This is a long time to try and finish this write up. Just have to say... that was one of the best trips of my life. Met amazing people, saw wonderful things, made some good friends and had tonns of fun. Super duper cool!!

I had fun on the way back to India too. Met a little girl and her father. The lil girl's mom was no more. Its sad! A lot of people mistook me to be her mom coz we were hanging out together. Right from SF to Hyd.

The stop over in KL was good too. Saw the KL tower, Petronas and lil around the city. Its a nice place. I hope I can go back some day.

Got back to hyd.. and realised one of my suit cases did not get back. Phew! My mom and dad were at the airport to get me. After going down to the Malaysian airlines office for a bunch of days I got my suitcase back. What a relief!!

So in the end.... it was all awesome ;)

I did go back to SF again.. but it was definitely not the same. Don't think it will ever be the same again!!

........................that's for now!

Week of Apr 22nd to Apr 28th
One hell of a week this was! :-)

Apr 22nd to Apr 25th was spent at work and also planning for Julia's birthday. It was so much fun. Saved up the mail. Might put it together and put it on my blog later.

Arp 25th Thursday:
Told Julia we were going to the Place called "NOI" and Marcello had made the reservations. Around 6pm when she was in a meeting most peple slipped out. Julia comes out of the meeting and notices that people were gone and comments :"are we working banker's hours???". She did seem a lil off beat :-) I did try to cover for Maria :-)) and then Julia noticed Sal around and thought that most of them might be at meetings or other places.
We left for the resturant. When we got in her friend Diego was there to welcome and wish her. Btw, her birthday is on the 26th of Apr. The same day was the schedule release of LMS 3.1 (which ofcourse got deffered to the next week). She was really surprised to see the whole team there. :-) I hope she enjoyed herself. She did seem to ;-).
The pictures can be found at "Julia Buday Pics" Check them out!!
Its a wonderful team :-) so much fun and so good at their work :-))

Apr 26th Friday:
Hagay came and picked me up. So sweet of him. That day was a India Fashion day at office. Got myself back into the saree :-)) Was fun though!
The LMS 3.1 release did not happen that night (as mentioned above!!) .. sad did not get to see the midnight deploy madness :-))

Oh yeah! not to forget! went and picked up a pair of Nike hiking shoes, from copeland stores. looked real nice :-)) Men's shoes. Found them a lot funny but then thought would give it a shot and try them at home else will return them the next day.

Apr 27th Saturday:
Well! next day I went right back all the way to Powell to return the Shoes. Then went looking for Nike Town. One nice long walk on Powell Street. Found Nike Town at Union Street. The shoes I wanted were not there ofcourse. Took a nice walk and then went to Ross wanted to pick up some stuff for Bunny (but ended up gettin more stuff for myself ofcourse :-d lol) and then took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) back to Oakland.

Maria picked me up at 2pm. She drove down all the way just to pick me up. Sweet lady! She had bought herself new pair of shoes and was flashing them away :-)) Met Maria's neice and Nephew. Chweet kids. She is really so fond of them :-)

Julia and Cheryl came down in a while but the Cab which was to take us to the Oakland airport did not turn up. Maria's sis dropped us off at the Airport. Well! we were off to Orange County - to get to Anneham (got to get the spelling :-d lol ) - Disneyland :-) The land of Micky Mouse :-)) Every kid's dream :-).

Got to the Hotel (a condoe was booked) which was supposed to be right opposite from Disney park. Well opposite was the word but definitely not "Right". Freshned up and went down to Disney park for dinner. Went around DisneyStore, tried on so many a cap and top and all the sweet things which were out there took lotsa pics.. and then went to dinner. Had a nice loong dinner :-) was real fun to hang out with Julia, Maria and Cheryl. :-)) I WAS IN DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!

