Trip to Washington

This time I had been to the Capital city of the United States. i.e. Washington DC. It was as usual again one of the memorable trips. I think now for me any trip here in US is becoming a memorable one. These all trips and the blogs i'm writing about them will be a good reminisces for me down the life.

This trip was carred out on the week (07/08/2006), I had to take a Bus from here to New York and then connecting bus to Washington. It was complete night journey and I had a break in NY for about 45 mts. Reached the Capital city of US, Washington around 5:00 am and my friend Ram Mohan came to pick me up. The much planned trip was on go now. My firend stays in Maryland which is another state beside Washington. Washington basically has all the government offices and buildings. Mostly all the people stay in near by states Virginia and Maryland. My another friend Shailu was also staying with Ram. It was basically a reunion of 3 NIIT friends. We never thought that we would be meeting in this part of World. We chatted for long and got ourselfs ready for hang out.

I was really hungry, mices were practising for season of NFL in my tummy ;) . We went to mexican restaurant 'Chipotle' had really spicy food. It was after long time had some spicy food and as they say mexican foods and girls are really spicy ;). Tasted the first part and dreaming about the latter one ;). We thought of going to movie later on dropped the idea and went to apartments and rested on couch and took few photos. Check out them.
Link -1 : Washington Trip

In the evening we all went for a long drive and had lot of funs moving around the city of maryland. One thing I observed that the city of washington is not that well mapped/guided like NY city. Did some shopping and moved back to apartments. Next day morning saw my favourite player Federrer beating Nadal in Wimbledon Finals. Roger Federrer simply rocks and the way he plays tennis mesmerises everyone. Our first visit was Maryland Temple - Siva Vishnu Temple, it was so good, the temple had the dieties of all the Gods. Lord Venkateswara idol was just like the Tirupati one. I was really happy to visit it. The Prasadam which we had thier was so tasteful that I packed few more packets for my dinner also. Getting such good indian food is rare in US ;)
We moved ourselves towards Washington and explore the city which is famour for musesums, memorials and monuments. Washington is home to numerous national landmarks and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in US.The World famous Smisthonian Institution is located here and today Smisthonian is a collection of museums that include the Anacostia Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum, National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of Natural History, National Portrait Gallery, National Postal Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, and the National Zoo. We cannot cover all the things in a day or two.
So first we first visited the National Air and Space Museum (NASA). It maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world.It has around 50000 aircrafts that range from Saturn rockets to jetliners to gliders to space helmets to microchips. To name few aircrafts which are at display are the original 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1, John Glenn's Friendship 7 spacecraft, the Apollo 11 command module and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. Check out these photos which were taken in the museum. Was amazed to see such great crafts at display, saw the equipments used by astronauts when they are in space. It was a memorable experience.

Link -2: Washington Space Museum

Basically i don't enjoy watching musuem but the next one National Museum of Natural History was scintillating experience. The museum has a total collection over 125 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites and human cultural interfacts. Notable exhibits innclude preserved pelts of mamals and Fossils of Dinosaurs . Adjacent to Dinosaur collection are exhibits which detail the evolution of earth.In another floor we can find Diamonds and Stones. A caution of note, never visit this floor with your wife, you will become bankrupt :-). The collection is awesome and the stones are glittering like anything.In the museum saw one of the rareset diamonds i.e HOPE diamon and do you know fact about it. It was mined in kollur mines in Golconda,India . Can you believe it ?. It is also the world's largest deep bule diamond and is more than a billion year old. There are many other diamonds/stones in the museum which takes you into fantasy world of jewellery. It took almost 2hrs for us to come out from the musuem. We went to National Archive Museum, but didn't spend much time there. It house thousands of documents covering every period in American History. Check out the photos through this link.

Link -3: Washington Science Museum

Next visit was for towards Memorials, visited the World War II memorial, Vietenam War Memorial ,the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Each memorial has got its own significance. National World War II memorial is a nation memorial to Americans who served and died in World War II. It is located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington monument. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national war memorial honors members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The Memorial consists of three separate parts — the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the most recognized part of the memorial. The memorial is sometimes popularly called the Vietnam Memorial, the Vietnam Wall or simply The Wall. The Lincoln Memorial is US Presidential Memorial built for President Abraham Lincoln. The Washington monument usually refers to the large white colored obelisk constructed as US presidential memorial for George Washington, also called as Father of the Nation. The height of the monument is 555 ft.
The other two placecs which I visited included US Capitol Hill and the White House. The US Capitol building serves as home for congress, the legislative branch of US similar to our Legislative building in hyderabad. The White house is the official residence and principal workplace for the president of US. It is the most secured building in the world I think. On an average 5000 peopl visit the place per day. Quite interesting building. Check out this link to view the photos.

