Another week gone by. Time really flies out here.

Worked on the peoplesoft project this week. Did nothin other than that. Did have a couple of loong walks and ended up with leg swellings :-) got better now.
These guys are very nice! Anand actually looks out for all when walking to work too. Just looks over his sholder to see if all are there :-) Never known him too well before ... always knew he is a nice guy but this is better way of knowing.

Friday evening went out with Maria and Praveen. First to a bar and then to TGIF. It was fun. Maria dropped us home. Jp did not get in then too. Poor guy major confusion as it is on 21 or 22nd arriving dates. He had some problems with the immigration and stuff.

Saturday Morning: JP was there by the time I went down to Praveen's apt. It seems the immigration authorities mistook the guy to be travellin on a fake passport as another person with the similar address as his was travelling on one. He did get to travel business class though to LA :-). But poor guy had a tough time.
Got ready and took the BART to Fremont. To chech's place. Chech and Jeej were there to pick me up. Real cool it was. Had yummy roti at CHAT place or somthing. Donn remember at 1.05am in the night! got to chech's home. Reeeal nice place man! I love it! Spoke with Chech and Jeej for a while. Then went to a mall. :-) got the first look of an American Mall! Got back home. Had dinner. Their friend Srini was here. Was good fun. watched "Ashoka" for a while and now blogging.

I might go to Narendranna's place tomm... or might just drop it and go back home to the apt straight tomm. Lets see!

Another week gone by. Time flies in this place and you donn even reliase it. Its a whole 2 weeks since I have been here.

What did I do this whole week? Hmm! lemme remember!!
Monday! started work on Peoplesoft project. Lunch was with Hagay and Victoria. Marco also joined us. We went to this place which was pretty close to the office. Was good fun to meet Hagay. Very sweet guy. Victoria just got back from Australia where she had gone to visit her daughter who was not well.

Tuesday: It was shivaraatri. Not that I really intended to fast or anything but circumstances kinda worked that way. The guys had gone out to lunch so they got me some Tomato soup (or called vegg chilli). Just had that. Was starving that day :-)

Wednesday: Donno why people have so many meetings here. Went out to lunch with Marcello and Cheryl. Marco was there too. It was so much fun. I think it was a french resturant. :-) marcello is fun all the time. He is married to a Phillipino lady and has a cute lookin kid. :-) Cheryl is into kickboxing. :-) She is very organised and is a great help all the time.

SPP came in the evening. Had lotsa problems on my laptop. The damn (sorry!!) numlock was stuck and refused to get off it.

Thursday: Work as usual. Lotsa meetings though. Went out with the guys (apna janta is referred to as the guys) to Starbucks for lunch. Was good.

Friday: Peoplesoft test plan almost done. Randy from QA wil be working with me on this. Set up a desk top at work so that I can get the laptop home. hmm! got it up. and running. Sal is so wonderful. He is such a big help all the time. Alwyas looking out for me at work (with all my system requirements n stuff :-d lol).

Went out to dinner with Maria. She is always there for me. She looks out for me all the time. Real sweet lady. Its good fun with her. Went to Uno's Pizzaria. Had a pizza and a yummy dessert. She dropped me back home. The guys got home real late. Was asleep by then.

Saturday: hmm! woke up at 9am!! Mom would scream if she was here. Tried calling home but cud not get through. had something to eat (bread and jam ) and a coffee. Washed up and then now am updating my blog. Watching the movie "Sleepless in Seattle". Its a Meg Rayan movie. Had not watched it before. Its "amazing" (as praveen would say it) :-). Really! I've always wanted to watch it.

Ok! its kinda gettin cold now. Wish I'd gotten my sweater.

SPP and Shailesh got some stuff home today so we cooked out here. Was fun. Watched a movie called "Cayote Ugly". Was good. :-)

March 10th Sunday:
Been a week now! can't believe time flies so fast!

Today met chech (smitha) and then went out lunch and then did some grocery shopping. Was good fun. First time! Chech offered to take me shopping later, For stuff to take back to India :-)

End of one week . Had good fun :-)

March 9th Saturday:
Maria picked me up and we drove down to SF. We walked down Rashberry street (will confrim the correct name and spelling:))). We then drove down and met cludia. Took a loong walk down Ocean Beach and then got back. Went to a Peruvian resturant for lunch. Was good. Then drove down to Twin Peaks, Lombard street (world's most crooked street), Fishermen's warf, Baker Beach and then down to Cludia's place for a coffee. (this was near cludia;s place not at her home).

