Yes, its been a month i landed in US. Here's a causerie of my stay till now.
The first thing thats important/bad/gud and new to me is the weather. I basically being a south indian had not seen the weather at its worst till now except few floods now & then. A temperature can be called cold or very cold and too bad, i had known is +10Centigrade. I need to mention +ve here coz i have seen the same temperature with in -ve too here in Saint Louis. The worst temp. i had seen till now in St. Louis is -20Centigrade too...bitterly cold dude!!! My first jeopardy with weather came in just a week after i landed in US. The new year eve of 2010, being my first weekend in St. Louis, i took a day out to Chesterfield strip mall. The actual plan was to watch 3D "Avtar" movie then a sumptuous indian lunch at Taj Palace, a bit of shopping and back to hotel. But, we lost the way to Taj palace, as previously i had been there in a car which looked very near. By the time we realized that we lost our way and came far away from the Megascreen where we were supposed to watch the movie, its already late to avoid the monster. We started back. This time, when we walk back, it was against the wind chill. Believe me, cold of around -5Cent. accompanied by wind will drive you nuts and hell..i cant take it. I was almost down and couldnt even take a step further against the chill wind. By then, my friend found one of our office mate,Craig, in a car parking near by & he saved us riding to the resturant. Thats the worst till now and hopefully the last worst i have to see here in St. Louis.
The second thing that felt nice & decent to me is, traffic discipline & sanity, the ppl follow here. Traffic is so disciplined that, you will never find any traffic jams or messy roads. May be when its snowing or it is foggy, the traffic is at snails pace but normally its cool. Why is the traffic is so disciplined here?I doubted manytimes. It could be due to the heavy fines levied if u violate the rules and the ppl has got habituated and absolutely the cops just do their business probably. I mean, you cant jump off a signal and if a cop stops you, u cant say "Do you know who my father is??"....kick you ass, who the hell is you father..pay the fine and talk!!! Sanity, yes the most important to keep you healthy and increase your life span. But still, americans has low life span...why? Its probably due to the food habits. Its almost every food is frozen. Frozen food, frozen pizzas, frozen flakes, frozen meat, frozen rotis...wat not!!! And the low life span could be due to that.
The third thing that attracted me the most is, the use of 5 short sentences. Though little words, make you feel comfortable and keeps you pleasant. "May i help you!!", "Gud morning! How are you doing today?", "Excuse me", "Thank you","Sorry". People here never hesitate to say these. That really make me feel better. Yes, we too,indians, use those, but with friends and those acquainted to you. I just give you a bit of example of this. To reach my office at Maryville center drive, i have to take a metro bus right infront of my hotel, travel in bus, get down on the freeway and a 10-12mins walk will take me to office. Trust me, just these 10-12 mins walk is taking our ass off. Its due to the bad weather that will not allow you to walk not even 3 minutes outside. Its so horrible. While we were waiting for our bus at the bus stop at hotel, a person,Danny, stopped a car near us and asked "May i help you", and enquired if we were going to Maryville center dr and can jump into car if we want a ride. We donno him, he doesnt know us. We never met, never talked and never saw even. The reason he stopped there and asked us is, he works next to our office at 675,GE Real estates and watches us walk to the office from the freeway to the office. But, he wasnt sure if we were those 3 who walk daily on the same timings he travels to office. He just tried if we were those 3 ppl walking on the road in the very chill weather and dats a gud shot. I felt "wow"!! If it has been in india, even your colleague never cares to ask you to pick u up to office unless you request him.cool!
Fourthly, wide range of Indian Restaurants here in St.Louis. We have lot many not to miss the indian taste. Though the food quality and taste are not very fantastic, it gets you remember the taste of the cuisine. I rate Mayuri Indian Restaurant at Olive Blvd at the top as its the paradise for the Veggies like me. Even non-vegeterians can get to taste some gud lamb stuff there. If you wanna taste Idlies or Masala Dosa you can reach out mayuri and no where else in St. Louis. Gokul restaurant at Page Avenue is another gud place to visit for pakka vegeterian food. Its the one and only pure vegeterian indian restaurant in St. Louis and its the one only which serves some fast foods like Mirchi, dokla, Pavbaji etc.
Fifthly, commuting through public transport is a big problem in St. Louis. As far as i noticed till now very few ppl use the public transportation. Mostly the commuting happens thru private vehicles. Mostly 90% of the cars you see on the interstates are single drive cars. May be due to this the public transport facilities are less or viceversa. Watever it is, ppl should be encouraged to use the public transportation thus saving lot of energy and thus providing more employement. In some cities like NY, NJ, Chicago, FL etc. the public transport system is pretty robust and widely used and the metro is well connected in major cities.
Overall, the first month of the stay has been cool with some quite perplexing, annoying, exciting stuff.