Link -4: Washington Memorials and Monuments

I think I had covered the important places in washington. I had to catch my Bus around 7:30 pm to reach my place. I was really tired and exhausted was just waiting to sleep. While returning Bus got stopped a place called Brihmangton. I thought my place came so got down and later came to know it was wrong place. I had to wait for another 8 hrs in the Bus terminal for catching another bus to Syracuse. That stay has really tested my patience. Anyway in a trip we should have all kind of experience, so on the whole it was another memorable trip to Washington.
Thanks, :) Guru :)

My Trip to Renaissance Festival

At last i got something to update my blog after a long time. The reason for not updating was I was little busy with office work (some project deliveries) and other I hadn't been to any place which I can share with you all.
Well this time I been to Renaissance Festival, a cultural festival where over 80 stage and street performances by more than 200 professional actors and stage artist who recreate the look and feel of an English Renaissance Village in the year 1585.The Sterling Reniassance festival is delighting the people since 1977 and this year was the 30th Anniversary. It was the beginning of Summer splash !!

This was my first trip going out with An american family. We all (India team) were accompanied by our Onsite Manager (Jason Middaugh), along with his wife (Tina Middaugh) and one of our senior employee (Kay Dorrance). We reached the festival place which is just 1 hour drive from Syracuse. The way we reached we could feel the ambience taking us to old time. Even the ticket counters and the support staff wore costumes belonging to that era. Even there was a facility where we can hire a costume of that era and move around like that. We thought we are comfortable in what we are ;). The first show was 16th century warhorse tournament, where people called as knights show thier valor by fighitng with swords and joust. A live and full armoured sword play tournament was organized, it was thrilling excitement watching the horses which are so strong and hefty, haven't seen such horses before in my life. Wow ! watched a live show where people on horses fight with swords and try to destroy the opponents. The horses running, fight with the swords and shield and the most important was the play where each player carries a long spear and come in opposite direction on thier horses.This was exciting as we normally watch these stunts in hollywood epic movies oonly. Four Knightss were representing each side surrounded by audience and people cheer thier favorite kinght . In the last, the knights represented from our side won the tournament. HIP HIP HURRAY ! We all took snaps with the knights and the horses.
Next was the comic show called Mud Beggar's Show. These muddy beggars perform thier hillarious and classic comis from within the depth of town mud pits. Everyone cheered for them and it was another true performance by the stage actors. Now its time for Snacks and people are really crazy for food. We can find lot of varieties of food but to my unfortunate they are all non-vegetarian :( . Peopl were frenzy about Turkey Leg and Pork fodd.. ahhhha ! I hate to talk about it , anywaysy for me I had some cheeze pizza to keep my stomach calm.
The next show is called as Theater of Fools - Wacky comedy and magic show.Enjoyed the show as it was interactive with the audiences. People were asked to come on dias and help the actors perform thier show. The best part what I liked here is that audience/people never hestitate to participate and when they do they give 100% committment to it. This is something which we can learn from them. This goes in my learning things list ;)
Then there was another spanis show, I couldn't understand much of it, but as part of chorus laughed when people laughed, clapped when people clapped. We took few more snaps here and there. One more unqiueness of this festival is the Artisan's program, as it is the best of its type in the nation. People visit just to stroll the lanes and discover unique handmade gifts or special luxuries for themselves. Well any people having interest in artistry can really enjoy moving around. I'm not that great fan of it, so just kept on moving. One thing which I saw was pottery, artists created a beautiful jar through pottery in front of my eyes. I wished I had camera at that time with me to take the snap.
On whole it was great and exicting days spent after a long time. Well the day hasn't ended here as we thought, suddenly we planned to go to Fair Heaven Beach which is just 5 miles from that place. We spent good time near the beach by just handing around . Saw people playing beach ball, some people swimming ( if I had any idea about it, I would had brought my swimming costume, anyway better luck next time) and some people doing the most patience job. Can you guess ??? Its Fishing man, people sit for hours with a stick in hand and waiting for some fish to get into their trap. And some people enjoying riding on speed baot. Here you know some people have thier own Yatch board and they carry with them whenver they come to beach. People are ready to shell down few buks to lead a comfortable and luxury life here.
Well things don't stop here. We came back from the ride and straight away head to Pizza Hut We were literally hungry and ate one of the best pizza' i had in my life.
How about finishing the day with some more fun. So we went to Movie 'Mission Impossible III' in a near by theatre and spent the remaining evening.What a day I had folks, it took me to 15th century with all swords/spears and ended the day with fancy gadgets, missiles and pistols.
Thats all friends, hope to keep you updated regulalry. Hope you enjoyed the blog. 