Maria drove me back home. The guys were not home so I sat by myself and then Praveen came up. I made scrambed eggs and had it. Then hit the bed :-)

Was a nice day.

March 8th Friday:
Woke up late. Unpacked. Called Ying and confirmed Brunch Plans. She picked us up and we drove to west Berkely. A Mediterrianian resturant. Good food.

Got back to the Apt. Got online and spent a while. Then went ap hunting for shailu. Then went to this theater called "OAKS theater" and watched Harry Potter. It was an amazing movie. :-)))

Got back home had dinner and slept off.

March 7th 2002:
Thursday!!
Had a meeting with Cheryl and Maria on QE Project Lead activities. Trying to write Process docs. Then went out to lunch with Maria to a Thai Resturant. Was good. We discussed a lot of LMS. Then rushed back to a meeting on LMS 4.0. There was this cute guy Jeff Marshell who was doing a review on the Prod doc. But nothing ofcourse went into my head (a lil did actually coz I had read most of the doc) as it was my sleep time!!

Oh! I din mention! At around 3 pm everyday I have this bout of sleepiness. :-)) Jet Lag it is called :-d. Srinivas Rao left for India on 7th.

That evening we started packing. My number was 3-060. This is where I wil be seated in the new office. Next to David. Then around 6.15pm left office to go to dinner. When we went down Joe came. Cud just about say hi and bye to him. He is off to Santa Barbara his home and will be working from there.

Ok! Dinner! La Gondola was the place. Its an Italian Resturant. Next to the TransAmerican Building! (Its a Pyramid shaped building - huge and woah huge!! :-)) The dinner was good fun. Got to interact with Marcello. This guy is tonn of funn :-) The whole team is for that matter. Amamzing people. When they work they really work hard and when they have fun :-) woah they are the best. Never seen a team which so much of energy!

Maria dropped me back home. I moved into the other room (one with the attached bath) and did some unpacking. Maria had mentioned that we could go out on friday (it was a holiday since we were to move to the new building) but I said I wanted to kinda relax :-)

That was an amazing day!!!

March 6th 2002:
Wednesday! Drove down to Brannan with Maria and then walked back to Harrison for the company meeting. Saw Joe but could not go up an speak to him. After the meeting I was talking to Praveen and Joe came up and spoke to me. Its like seeing an old friend when I see him. Feel comfy and nice like with the janta back home :-)

Got back to the office! went to the Bank n got my account opened. bank of America :-). Went out to lunch with Sal and David. Sal is getting married on the 31st of Aug. Sweet and nice guy! David is fun (am goin to be sitting next to him when we move to 601).

Missed the shuttle again and took a walk to Harrison. Met up Joe again! :) he has a cute lil (donn remember wat )on his mach!! :-d lol me an my memory... growin old!!. Took the shuttle. Praveen and Anand got into the Bart train n the door closed on my face!! Checked for the next Bart (Rushied was there helping me out) took the Richmond train and then 2 guys in the train pointed out that my friends took the Dublin/Pleasonton train. oh! ran out of the train and then looked around. The train on the opp side came and Praveen and Anand came out. :-) Real real real nice guys :-) THANK YOU GUYS!!

Got back home and cooked dinner (Praveen did) and ate khaana n went to sleep!

Ok. got to go down now. Will try to get something to eat. Kuch nahi khaayi!!

March 5th 2002:
2nd Day!! Took Bart for the first time with Praveen and Anand. We take the Bart at Lake Marriet to Civic Center. Then Praveen and I went to Starbucks and got some hot chocolate and Water Bagels. Took the office shuttle. Praveen got off at Harrison and I went on to Brannan.

Marco and Mike took me out to lunch to this Semi Italian Place called Patso (pronounced that way atleast donn mind the spelling :-)) )
Marco is from the Phillipines and so is Mike. Marco works on Opel and Mike with DRA.

I passed on dinner that night and set off to take the shuttle to Harrison but missed it. Started walking to Harrison. Asked my way through. Met 2 Indians on the way - Anja;i from Hyderabad and Srinivas from Bangalore. They were surprised that I was walking around alone on my 3 day in SFO. Warned me against it. Praveen was waiting outside for me. Almost set off for Brannan for me. Oh! It was drizzling !!

