First Drive in USA

Over the weekend, I drove for the first time in the US. Anil was generous enough to allow me to drive his car for a while, and we basically went out for lunch, and some more shopping (whew!! I wonder when all the shopping will end!!). Anyhow, to cut a long story short, it was a interesting experience. He has a black Toyota Camry, and believe me, it's once of the best colors, but a nightmare to maintain!!

Anyhow, at the outset, I sat on the left hand side of the car, and cursed the number of times that I had an opportunity to drive a left-hand drive vehicle in India, and didn't. The first instinct is for the left leg to depress the clutch prior to starting the vehicle, and that's when you realize that it's an automatic without a floor clutch!!!

Once I got it started, the next step was moving it from P (parking) to D(Drive). One needs to keep the brakes depressed, as otherwise the vehicle will roll forwards. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. Driving was easy, also I didn't hit any of the freeways as that will take some more time.

Once we stopped, I carried out the same sequence, but in reverse - move from D to P, pull the handbrake, turn of ignition. The best part was that after all this, the left hand instinctively looks for a handbrake to pull, as the body is conditioned to do so, in India.

It was fun. We hope to purchase the car (the honda civic) probably within the next two weeks - so then I'll be sure to give more updates. Also we move into our apartment this weekend - so looking forward to that.

Our initial experiences in the US

I know it's been quite a while since I posted anything here. Well the reason for that was that we (Mahi & I) were in the critical phase of an overseas transfer. What with the running around for the Visas, ticketing, travel procedures, packing etc, we hardly had any time to post anything!!

We sold our car in India, a panther black Ford Fiesta 1.6 Sxi ABS just after 9 months of purchasing it. Thankfully didn't end up taking too much of a hit on it. Also sold my XDA II mini to a colleague.

As of now, we both are based in Fremont, California, and are put up at one of the Extended Stay hotels. These hotels are designed keeping in mind the fact that people might need to stay long term here. Each room had a mini kitchen, TV, DVD, refrigerator, etc. Also there are laundry machines within the building itself, a multi-gym, pool etc. The company will put us up here for 2 weeks, post which we would need to move into an apartment. We have hunting for the same in and around the Fremont and Newark areas.

Met up with Mayur and his wife Purvi and they've been great help in taking us around. Incidentally, they have recently picked up a Lexus 350 SUV, and boy is it good!!! Amazing.

Also, did some basic grocery shopping for the essentials to get operational on the cooking front.

Traipsed around New Park mall today, taking in the sights and the sounds. Also, made the traditional stop at the ColdStone Creamery for some soulful and sinful ice cream!! The ColdStone Creamery chain was setup in 1988 (almost 20 years ago), by Donald & Susan Sutherland, and they serve up what they call "Creations". This basically means that one gets to customize their ice cream, they way they'd like it. You can choose from a range of nuts, toppings, biscuits, mints, fruits, chews, etc. and not to forget - ice creams, to make your unique creation. The ingredients that you chose are placed on an ice cold granite slab and they mixed together. That's where the name is derived from. You can read a lot more about it here and here.

Will post more details as we experience the sights and sounds here.......