My first day in the U.S. of A.

Let me start off with a question: How do you recognise a desi, who comes to the U.S. on F-1 Status, at the airport ?

Answer: Look around you, if there's a guy or a gal having lots of luggage, all packed with the help of someone like the Great Khali sitting on it to make it shut (no offense to the man whatsoever), who looks dog-tired and is on the verge of collapsing in the queue at Immigration, then that's the person you're looking for.

You must be wondering, why I asked this question here. Simple, because I've gone through this same experience 2 weeks back, as have thousands before me, and as will thousands in the future. Tired, jet-lagged, completely flabbergasted by the drastic change in attitude & accent, everyone who comes to the States is somewhat disoriented upon arrival. Some suffer the misfortune of losing their luggage (as did 2 of my room-mates at JFK). Worse still, is the case of those who have a connecting flight to catch, and who end up missing it, or those who board it with the luggage having disappeared without a trace (yes, that happens sometimes too). The first day of anyone who comes to the US is full of surprises, and has a myriad of experiences which cannot be forgotten in a lifetime.

This brings me to my personal experience. I came to JFK on a flight that was supposed to land at 7 AM EST, but landed an hour earlier (surprising, isn't it ?) After having being woken up from a deep slumber in the skies above Canada to forcibly be given a rather early breakfast, we were given some forms to fill up (namely the white I-94 form & the blue Customs Declaration form). Then, after some time, at exactly 6:05 AM, I touched down on US soil, at the end of my virgin international flight. In the same groggy state, I deplaned and proceeded to the Immigration counter. After waiting there for over an hour, I came face-to-face with the officer, who inspected my documents and put the Immigration stamp on my I-20 (finally, I was in the U.S. of A., what an exhilarating feeling it is) There, I was so tensed up, that when he told me to press my right forefinger on the biometric scanner, I groggily proceeded to press my right thumb on it :-P

Anyway, having done that, and feeling a great rush of excitement, I proceeded to the Baggage Claim. Here, all my excitement was crushed under the full weight of my baggage, which was somewhere around 63 kgs. :-P Puffing & panting heavily, I managed to take my baggage somehow from the conveyor belt, and was desperately trying to get a trolley to make my life a bit easier. But I got a mixture of shock & surprise, when I found out that the trolleys could be taken for $3 (someone in India had told me they could be taken for $1 or so) I promptly reached into my wallet, and voila...no $1 bills....I only had a few $5 and $10 bills, so I asked an airport employee for change. Little did I know, that only beggars (panhandlers are what some people call them here) ask for change, and there's no such concept of "exchanging bills for coins" over here as is in India. To my amazement, the guy swiped his own credit card (or employee pass, or whatever it was), so I got the trolley for free. The thing to be noted here, is that he was an African-American guy, and human nature is not related to the color of our skin, as some of us wrongly believe (most international students are told to be wary of some specific type of people, as was I, when I came here...I'm not saying that all of that is false or hearsay, but I'm just telling all F-1 aspirants to let go of their misconceptions like these). Thus feeling elated, I came out of the terminal where my dear cousin was waiting to pick me up.

My first impression of the US was this: this a an awesome country, and the people here in general are very polite & helpful. Their mindset might be radically different from those who come from other cultures (like ours), but they immensely value & respect individuality & freedom in all forms. This, however, does not mean that they have a blatant disregard for rules, since in fact, it's just the opposite. Stick to the rules, do not plagarise, and always be polite & never hesitate to ask anyone anything at all, no matter how dumb the question might seem to be, and I'm sure you'll do just fine.

A final note to those of you who'll be reading this blog of mine, and who wish to come to the US for further studies: give this experience your best shot, and enjoy every moment of it, since this is one hell of an experience, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which'll remain with you till the end of your life, so don't screw it up ! All the best !