This one was a special trip.
This was the first trip I
- took the first plane ride in the US
- took the first bus ride in the US
- visited West Coast for the first time
- visited the magical place called Las Vegas for the first time
- had IHOP pancakes for the first time, which my roommate Shlok highly recommended
This trip turned out to be so much more than I had initially thought & it all started with a comment on a Facebook Post.
A little background – One of my fellow SGGS batch mates, Anupama, was planning for her masters in the US during the same time I was applying to US universities. We were from the same Alma Mater and were applying to similar kind of courses (Data & Analytics) in the US. During the good old Facebook days, we used to be a part of this global Facebook Group where students from across the globe shared their visa interviews. I happen to read her visa interview and found it really hilarious. I commented on it and we immediately bonded. What started as random phone texts and conversations grew into such an amazing friendship and understanding. I ended up coming to UConn in Connecticut, whereas she ended up at CSUF in California. We managed to keep our texts and conversations going on and used to talk for hours throughout the day. Our rapport grew multifold during a short time so much that I ended up planning a trip to visit her in West Coast, and tried killing two birds in one stone – meeting her and seeing what the life in West Coast is like.
That brings us to this day.
The journey to Las Vegas was no easy. Living a student life in US is not as glamorous as it sounds like. The most important thing for a student in US is money and that’s why you have to be creative to save money through various ways. I was no exception.
To get to Las Vegas, I couldn’t afford a direct flight from Hartford, CT. The nearest and cheapest flight for me was out of Boston, MA. So, I ended up booking my flight tickets from Boston, MA to Las Vegas, NV.
After booking the flight tickets, I had to look for transportations between Hartford and Boston, and between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, as my friend, Anupama, used to live in Fullerton, which is near LA. I must tell you figuring out how transportation system works in the foreign country was not easy and glad that I was a student and had enough time to look for some of the cheapest deals to get from one city to another. After scrolling through countless travel websites and consulting with some of my friends, I ended up booking bus tickets for the remainder of the journey. I cannot tell you how happy I was when I booked all transportation arrangements and was just waiting for the day of my flight.
Looking back, now all these efforts seem so meticulously planned. Unlike old time, now I just take my car keys and move to whichever place that I wish like. Anyway, let’s get to the journey and how the first day unfolded.
The morning started off with weighing my stuff down. I knew I wouldn’t get any wiggle room like India, so I wanted to make sure my bag weighed precisely for the weight capacity of the aircraft, plus, this was my first intra-US air travel, so didn’t want to take any chances with it.
Hartford, CT – Boston, MA
I boarded the bus from Hartford. Good that I was staying in Downtown Hartford. I just had to walk like 10 minutes to get to the bus stop. So, to avoid spending money on the road, I made sure, I have ample food in my tummy before I head out. The bus drive from Hartford to Boston was quite uneventful. The only highlight of that bus ride was the shocker I got when I got to know that I could sit on any seat in the bus and they didn’t have a “reservation” system like India. It was a big shock to me, having grown up around the reservation system back home. One more thing that I remember was checking out the grandeur of the Boston bus station. It was definitely bigger than Hartford’s bus stop and was the first time I was looking at a big city station. It was Boston South Station.
Boston, MA – Las Vegas, NV
This journey went like a whisker & I know the reason why that was the case – because I like to sleep on planes. I still remember how excited I was during my first flight. I think it is human nature to get bored of things that become mundane after certain time, and flying in an airplane has become a task for me by this time, so I preferred (& still do) sleeping on the plane instead of savoring the views from my airplane window. Anyway, I don’t have much for the plane ride, but the one thing that I distinctly remember is that I knew I had to buy something for Anupama which was from the East Coast (as she had never been here), so I when I was walking to the boarding gate, I saw a small stand selling newspaper and Boston themed goodies. I quickly browsed through everything that they had to offer and chose a small teddy bear with a Boston T-shirt. I found it cute and hoped that she would like it.
I remember when I landed at the McCarran, I found it weirdly strange that people were gambling at the Airport itself. This was the biggest cultural shock for me. For someone, who came to the US just a couple months ago, gambling out on the road (in front of everyone) was something hard to digest and I remember laughing at myself for thinking like that. However, this feeling was short lived as Anupama was waiting for me outside the airport with some of her friends, who were kind enough to drive her to Vegas from LA to spend a weekend with us (& gamble, off course!)
The Vegas Strip
The ride from the airport to the Vegas strip was something to remember by as I saw the landscape changing more than I imagined and ranging from a few people to a flock of people within a matter of minutes. I had seen videos of Vegas on YouTube, but never imagined I would get goosebumps just looking at the Vegas scenes. It was an amazing feeling and I remember telling everyone how happy and awesome the city of Las Vegas was.
Having explored *only* Hartford by this time, I always had this imagination of how the Vegas lifestyle was and I was actually living it.
The friend who had drove us from the airport to the strip dropped us near Bellagio and told us to meet him after a few hours as he would park the car and go to a couple casinos to try his luck. Being a student, I didn’t want to gamble mine and my parents’ hard earned money, so I stayed away from the Slot Machines at all the casinos. Also, I didn’t know how to play card games back then, so I had to stay away from them too.
This trip was all about exploring West Coast while spending as little money as possible, so it was a logical choice for me. Anyway, we started exploring all the casinos and attractions that the Vegas strip has to offer, which I will pen down in details in the coming blog posts.
One word for the Las Vegas first visit – A-Awesome!
Enjoy my Instagram gallery!
Looking forward to the next few days!
stochasticity 
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