Went back to the hotel. tried to watch some TV and I went ahead and ordered for a movie Even without realising I was doing it!!! and the damn thing started playing :-((

Had to sit and watch the movie for a while. Could not last long though. Was dead tired. Went off to sleep. Ofcourse Cheryl had one hell of a time trying to get the Sofa Bed into place. And, not to forget the FAN which needed to be switched off, as it was real cold, and had a pull switch which was absolutely beyond reach. :-d lol Cheryl managed to switch it off by climbin on to the top of the sofa :-d lol

Apr 28th Sunday:
Set out to Disney Land. Got some breakfast at the Disney Park and then went to the "House of Snow White", my first ride at DisneyLand. Next was a sweet Train ride :-) then went down to the Kiki Bird show :-) got fast passes to Indiana Jhones and Priates of the carribian. Went on the boat ride - safari :-) cute!

Did lunch and then Next the haunted House, and then back to Indiana Jhones (was my best ride) and Pirates of the Carribian. Julia kept telling us about her ride in the "Small World" and that she got stuck in it for an hour :-) We got stuck in the "Priates of the Carribian" for half hour :-d lol. Guess, its with Julia and the rides and getting stuck!!!

We then went down to Toon Town. Next was Space Mountian. Thought I'd die "Ctrl+ O".

Week of Apr 15th to Apr 21st
It was a lil slow week. Nothing much happenning.

19th Apr Friday:
Sharma was to come in. So Dos and I went to Powell station (Harith was to meet us there) waited from 6.00pm and no sign of the man. At around 6.40pm Dos got a call and we realised that Harith was waiting for us on the Top while we were waitin for him at the platform :-). We then took the Bart to Colma- then the samstrans to the airport. Just got there on time.

We got into the airport before Sharma came in :-) We then walked and walked and took the Car Rental shuttle which dropped us off at the car rental place. Then walked to the "Enterprise" car rental and Sharma rented a car. He gave his name as "bobby" (wonder if he likes the movie!! ). We then drove down to Oakland Apt and went to dinner to "Uno's Pizza". The guys then went to Walnut creek.

20th Apr Sat:
The plan was to go to Walnut creek but as usual all confusion and so Praveen and I went to "Buttercup Kitchen" to have an All American Breakfast. We then took a walk around Jack London Square. Went into all the stores there :-) was good. Found a bunch of cool T-shirts which I will pick up on saturday. :-) Sweet! We then called Surma who told us they would come down.

So the "NUT" place pple came down. Surma, Prashanth, Harriet, Dos and Dinks! So we left to Golden Gate bridge. Surma, Dos, Anand, Harriet and I in one car and Kiran, Praveen and SPP and Dinks in the other. SPP was driving Shailu's car :-) Shailu was in MN :-))

Drove down GG bridge! was awesome. Stopped over at Vista point and then walked on the GG bridge. It was awesome!!! We then drove back. This time I sat in the front. :-) Was a great view. We drove down to Fremont to have dinner at "Kamat". It was an hour's drive. I love loongdrives. :-) was kewl. Had dinner and then wanted to watch a movie at Fremont. The movie "Company" had released and the theater seemed ful and we were late too so we decided to go back. Surma decided to stay on at Oakland so Surma, Anand, Praveen, Kiran and I came back by Surma's car. Went to Jack London Cinema and watched "High Crimes". Quite an ok movie. Got back to the apt. Chatted with Surma for a while and then went to sleep.

30th Apr Sunday:
Woke up at 6am got dressed and left with surma to the "NUT" place. Btw the NUT place is "walnut creek" :-). We could not decide what to do :-) Went to Denny's for Breakfast - brunch actually and then decided to go to NAPA. By the time we got set to go to NAPA it was pretty late and the vineyards close at 5pm so we decided to go to the Marina. Went down to Star Bucks for a coffee and then drove down to the Marina at Pittsburg Bay Point. Quite a nice place. Water and all. We then went down to another marina place. I donn know where this was It was a nice place though!! :-)))

Went over to "Swagat" for dinner and then took BART and came back home. This was a real memorable weekend. :-)

Surma left the next morning to MN!

Week of Apr 8th to 12th:
What happenned here! hmm lemme think.It went real fast! Monday to wednesday did nothing much. Julia got back from Italy on wednesday!

