The year gone by – an afterthought

Phew! It has been one long year. I landed on American soil for the first time in September last year in pursuit of the American Dream. There have been some upsides and some downsides between then and now. Lately, one fine day an unusual - though not bizarre - thought came to my mind – that I should look back at the past one year and translate that into words. So here we go! Before I begin, let me ask for a little excuse; I would take the liberty to be quite selective in putting forward the events that I please to.

Almost everything about this country has surprised me, pleasantly of course. There has seldom been an instance where I have found myself complaining about a thing or two. I feel sorry to disappoint the cynics who might already have read between the lines and arrived at the conclusion that I’d hail everything that I have come across in this land and deride similar occurrences eight thousand miles away. That certainly would not be the highlight of the next few paragraphs!

I have always been fond of seeing new places. Unfortunately I did not get a lot of chances to set out and go places that are home to some amazing people, amazing culture. Therefore I made it a point to visit as many famous places as I could manage to in this busy schedule of mine where even thinking of a leave, other than the ones already designated, is criminal. And I’d be the first one to admit that I have not been very successful in this pursuit. But whatever little success I have had, have left everlasting memories.

So far I have explored only a few famous places in this region. Nonetheless, I have chosen different directions to head to almost every time – places varying from Toronto in north to Florida in south; New York in east to California in west.  Every trip, however small it may have been, brought with it some amazing experiences.

Located in the mid-western vicinity of St. Louis, there are not many big tourist destinations to bank on. But that couldn't stop me. It had hardly been a month since my arrival in US, when I, along with another friend, set out for a road trip to Toronto, Canada approximately eight hundred miles away. We halted at Chicago, Illinois (for leisure) and Detroit, Michigan (for visa stamping) before eventually reaching Toronto where we were very warmly welcomed by a good old friend and a couple of his cousins. Those three days in Toronto during the Thanksgiving vacation accounted for some real fun after which we started our journey back home which was very brisk after all the exhaustion in Toronto. The journey itself can be a lot of fun - that is something I realized then. But the time in Toronto was by no means less fun-filled – a visit to the Niagara Falls and the CN Tower (owing to my huge liking for skyscrapers) bear testimony to that.

Come Christmas and we were ready with our plans. This time we were south bound to the beautiful state of Florida. We had planned to see places like Miami, the Keys and Orlando. After landing in Miami, we straight away headed further south to the Keys. The drive from Miami to the Keys on the historic Highway 1 was breathtaking. Honestly, few others would compare to that drive. The Keys is a group of islands. We chose to go to one of those islands called Key West which happens to be the southernmost part of the country. Jet skiing for a couple of hours in the Atlantic Ocean must be an experience of a lifetime; it becomes more fun when you are lost in the Ocean and can see absolutely no one but water in any direction you look. But that surely was not a problem to persist for too long. That night, after dinner and hanging out at the local Hard Rock Cafe, we wandered till late in Key West Downtown (if we got the place right) before heading back to Miami.

The next whole day was spent lazily on South Beach in Miami and the night in Miami Downtown. That to me is the perfect getaway from the rigors of work. It provided for a day where we could get ourselves some rest before leaving next morning for Orlando where two long days were awaiting us. Nonetheless, those two days in Orlando were just amazing. Disney Land is too big a place to be seen in just one day. So we pursued just one of the many theme parks; it was called the Magic Kingdom. The place was packed to capacity primarily because it was the Christmas day. The Christmas parade blew my mind away. The last day of the trip was attributed to the Universal Studios in Orlando. The big roller coaster rides have never failed to fascinate me and this place was no exception. But what stands out for me in the whole Universal Studio experience is the Harry Potter attraction. That was mesmerizing. That sure took me to another world – the world of witchcraft and wizardry where we are called the Muggles.  And that was how the trip came to an end. Next morning we took a flight back to St. Louis waiting for the next vacation to arrive.

That was the last vacation of year - surely one worthy of signing off the year gone by in grand style. The next vacation took a while to come by. I shall continue talking about that and the one after and a lot of other stuff in the upcoming posts.