21st August 2009: A “normal” day begins in Portland. But things which fall into being normal for me would make the regular people hit the panic button more than once. Things begin with me getting up at an unearthly hour, (this is normal for me since I am doing my Masters and our assignments and projects help us in attaining the state of insomnia!!) and get ready to leave for the airport to catch the 6 am Delta flight to New York. You would think it would be an easy affair to catch a plane and leave, but if you reach the airport at 5 am and have to reshuffle the stuff in your bags since they are over the weight limit, not that easy!!! After that ordeal, I finally bid goodbye to Portland…aahh Portland!!! I will definitely miss that city for I had a great three months of working at Pacificorp, but that’s another story. After a long freaking flight, managed to touch base at my last stop in the US, New York!! In my defense, JFK is a huge ass airport and people coming here for the first time could easily get confused, so do not judge me if I moved around in circles before finally admitting that I had no clue how to get out. So keeping my ego aside, I went to the hottest girl in that lobby (…but obviously!!) and asked for directions. After my lame attempts to stretch the conversation beyond the primary point of discussion, I set forth towards terminal 8. While walking towards the respected gate, it had not actually struck me that I was headed to Germany until I checked in at the counter which read “Air Berlin” and was greeted in German by the flight attendant, “ Guten Tag, Welcome aboard on Air Berlin” I assumed this is what she said since I could not understand the words coming out of her mouth, except for the first part. Wow...I am really going to Germany!!
22nd August 2009: Landed in Stuttgart with 2 heavy bags, one shoulder bag and one backpack, starring into the unknown. I had a similar feeling when I landed at the Dallas airport last year, but in that case I could easily talk to people and understand them. But here all I could think of was
why I am here??”. Fortunately the train station was right outside Stuttgart Airport, but walking with four bags, it felt more like couple of kilometers away. My only contact here was another intern, Roy who was working in my department at that time, with whom I started exchanging emails just two weeks before my departure from US. Talk about a reliable contact!! He had given me a whole page of directions to come at a common meeting point from where he would take me to my house. And I got this email only on the day before my flight. Talk about being prepared for the trip!! After dragging what felt like carrying a menhir, I reached the train platform. And then there was the first of my many tests in front of me, a ticket machine!! I spent a good 30 mins trying to figure out how did it work since it was all in German and no; it did not have a multiple language option. Weaving my way out of that language maze, I finally managed to get hold off a ticket to my destination. Zuffenhausen here I come.
I met with Roy at the station. He could easily recognize me since I was the only one covered with bags, and hey, nobody can miss a brown bald guy!! Although I was a bit surprised to find an Asian guy. I was assuming a big bearded, cigarette smoking German; at least that is what I could infer from the email exchanges. But somehow, I knew that we would get along very well. He on the other hand was also surprised since he was expecting either a third generation Indian from America or a south Indian with a big moustache, which he told me later in the days to come. After the initial small talk, I put my bags in my temporary room, got settled in and it was just 3 pm on a Saturday. Even after the 13 hrs of overnight flight, the jet lag and the whole exercise routine with my bags, I was not feeling sleepy one bit. Something was not right!!
Seeing me wide awake, Roy offered to show me around downtown Stuttgart. I mean city centre of Stuttgart. A year long stay in America tends to inculcate the assumption that every big city will have a downtown with the same old concrete jungle. But boy was I wrong!!! I fell in love with the culture and the feel of this city. It had all the traits of a big city but somehow it had managed to hold its guard against modernization. I saw homes still showcasing their archaic European architecture. There were huge shops but no multistoried malls that make you feel claustrophobic. I had already started to fall in love with this city. We walked a lot that evening till we decided to get dinner. We went to this cheap German place (I was yet to get paid…) and sat down. While recollecting the day’s events, Roy asked me how come I was not tired despite of the overnight flight, the jetlag, all this moving around?? I was actually surprised at myself too till I glanced at the menu. And I knew the reason behind my body holding up to the exhaustion accumulated in me so far, it was craving the good old German beer which I had in my mind even before I left for Germany. It was then I said my first sentence in German (with some help from Roy), “Ich werde ein Puten Schnitzel und ein Hefeweisen Bier haben.”