13th Apr Saturday:
JP, Vasan, Deepak and I left to Lake Tahoe. 7.15am took Amtrak (train) to Sacremento from Jack London aquare - right across the apt where we stay and then it was a bus (Amtrak shuttle) to a place called Truckee (North Tahoe). It was an amazing ride. From Truckee we took a bus to Northstar (the ski resort where we stayed). We got there went to the condoe :-) nice 2 bedroom condoe. Had the bedrooms and the bath down and the 1st floor had the living room, fireplace and kitchen. Reeal nice!

Freshen up and went to the village to get some lunch. Did lunch and then went took a Gandola and went up to the ski mountian. We did tubing. It was sweet. Just like it was in Dream Valley. Pple get into a tube and it goes zooom :-) dream valley had water though and here it was snow :-). We then came back down. Went back to the candoe got some rest and then went back to the Village (thats where most of the things happen in Northstar resort :-) by things it means.. way to go to the ski mountian, the resturants etc) Went to the racket! this place had the pool and the spa and the game room. Hung around there for a while was pretty empty and then went and had dinner. Called for the shuttle and went back to the condoe. Oh! to get to the condoe or the village we had to call the shuttle. We watched TV for a while, lit the fireplace and then took some pics and then went to sleep.

14th Apr Sunday:
Woke up and got ready by 8.30am. Went and checked out and then headed for the village. Had cofee and then JP, Deepak and Vasan headed out to Ski. JP and Vasa took lessons and Deepak was figuring it out himself. 2 hours these guys took lessons, fell :-) and were trying to learn, At 12.30pm they gave up. Went looking for deepak who was now missing. At around 1pm I spot the guy trying to ski down. He came back with a lot of tales. Got himself into qiute a mess!!! Lucky to get back alive and not hurt. Crazy guy!

We then had lunch and then went back to the village. Took a cab and then went to Lake Tahoe. Went to King's beach where we saw the lake. It was beautiful. Then took a drive back to Turckee passing thro Tahoe city and Sqaw valley. Was real nice. Did some shopping at Truckee. Then took the Bus to Sacremento and then to Oakland. back home at 10.15pm. Was coolld. Got back home (apt) and went to sleep.

That was an exciting trip. Saw snow for the first time ever :-) loved it!

Its the one week time again!

1st - 5th Arp:
Monday thro Friday - was the regular come to office and go back home. Did take Maria out to a Indian place for dinner - India garden :-) Thursday eve Maria dropped me off home early- was feelin a lil feverish! Maria left for her looong weekend. She gets back on Monday.

5th Arp Friday :
Christian dropped me off at San Carlos - that is where Chech works. Amazing drive in Julia's Porche. Christian is taking care of Julia's car while she is in Italy. She is back on 10th Apr.

Chech and I went to the Indian store near her place, got samosas and then went back home. We then went to ROSS. This is one nice place. Pretty reasonable too. :-) Went back home and kept talking for a while. Did dinner and crashed out.

6th Apr, Saturday:
Woke up late and then went shopping :-) never shopped so much in my life before and don thnk will have the patience to ever after. :-) Went to the Mall - dropped into Victoria's secret, then went had lunch - had FallaFals (this is the way it is pronounced donno about how it spells) :-) then went to WallMart and then Target. Got back home. Anil came down and we watched the movie "Don't say a word" on DVD. Was good! :-)

7th Apr, Sunday:
Woke up late - with a migraine (seems to be a parcel of my every sunday morning here ). Saw some pics and then went off to CostCo this is a wholesale shop. Then went to Fremont and had lunch at the "Chat Place" nice food. Took the bart from Fremont and got back home.

Took a walk with Praveen, Harith and Deepak near the apt. Got some pics. Need to get some more though. Of these guys too!

That was the week!

Another week gone by and so has another year ......

Ok! 24th March, Sunday:
Holi at Santa Clara. Was fun. I just watched. Got back to chech's place and then in the evening chech and jeej dropped me off home. Dinn go Narendranna's place. They had a party to go to.