Remarkable Experience of Niagara Falls Trip

Friends, I'm back with one more notable updates about my stay in US. This time I had been to the world's second largest falls i.e. Niagara falls. World's first largest falls is Victoria Falls in Africa. That whole week I was eagerly waiting when will weekend come and I can go to Niagara. Finally the day arrived on 06/05/2006.All our room mates and another colleague working here all planned to visit together. So my colleague Ravi hired a vehicle so that we can go by road. Niagara falls is 167 miles from our place and it can be covered in 2 hours.


We started our journey at 9:00 am and as per Weather.com the climate is sunny except some showers at our end. You know, the prediction of the weather forecast is very accurate here. Well during the transit we halted near a service area and had some snacks. Here also I had my snacks at McDonalds. I think I and McDonalds are made for each other. The biggest problem i found in US is getting vegetarian food. As usual I have to order Cheese Burger without meat, which is like eating raw bread. Anyway I got used to it . The highway roads here are called as Express Highways and they are proplery guided with directions . So there would be no problem for a person to reach his destination easily. This is one part which I liked about US, anywhere you go either New York or Niagara you are properly guided, no need to ask here and there and waste your time and we have a service on the internet i.e local.google.com and www.mapquest.com. Just provide the source and destination it will give you complete map of the travel. Just keep a copy of that map while you are travelling.


We reached Niagara on 11:15 am and and parked the vehicle near the Cannada Border. The bridge which separates the United States and Cannada is called as Rainbow bridge, because the shape of the bridge is like that. You can look into the photos which i will forward the link.As I was approaching the Falls all the time I remember was my DAD. If he would have been there, he would have felt so much proud. I know he is seeing from top and guiding me all the time. Love you DAD. Coming back to Niagara, we took some snaps near the niagara river which was heading towards fall. The first thing we did was took snaps from the Observatory deck, from where we can view the falls very clearly. Let me tell you some history/facts of the Niagara Falls. Niagara falls comprises of three falls. The American falls, the Bridal Veil Falls and the Cannadian Horseshoe falls. 90% of the falls come from Horseshoe falls, 8 % from the american falls and the 2% Bridal Veil Falls. These three falls collectively called as Niagara Falls. After looking at the falls from the observatory deck, i was filled with enthusiasm to see more. Our next trip is Maid of the Mist, a boat journey which takes us near the falls. This service is running since 1846 and on an average 2 millions people visit falls in an year. We took the elevator from the observatory deck and went down 200 feet. We were given rain coats to cover ourself to avoid getting drenched. There are two services of boat operating one from the american side and other from the cannada side. We were able to clearly see the buildings and the sky scrapper in that country. Our boat was approaching the first falls i.e. American Falls. When we reached the falls, I never in my life had seen such nature's beauty. The falls were so fierce that it was generating the mist everywhere and reaching heights of 170 feets. Quite mind blowing. As we approached near the Horseshoe falls, the Father of all falls, I can't express in words the beauty of it. WOW ! What a scen man, I'm telling if you ever get a chance to visit US, please don't miss watching Niagara falls. Its lifetime experience for me and I'm gonna cherish this moment for whole life. There was so much mist near falls and we were not able to see the things properly. Well our boat took a U turn and we reached the shore. I had no intentions of getting down from the boat, but I forced myself to get down. Next part of the journey was to visit Goat Island, where we can have a clear view of the Horseshoe falls and the Bridal Veil Falls from the above.


Do you know, why the canadian falls are called as Horseshoe falls, because if you have a arial look of the falls it looks like a horsehoe.The volume of water is 600,000 US gallons per second and that of american falls is 150,000 US gallons per second. There is a hydroelectric power station which generates electricty to US and Cannada states.In history of Niagara falls, only two times water was stopped to flow. One it was in 1848 due to icejam in the river and other time in 1969 to determine the feasibility of removing the large amount of loose rock from the base of the falls to enhance it's appearance. The interesting fact about it is that there are some dare devils who jump from the falls. The first person to do this activity was a lady, c'mon believe me it was a lady and she survived the falls. It was like she was tied in a barrel and it was thrown in the water and she survived with a bruise on her hand. People are so crazy about doing such activity.


