the real journey begins...

Hey...
So Now m in Madison. Got Apartment, bought all the grocery..bread, eggs, sandwich spread, onion, tomatoes...dust bin, bath curtain,..etc. All set to cook by myself.

First week of College was the orientation thing full of events like Student Resources, Tour of Madison, Multicultural meet, Walk Ride and Sail and International Student Association. The only purpose of the event was to give us..the international students..idea of their lifestyle.

People here engages themselves very sincerely in all kinds of social work. They do tremendous amount of social work. I am trying to figure out the exact reason for that. Lets c...

First event (Student Resources) was not a big deal. We were made aware of few student organizations, Job opportunities, Different Clubs..like Sailing club, dancing club etc...
But the most interesting part was free cookies of different types, cakes and then free refreshment of American Snacks...Khup kai kai padarth hote pan mi ekachahi naav nahi saangu shakat...But cheese was amazing..And the ICE-CREAM..Madison is known for its dairy products...
Cheese was first produced in madison..And ice-cream is manufactured in our university campus..hmmm....very fffresshh

"Tour of Madison" was the best event I have been in till date..Overall there were over 500 international students attending the event. The purpose of the event was to take all international students on a tour of madison city.
Surprisingly for me..150 american families were volunteers for that event. They came with their cars, each family took 4 to 5 students in their car and they took us through madison on a predecided path. We were sailing on the roads of madison almost for 3 hours. And as if that was not enough..Finally they took us to an American's house for refreshment...Had a chat with uncle and aunty and also with other international students..And then they dropped us at our locations..
It seemed to me that these people like to mix-up with as many new people as possible. May be because they dont have anybody really close to them or they are just too good and generous.

Multicultural Meet was another very interesting event. All international students were made to gather at a location named "Union Terrace". Union terrace is the hot-favorite hang out spot of everybody in madison. There is a wonderful lake and union terrace is the place just by the side of the lake where you will find amazing food, Ice-cream, Bear and Girlsss...
So back to event now... they asked us to sit in different groups..and get to know each other..
In each group one person was senior and a volunteer. His role was to initiate the conversation and make everybody in the group feel comfortable. These volunteers were deployed by the organizing committee of the event...
I was totally new to such a thing. After some time I really struggled to think of topic to discuss on. So I thought just for a little time that we should know at least something about different countries...We should read on varieties of topics..Basically I talk very less so I found an area to improve on..

"Walk, Ride and Sail" was a fun part..
Walk and Ride was in general tour of University campus on legs and also on the bus..
Bus was very antic kind of a thing...So was very relaxing to be in that bus for an hour.
then sailed for the first time..and kept sailing for looong time...was wonderful..

All the above events were totally freee...

That was how the first few days of my college were...
Getting gist of the culture..places, community and their attitude..very positive and happy..

Hey there....finally i got d PC...for sum time at least...he he
soon ll buy a new laptop for me...
So my first flite experience was greattt..kay fundu vimaan hota...kaay sangu..!!!
seat chya pudhe screen vagare ekdum...bharpur muvis, tv shows, games..n most attractive feature was d live MAP...it was showin like where r u currently...over which part r u flying at the moment..!!! awesum man..!! I was a bit worried..when v wer above pakistan n afghanistan..!!! (he he he..)
khara tar kadhi hot nahi asa..pan mazya shejaari ek mulagi aali hoti...ahem ahem..!!! dont get xcited at all...she was d dumbest creature I hav met till date...she was flyin for the 3rd time...n she was like sittin in a spaceship or sumthin..!!n wen i told her dat m flyin for d first time...she was like..watt!!!"u look very confident..relaxed..n used to it..bla bla.."
well dont get impressed..wat else to expect from such a stupid gal..ok...my another neighbour was a lady as well n a manager in software company..she did her MS at almost my age n was working since then...n just started her graduation in the law field..interestin..hmm..!!
So got some important tips from her..dat was about d 1st part of the journey..

Then I got down at newarc airport(New york nave..mumbai ani thane jasa aahe na tasach new york ani new arc cha aahe).. consumed 3 hrs for customs n immigration..n still 5 hrs wer ther for my next flight..so kaay karnaar..nehami karto tech chalu kela..sagla airport palatha ghatla..it was a huge airport...Actually it had 3 terminals..Terminal A, B and C...and in each terminal again they had 10 gates..A1, A2, ..A10similarly for Terminal B and for C...Kainai...aaple platform astaat na tasach..they had a Air train which takes u around the airport free of cost....Manasokta chakraa marlya tya air train madhun...

There was a shuttle bus service also...which takes u around d airport by road...So roamed in d bus as well...Finally d moment came to begin d final part of d journey...all firangis wer ther wid me in the final flight....had very weired food in that flight..(je fukat hota tech khalla yaar..mag asach milnaar na..) Aso...

Then got down at madison...collected luggage from the luggage claim section...seniors wer there in time to pick me up..So went along with them in their car..
kaay ek ek road aahet...abababaabaababa...lagech gadi vikat ghyayache swapna vagare padayla suruvaat zaleli mala...
mag mhatla awaraa aataa..karjamadhe asataana garjaa kamich thevavyaat..
I lived with my seniors in their house for first 3 to 4 days..Housing pan ithe vegalach aahe..u get a fully furnished flat with all necessary cooking accessories..Now wireless net has to be bought..then everything ll be sett..then I got a map of university area...got aqauinted with some streets..Opened a bank account..got WiscCard (College ID), got the free bus pass..(so now I can roam around whole city of madison free of cost..)

So this is how d journey was till now...ll keep on updatin on new xcitin experiences...

Maja Maja aahe pan India chi khup aathavan yete yaar...

till then take care..

Miss u all...

Karan