25th - 27th March:
Life as usual. Work and hime. Maria drops me off sometimes now. Its very sweet of her.

27th March, Wednesday:
Wore my salwar which amma got for me. Nice salwar I got told. :) my mom's taste has always been good that way!! :-d lol Went out with Maria to lunch. Enzos an Italian place near the office.
I got beautiful flowers - yellow roses from Jean. It was real nice of her.

28th March, Thursday:
Another birthday!! Bunny (my cousin) called me at 1.00am :-) Called back in the morning. Wore the saree that steve and Julia got me. Was good. Maria picked me up (had luggage as I was goin to chicago that night). Got to work. Was a usual day. Praveen got me flowers. Mom had asked Manoj to pick it up for me. Beautiful flowers. Went out to lunch with Marcello, Maria, Cludia and Marco to an Italian resturant. There was to be a status meeting for the QE team in the afternoon and that turned out to be my birthday party :-))))). Cheryl had baked the cake. Was yummy :-)) Was very sweet of these guys. I also got TULIPS! First time ever in my life:-) I also got a mug of M&Ms :-) and a lovely scarf :-)

That evening I had to leave for Chcago. Marcello took me out to dinner and then had to drop me off at the Airport. We did stop off in WallGreens though, to pick up a pair of socks for myself (forgot to put them in the bagpack and thought dinn have one!! huh!). Took the 12.15am flight to Dallas (as a standby ). Slept through most of the journey. Managed to get the immidiate connecting flight from Dallas to Chicago. :-)) Got lucky.

March 29th, Friday: Reached Chicago at 8.45am. At Chicago Airport. Dinn know where to go. Looked around for a while, tried to call anna (was not able to get thro) and then walked out of the airport waited a while.Then came back in and asked the lady in the American Airline counter. She asked me to go to the Baggage claim area. Went down and found Madhuri there. :-)) Whew! such a relief!!!

We drove down to actually get hom but kinda got lost so went to downtown to meet Bambi anna. As I Would like to tell bambi anna we decided to go meet him before we got home ;-) Went home had breakfast n crashed out. Later went to WallMart. Was a fun experience. Anna was home by the time we got back. We then went to "Hot Wok" an authentic Indian chinese food place ;-) There was a Dollar tree next to it too. Then went and watched a Movie "ICE AGE" real cute. Was good fun. Btw, the theater we had gone to is a complex with around 30 theaters in it. Got back home kept talking a while and then slept off.

March 30th, Saturday: Woke up real late and spent time with anna and Madhuri. Was real fun with them. Never had spent time that way before. In the afternoon we drove down to downtown. Could not go to Seers .. too much of a crowd. So went to Navy peir. Roamed around there. Watched a 3D movie :-) short film 10 mins. Was kewl. Took lotsa pictures. Then walked down to Michigan Ave to the T-shirt shop. Anna wanted to get one there for me too :-)) Got a similar one as anna's. It was pretty late by then so got back and stopped over at "Devon" this is the desi place. All desi stores. Checked for the cell phone. It cost 240 dollars. Dinn get it. Am still thinking about it. Then picked up "Dil Chahata Hain" DVD and got back home. Had dinner and watched the movie. Managed to speak to mom dad that night. Slept at 3am.

March 31st, Sunday:
Woke up and spent time with anna. Got lotsa gyaan too :-). Then went over to the Pancake Place for breakfast. Yummy food. Btw checked my weight too. Am just 52kgs :-) kewl!was worried about my weight here :-d lol. Costco was closed and so was Khols. So went to the airport and took the flight.
Got back to SF. Took the Shuttle and went to Colma. There was no direct BART to Lake Marriet from there, luckily I called Praveen and he told me. Got off at Daly City and took the BART to Lake Marriet. Praveen and Shailesh came and got me.
Did not have the patience to go to Narendranna's place. Was too tired so had dinner and crashed out.

That was the week.. and the year too....:-) My yellow roses have died out but the Tulips (from the party) and the flower bunch of roses and other flowers still there ..........real beautiful!

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.