Our trip to Goat Island is to visit the Cave of Winds. A small trip where you are down near the Bridal veil falls and you are just 20 feets away from the fall! yeah just 20 feets away. I was thrilled when I heard about it. Here also we wer given the rain coats and additional we were given slippers(tight grip), so that you cannot slip. We reached down through elevator and a guide followed us towards the falls. We need to walk on the wooden bridge and approach the falls. Seeing falls from boat is a different experience and going towards falls is completely different. You know we were able to see the rainbow near the falls and it was captured in a photo also. As we went near the falls, we got completely wet and as we reached the last point of the falls. Alas ! what a view, water was pusing us backward and we tried to go near. What a experience man. Awesome. Well this was the best part of the trip. I enjoyed a lot. We came back from cave of winds and headed towards the Terrapin point. Its the point where one can have a clear view of the horsehoe falls. We took lot of snaps here and returned back to main entrance. We had some snacks there in an indian restaurant. I'm very lucky that on my every trip, I get a indian restaurant to have food. We started our return journey around 8:30 pm and reached home at 12:00 midnight. Quite tired and exhausted, but a breaht taking, memorable and distinguished experience of the trip.


Well folks, I hope you too enjoyed reading the blog, just shoot down comments and wait for my next updates on the blog.

My trip to New York

Well Folks, here I come again with some updates. Last weekend I had been to the most populous and everyone's dream city yeah.. NEW YORK. I was as usual excited about everything in US these days so was for my travel to NY. I travelled to NY on friday at 3:00 AM. Took a Greyhound bus service and reached NY around 7:00 AM. My Colleague Santosh came with me and we planned to stay at his friends place in Parson's Blvd in Jamaica. We got down at 42nd Street, it is also called as port of authority. The bus terminal here reminds me of our Imlibun Station. It is also very big and got lot number of platforms. There is Subway (Metro railways) connecting to the bus terminal. Most of the New York is connected through subway, something like Local trains of Mumbai city. I'm sure Mumbai people would love this CITY, as the same thing which I saw in mumbai, exist here also. People rushing, getting down steps to catch the train and doing all thier chore activities in train itself. Well the best part of Subway is that even a stranger can easily guide himself and reach the destination. Because the platforms are well mapped and directions are properly guided. One can see complete route maps of subway at each corner. If you know the street you can easily reach it. The New york city address mostly consists of streets and each streets are further divided into avenues. So If you have the street no and avenue no, you can easily reach to your destination.
We got down at a place called Jackson Heights, which is know for indian community with all the indian shops and cuisine restaurants. I was really hungry ;-) and that too Indian food for which I was desparate. Got into an indian restaurant and had good buffet lunch around 12:00 noon. What a way to start the journey. Next we reached 34th Street (Penn Station), the place where the world's 20th Century tallest building is situated. Yeah you guys guessed right, I was referring to EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. I saw the photos of ESB with my DAD. And now I will be taking his place. Well to tell you some facts about ESB. It was built in year 1931. The tower was constructed in record 1 yr and 2 months with average 4000 workers per day. Quite amazing stuff. It has 102 floors. We went upto 86th floor and the scene from there was awesome, never in my life I climbed so high. Well many of the things happening with me are first time :-). We were able to view complete NY city and the sky scrapper buildings, they were reallly amazing, was wondering how people will get ideas of such tall building. I have taken good number of snaps, which I have updated on site (URL:). Our next destination was World Trade centre, took a subway and reached there. Really the twin towers which was NAGINA of NY is missing there. We also went to Wall St and other surrounding areas. We went to Battery park, took few snaps there. I couldn't go to Statue of Liberty as we went to the place late and tickets were sold. May be someother time I will plan to visit. Next we visited Brookyln and walked in the Manhattan area for a while. We were really tired and went back and took rest. The next day i.e. 04/29/06 we planned to go to Coney Island , we have a beach there and some fun rides. Before that I need to meet one of my friend (Srikanth) in Elmhurst Blvd, met him and he took us for a ride to near by places. We drive over brookyln bridge and Srikanth showed us the Science museum and Warships and Submarines also. We also saw the Rock Fellar Museum Centre from far as we were driving. The uniqueness of this museum is that other than the United Nation office, this is the place where all the Countires flag are hoisted.. We were really hungry by this time, so we had some snacks at McDonalds and moved our journey towards Coney Island.

Coney Island is small island which has a beach and some fun rides. We spent good time there, wathching people doing fishing, some playing in water and sea gulls moving here and there. From Coney Island, we came back to friend's place and collected our bag as we have to catch our Syracuse bus. We got down at 42nd street and went to Times Square around 8:30 pm. This was the best part of the trip as everyone says, when you visit NY you have to go to Times Square at night. Wow ! what a place man, the streets are completely lighten with diffrent kinds of lights, animation and advertising. I really liked it very much, as they New York is the best entertainment place. It lives to it's name. Took LOT of snaps and had some snacks again at McDonalds and moved towards Bus Station.

