point there's a very sudden change in pressure which caused all passengers in the train to wince and dig into their ears for relief.
The trains acceleration and deceleration led me to believe that it was an electric motor powered train... Which basically made it the US equivalent of a Mumbai local. It had stops every 5 minutes. The only thing different from Dadar to VT is the absense of the rushing, pushing and impossible chaos.
We disembarked at Embarcerado and walked all around the various San Fransisco Piers. Eventually we decided to get a cab to the Golden Gate Bridge. Being pretty tired, all three of us were silent and dozing off mildly.
I didn't realize when we reached the GGB. We bought some water substitues there and walked up to the bridge.
Its a surreal experience walking on the bridge and feeling what is actually just a road being held up by a bunch of ropes - ropes made of steel.
The temperature in California is very pleasant, especially because I'm from Pune. For all Pune-ites: Remember the excellent weather that Pune has in the time between the end of the rainy season and the beginning of winter (which is called Fall here)? The weather has stopped being hot and wet, the rains have receded and the air is dry and cool. Think about Pune at that time... Now imagine it being without any pollution. Thats California.
Clean fresh air. No pollution and wide empty spaces. Thats what I have kept thinking about since I arrived here.
We walked on the GGB till the middle tower. On the land side, the temperature was warmer. As we walked towards the middle tower over the water, the temperture steadily dropped by at least 2-3 degrees and the air became distinctly wet. Close to the tower it was quite windy and pretty cold. The rails were cold enough to be uncomfortable after a few seconds.
The combined effect of the wind and the continuous traffic caused the bridge to have a continuous thrum which could be felt through every metal part of the brigde.
After a brief photo shoot there, we walked back towards land, and then downwards, all along the shore and then to a food park of sorts. The guys had ice creams and donuts... I stuck to watching people having fun.
We were pretty tired by this time... It was almost 6 pm and we had to catch the train back to Fremont.
So we walked back to the train station and headed back home. After going to the Fremont station, we went off to a Pakistani restaurant called Shalimar where we had Chicken Biryani and headed home.
You know what I regret right now? The fact that I dont have a good camera.
I think its time to search for a good deal on cameras.
I live here in the Calsoft apartment in Milpitas-California, with my two roomies - Siva and Vivek. We shop, we cook, we wash our own clothes, we do everything on our own! This isn't so much of a big learning experience though - nothing new for me.
This place is what is known as the "boys apartment". Any girls who need to come to the US get their own accomodation (sponsored by Calsoft of course). Dhanashree is one such girl... She lives in ... well frankly I have no real understnading of where she lives... I just followed the navigators (Vivek's) directions to her place.
This Saturday all four of us decided to go to San Fransisco for a trip. We got up pretty late because it was Saturday. Called up Dhanashree at about 9:30 - she had just woken up. We three boys got ready, got dressed, and we drove off in my car, with Vivek being the expert navigator. We picked up Dhanashree and then she was the navigator for the rest of the trip.
Everything in the US has a specific way of doing things... You stay on the right track and you'll reach your destination in the shortest possible time. If you get lost, then the roads are like the world biggest maze. On the first 2-3 days I was driving, all I did was get lost and get honked on. btw, getting honked = being rudely insulted. Its like someone verbally cussing you.
After a weeks worth of driving, now I am beginning to get a hang of what to do when I get lost or miss an exit, etc.
Everything is ordered, and rules are obeyed ... in most part.
Its a total departure from the chaos that you'd experience on Laxmi Road or near Tulshi Bag. Even the Bombay Pune Expressway, with all its lanes and supposed lane discipline is completely insignificant to the freeways here.
Going on the Bombay Pune expressway is something of a speciality wrt normal life - by which I mean that common commuters like you and me usually wont bother going on to the Expressway unless we need to go to Mumbai.
Out here, the freeway is the standard mode of travel. There is nothing special about it. You don't use it because you're going out of state or to another city.
An appropriate comparison would be to use the freeway to go to Kothrud - without any potholes or the "one-inch-maximum-distance-between-vehicles"
Anyway, back to the San Fransisco trip -
Dhanashree took us to the Bay Area Rapid Transport (BART) in Fremont. There we bought tickets to go to San Fransisco.
BART is a standard train sevice between several cities and San Fransisco.
This train service goes from one end of the bay across to the other by going under a small stretch of the sea. At this point there's a very sudden change in pressure which caused all passengers in the train to wince and dig into their ears for relief.
The trains acceleration and deceleration led me to believe that it was an electric motor powered train... Which basically made it the US equivalent of a Mumbai local. It had stops every 5 minutes. The only thing different from Dadar to VT is the absense of the rushing, pushing and impossible chaos.
We disembarked at Embarcerado and walked all around the various San Fransisco Piers. Eventually we decided to get a cab to the Golden Gate Bridge. Being pretty tired, all three of us were silent and dozing off mildly.
I didn't realize when we reached the GGB. We bought some water substitues there and walked up to the bridge.
Its a surreal experience walking on the bridge and feeling what is actually just a road being held up by a bunch of ropes - ropes made of steel.
The temperature in California is very pleasant, especially because I'm from Pune. For all Pune-ites: Remember the excellent weather that Pune has in the time between the end of the rainy season and the beginning of winter (which is called Fall here)? The weather has stopped being hot and wet, the rains have receded and the air is dry and cool. Think about Pune at that time... Now imagine it being without any pollution. Thats California.
Clean fresh air. No pollution and wide empty spaces. Thats what I have kept thinking about since I arrived here.
We walked on the GGB till the middle tower. On the land side, the temperature was warmer. As we walked towards the middle tower over the water, the temperture steadily dropped by at least 2-3 degrees and the air became distinctly wet. Close to the tower it was quite windy and pretty cold. The rails were cold enough to be uncomfortable after a few seconds.
The combined effect of the wind and the continuous traffic caused the bridge to have a continuous thrum which could be felt through every metal part of the brigde.
After a brief photo shoot there, we walked back towards land, and then downwards, all along the shore and then to a food park of sorts. The guys had ice creams and donuts... I stuck to watching people having fun.
We were pretty tired by this time... It was almost 6 pm and we had to catch the train back to Fremont.
So we walked back to the train station and headed back home. After going to the Fremont station, we went off to a Pakistani restaurant called Shalimar where we had Chicken Biryani and headed home.
You know what I regret right now? The fact that I dont have a good camera.
I think its time to search for a good deal on cameras.
posted by Uv | 2:43 AM
2 Comments:
very Well written! It was like being there!
good one...me n my hubby had actually missed an exit while going from PA to NJ and it took us around 5.30 hrs to reach our destination instead of the actual 2.30 hrs....
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