Just 4 days to go before I finally fly to Chicago. Am just too excited about it but work has kept me so busy that I have not even got time to enjoy this excitement. It's the first time am traveling outside of India, so you can imagine my excitement levels! I want to savor these 2 months and enjoy as much as I can without bothering too much about the money factor. I guess I have already saved enough to deserve this kind of splurging :D. Also, I will be watching all the sitcoms live :D:D:D.
Am flying with 2 of my colleagues so that's something awesome as I will have company throughout my trip. Our flight is schedule for 0855 from Mumbai Airport and we reach O'Hare Airport at 1830. And now comes the most exotic part....a Limo has been booked to pick us up at the airport :D:D:D...it can't get any more awesome than that!!! My friends aren't ready to believe that its actualy a Limo so will click pics and upload them as proof.
Our accomodation has been arranged at Extended Stay Chicago (http://www.extendedstayamerica.com/hotels/chicago-skokie.html). From the looks of it, seems quiet a good place to stay! We plan to use all the facilities to the fullest of extent :D:D:D. We got free phone calls throughout US, so I guess the phone will be busy almost always ;-). Thr room service doesn't was the utensils though :-(. So whenever we cook, its gonna be a lot of work!!!. Also there's a big mall and Walmart nearby, so sounds good :D. This place is a bit far from office so we will have to travel either by cab or train, whatever the Evanston office suggests. The company will take care of everything except personal travel, so any plans to roam around in US will have to be self-sponsored. We will be getting $20 per day for personal use, so will use that to travel to as many places as I can.
Chicago and New York top the list of must-visit places. I've heard that trips to Chicago are reimbursed so thats awesome! The depending on the schedule, I am planning trips to Bloomington, Michigan and Niagara Falls. Lets see how many of them actually materialize. As of now, I simply can't wait to go to the top of Sears towers and get a magnificent view of the entire city.
The only sad part about this trip is that I will be missing Diwali. For the first time in 22 years, I won't be at home for Diwali. I'll be working during Diwali....that sucks! But what the heck...am in US during Thanksgiving. Heard a lot about the cheap prices for all kinda stuff during Thanksgiving and its on the week before we leave. So our timing is perfect, shop during Thanksgiving and leave immediately in the next week :D:D:D:D.
There will be a huge difference in climate compared to Pune and imagine, I was in Mumbai last weekend and temperatures there were around 35 degrees and exactly a week later, I will be in Evanston with temperature hovering around 7 degrees. But I simply love winter, I love snow...so I guess its perfect timing for me :-)
The trip is not all that rosy though, I just have the ability to make it sound like that ;-). There's gonna be hell loads of work to do and my Manager has already warned me about the working hours. I presume its gonna be atleast 12-13 hours daily. I hope I atleast get weekends off to actually have a blast in my first visit outside of India.
You just can't imagine how excited I am and I have so much more to say....but as usual...office....gotta get up early morning everyday.....so that's all I can express with the given time constraint...next blog will be from Evanston..... :-)