Well that end my trip of NY, it was one of the memorable trips and cherished one in my life. There are few disappoints also that I could not cover few places like Statue of Liberty, Madam Tausauds Centre, New Jersey and Empire State Building at night. Well I may plan to visit again sometime during JUNE. I will try to cover them at that time. Well Folks, hope you must have enjoyed reading the Blog. Please post your comments about it.

Guru

My Journey to America

I was really excited about my journey to America; as I was able to fulfill my dreams of going to America. It took lot of time for me to achieve this. The
most important person I was missing my was my DAD. He would have felt really proud of me. Everyone in my home were really happy about it. All my Well wishers
wished me success and conveyed Bon Voyage.

My travel itienary was on 15th April 2006. I had to catch a KLM Airlines flight from Hyderabad at 3:00 am. I reached airport around 11:30 pm and met all my
dear one and went into it. It was first time in my life that I was about to board an international flight. i was really excited about it and little bit
tensed also that Did i missed out any imp. document. But everything at Immigration and Security check-in went smoothly. My flight journey is something like
this; Catch a flight from Hyderabad to Armsterdam; Then from Armsterdam to Detroit and then from Detroit to Syracuse. What a way to start my journey, I got
the Window seat and that too just above Wings. Flight started on time and i was watching all the surroundings very curiosly. It took 8 hrs 45 mts to reach
Armsterdam. I reached around 9:05 am (Local time) and need to catch the other flight at 10:05 am. In Armsterdam, I hardly stayed for a minute, it took 15 mts
for me to go to another terminal to catch the flight; I had a small briefing session and boarded the NorthWest Airlines flight (NWA067), which is a Sky team
partner for KLM. The best thing in the journey from Armsterdam to Detroit was that in each seat has a personal LCD screen. During my journey I watched two
movies and the food was ok kind of thing. In the flight I was given a form to fill i.e. I-94 form. It is the form needs to be filled by any person who wants
a entry in US. Completed the formalities and I reached Detroit around 12:45 afternoon (local time). Took some time near port of entry and Ihad to collect my luggage and move ahead to carry other flight. As there was little time for my next flight; I was little tensed that whether I would miss my next flight. To my fortunate, my next flight was delayed by 15 mts. So i was relaxed and took the flight and reached Syracuse around 3:30 pm. My Colleague Slupaul came to pick me and I reached the apartments safely around 5:00 pm.

So this was my experience about the journey. The best part of the journey was that all the 3 flights which i took, in all the three, I got a window seat. And the other most important point is that during my whole travelling in the air; I saw only the day light i.e I was around 20 hrs in air and all that time i saw was SUN. Quite interesting.
Guru

My First week in US

My First week in US.

The First step I have achieved of putting my step in America. The next thing is working with highly professionally folks here in my office. I had to work with the the datawarehouse team and i was aware of everyone here @ onsite. So it was not a problem for me to interact and work with them.

My first day to office, I went with other colleagues and reached office on time. The travel distance from my #apt to office is around 4 miles and it takes 15-20 mts to reach. The traffic rules and regulations here are completely the other side as in INDIA. Here as the driving at right side, so all the directions and road movements go according. This was a really funny experience for me. And you know for me, going to office and coming back is something like going to RAMOJI film city. B'coz all homes look like similar and each house has good lawn in front of them. And hardly we see people moving around, as everyone move in thier own vehicles. One more thing which I liked about the american culture is that everyone treats you with a smile, even if you are a stranger. This type of attitude really makes opposite person more comfortable.
People have so much courteousy that even for small kind of work/help you do, they appreciate a lot.

Well all the weekdays, I go to office on time and came back on time, so people really maintain the timelines and are very discipline in this area. Even in thier work also, they are so discpline that I felt that I have to learn a lot from them.

Coming to weekend, been to DOWNTOWN, area where we have all the shopping complexes, MALLS and other important offices. Our home is in the outskirts of the city, so we have very less trasnsportation facility. At this time, I really felt that I should have learnt car driving. Anyway as they said, its not delay to learn. I made myself a point that when I come to INDIA, first thing I do is learn CAR and take License.

So on the whole it was a exciting week, I was reall missing is my parents and friends over there.
Any how I'm calling them regulalry. So in this way, I may overcome the home sick.

Well Folks I will keep posting about my updates.


Luv,
Guru