Praveen showed me around the office. I met a couple of friendly faces like Jon Beatty, Kevin Cornish!! Joe had already gone home. I called him on his cell !!

We then took the shuttle to BART and then the Richmond train and went to do a lil grocery shopping dinn do much though :-) Came back. Was freezing cold!!! (as it is now!!!). Cooked at home (Anand did) and then dinner and sleep. Slept on the floor though :-) was good.

I wil continue later. Gotta go down. Got to see if Shailu will agree to drive down to watch Harry Potter :-)) Its playing in Berkley!!

March 4th 2002:
First Day in the US. Got dressed. Maria came over to pick up Praveen and me. We drove down to 1098 Harrison, dropped Praveen off and then went over to 1000 Brannan. Maria introduced me to Cludia who took me over and Introduced me to all and showed me around the office.

We then had a meeting to discuss the staff alllocations and I got allocated to 3 projects actually (they then got me off one ) :-). Cludia took me over to lunch to an Indian Resturant. Its her favorite. Met Praveen and Srinivas Rao there.

Cludia is Brazillian. She now has a house by the beach and loves to take walks by the beach.

Did not have too much to do that day. Had another staff meeting and then that evening Maria took me to Berkly to a Italian place (Venneize - I think). Had Pasta. Was yumm! Maria dropped me off. Was a good day. My first day in the US.

March 3rd 2002:
(actually I made post which is now missing!!! OK I wil make this small from now on)

LA!! Beautiful Airport! Got thro customs and I94 pretty cool. OK Ran for the United Airlines Domestic flight as we were already late. We were not goin to make it to the flight so got rebooked onto the 8.30pm flight. Called and informed Julia and then Freshened and then had my first American Pizza :-). The flight was delayed by 20 mins again.
I seem to be havin Flight delays all through the journey.

Reached SFO at 9.45pm. Julia was there to pick me up. She got me to the apt. Anand was there and he (poor guy) took my suitcase upto the apt # 4307 (3rd floor) nice place. Srinivas Rao was already here. Went to Praveen Anand's apt (# 4205) had khaana logged on chatted with pple and then called mom. Got back and slept off. :-)

Its so strange. On the 3rd of March 2002 I travelled from Hyd, India to KL, Malaysia then to Taipei, Taiwan and then to LA, USA and SFO, USA. All in 33 hours (included stop overs) but still one day!!!!!

2nd March 2002:
Reached Airport.. lotsa people to see me off! was very sweet of them :-). Mom n dad were very worried about me travelling alone. They were looking out for Joe Peyton who was not around :-d. Went through check - in and then said Bye to mom. She was pretty upset. Dad came along till the security area ( passed through customs n dinn have to declare my camera - they said they were concerned only with the digital stuff. Mine was an old one). Met Joe there. He was reading a book... we got talking and seemed to be fun.
3rd March 2002:
1.15am - Flight Malaysian Airlines. Boarded the flight. But the flight took off only at 2am. Had a non-veggie dinner (was quite fine). Kept talking for a while and kinda dozed off for sometime.
Reached Malaysia at around 6am (India time). Had a quick breakfast. Got a Transit visa (it was needed to get to the hotel too) and then went lookin for the hotel which I had been booked into. It was a nice place. Had a shower and then relaxed. Then went and had lunch and got back to the airport to check in into the next flight.
At the Airport... Joe took me to a part of it which had a beautiful view of the field. Took a few pics. There was a famlily there with a cute baby. The lady let me carry the baby. Was cho chweet. Joe teases me saying my biological clock is ticking :-d lol. I told him kids are fun as long as you know they will go back home at night :-d lol. Then went to the Gate C16 which was to get us to our flight. Oh lemme not forget this!!! I almost walked into a Men's Restroom. There was a person who noticed n told me before I got there :d lol. Then got to customs again. Asking why you goin US!!! Told them for training and the man gave me a sweet smile and waved me off.
Ok, got the flight to Taipie. The flight was delayed again :-) (seem to have this flight delay as a part of the trip!! huh! was that also booked for!!!). Ate something n then went to sleep. Joe also slept off on this flight.
Got to Taipie. Had sometime to freshen up and then got into the line again to get through. Then boarded the flight again. This time it was a 11 hour flight. I ate something and went off to sleep. Almost slept through most of this flight. This was cold though. Joe kept laughing at me .. kidding me.. that I was gonna freeze in SFO. And then we reached LA......

Will continue later. Gotta get back to work now.