My first US conference- part 1- the journey

You’re attending a Gordon Conference! At California! Isn’t that awesome kid? You’re awesome! Also, getting to witness the historic LA wildfires. xD. Kinda scary ngl. Writing this sitting in a hotel in California while listening to Hotel California

Anyways, it was quite a journey getting here. About an hour to get to the airport, 5 hour flight to HK, 7 hour layover and another 10 hour flight to LAX, 1.5 hours at the long immigration line and a 2 hour drive to the secluded village where our conference is held. We decided to take the airport bus from Mekhri circle- it is close to campus and a lot of KIA buses pass through there. However the auto also had to drop my mom at Cant, so we got down quite far from the bus stop and had to walk with my big suitcase. Finally we boarded the bus and the whole time I was freaking out. I was going to be so far from home. What if they kick me out of the US just after arriving? I was going to be without my partner for a long time.

I cannot believe I spent 7 hours at HK! I slept for sometime because it was a midnight flight from India and the sun rose early because we were going east (To the sun!). I could see the beautiful sun rise from the horizon. We were woken up at 4am IST for breakfast -_- Little did I know that was the meal that I would have to do with for the next 10 hours. Anyways after landing at HK I spent about an hour using the washroom, going to the flight transfer zone, checking if I have any lounge access area etc. Upon finding that credit cards only work for indian lounges I had to find another place to relax (or shell a lot of money). Just after getting down the stairs, I found this mini-bed kind of structures, after that the boarding gates were starting which all just had chairs.

So I decided to grab a seat there while it was still empty. I figured I could also charge my phone and ipad with cable. Then I kept my head on the armrest and curled into the small space there. It was right near the terminal glass and there was sun just outside. I covered my eyes with my sleeping pad and put on my hoodie as well. Despite the uncomfortable seat and the sun from the glass, I slept for a while because I did not get much sleep in the night. Then I woke up and started reading a book on my ipad for half hour or so. I then really had to pee so after thinking about it for a while and realising I did not have much of an option I used the airport washroom. It then struck that I was far away from home- there was not water in the washroom. Came back and started reading my book again.

After a while, my mom called, and I was complaining about the lack of water. I tried to get some more sleep then. Read my book again. Overheard conversation of an old white couple with an indian uncle about how they visit India often, visit some ashram, gave up on NV because they did not want to hurt any animals etc. Then we had this surprise security check for our flight and they asked qns like- do you have weapons with the intention of hurting others? I was like…bruh…..Like I’d tell you if I had. That was weird. Then one of the ground crew grabbed my poster saying thats too big and put it in the cabin baggage assuring me that it would go with the fragile tag.

After waiting for some more time we got in the flight. The SE Asian girls next to me were nice and smiled. But the air hostess of Cathay pacific was so bad! They were being so nice to the SE Asians and so rude to Indians. Like they didn’t even give me my full meal. And when I told them I mentioned Indian veg while checking in and not asian veg she was “like this is what we have for you do you want it or not” and gestured to take it away when I was too hungry xD. Anyways, those bitches aren’t worth talking about.

After getting in the flight and having my meal I realised it was day time in US but night in India. So I tried so hard to stay awake while the rest of the plane was asleep. Thankfully the flight had a lot of movies- I watched wild robot, both parts of fantastic beasts and where to find them and HP and the chamber of secrets. As we approached, I could see the California coast out of the window- with its moutainous shores. I kept looking to see if we could spot any of the wildfires but I couldnt see any, may be we were flying in from the north? As were nearing LA the plane flew too close to ground and we could see the houses and roads. At one point the planes wings loomed large through my window and the houses below were too small, and when the plane tilted it seemed as if the planes wings might hit the buildings below. I wonder why we were flying so low, there werent any clouds as far I noticed and it got me really nervous- was something wrong with our plane? Then I started hearing a lot of beeps- coming at different times, and it got me even more scared. After I removed my phone from flight mode I got the same beep from my phone- it was an emergency warning to evacuate from the area due to the fires.

Then had to wait for 1.5 hours in the immigration queue. And there was no wifi in that area. So I played a game where I look at people and try to guess as much as I can about them- “This person looks like they fly business class, oh they also have a Louis Vutton bag must be business class”, or “This Indian guy does skin care- maybe he is single and insecure about his looks among the Americans”, “They are french”, “They are German- wearing comfy outdoorsy active clothes, looking fit and active”. And as the line neared, I was hoping that I would go to any other officer but that one guy who kept people twice as long as the others. As fate would have it, he is exactly whom I went to. Turns out he had a trick question- address of the destination. I told him the name of the hotel- but no- that was not enough- he was a federal officer and he wanted the address with the house number and the street number and everything. He let me use my phone though so I googled and showed him and he was okay with it. And that was it- I was in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Then, I had to search for my shuttle point. I found it pretty soon and even the name of the shuttle was written there. Since there was an hour to go for the next shuttle I wondered if I would find a place to sit and wait somewhere. But to my surprise the previous shuttle came and the driver let me take that. He also took my bags and kept it, and was very welcoming. I thought they may be racist to me in the US and not like me or be rude to me but they were actually nice. During the ride I could see smokes rising from the other side of the mountains. Finally reached the hotel at the end of the shuttle ride!