One major event of this life.

The CS exam.The exam that right now I consider as a major incident in life along with the big four-birth,settling down in job, marriage and death. For all the non-medical friends,CS = clinical skills. Officially it's known as clinical skills,but it can be appropriately named as communication skills. An exam where 12 patients decide you fate,you are supposed to go and talk to them,interact with them,console, pacify and encourage them- for 15 ridiculously short minutes and get all the information from him regarding his disease. More importantly,ask for the patient's permission for everything.For example-can I examine you? Yup, you heard it right. Doesn't get simpler than that. I agree about one thing though. The concept of making the patient comfortable. My only complaint is that I think we are taken overboard in making the patients comfortable. And in those 15 short minutes. I mean, personally, I believe in making the patients comfortable but the exam is just a pain. All the thank yous and sorries.
Well, anyhow, that was it. And after about 2-3 weeks of preparation I appeared for the exam. I was just one of maybe 3 who didn' have an accent among the examinees. The girl candidates looked spiffy. The hotel wallahs charged me 1.5 dollars for a glass of water. And when I ordered 2 glasses of water for breakfast and did not have change for 5 dollars-I got to use the phrase 'keep the change' for the first time. 2 dollars as tip for 2 glasses of water. Doesn't get more posh than this. (That is what nerves before exam and a new country,new place, new people can do I guess).
Lunch at a mexican eatery and after checking out from the place that I was staying, it turned out to be a great day from there on. Oh even before that, I hope I made a friend during lunch.We'll see about that later,but after checking out and going to a friend's place with my cousin, we had a barbecue with some friends of his...awesome people with great manners. Felt like schooltime friendship again. And then off to bowling.Woohoo. Sport is in my blood.No,in my genes and DNA molecules. And it didn't take much time that I took to the sport. Spinning learnt in a day. Looking forward to my next outing at a bowling alley.
Next day,off to Universal Studios. Ramoji Film City of Hollywood. Obviously on another scale. Just a place to roam around, it didn't get the adrenaline rolling as much..as another night out at some bowling or other sports place would have done. I felt a sense of stupidity/idiocy though after seeing that the whole King Kong habitat in a small piece of land in there. Damn! So,all this while I was being made an idiot in all those movies. Many such movies with huge worldly destruction-all inside that compound. Damn!
Next day,lunch at friends,then return home and then for a telugu movie. An awesome one at that,starring my favorite actor. Well,it was a great 3 days..but then it still sucks having to live off relatives,At a minimum, that feeling of take is there,at leas personally. Prayers to the almighty, to make me self sufficient and to give me that much prosperity so that I help out a lot more of my friends too. Also,fervent prayers to pass the CS exam too. I do not ever want to face that exam again. Hope this major event comes only once in my life.

Even the switches are upside down!

1.The roads-you drive on the right side of the road.
2.The driving seat is on the left in the vehicles.
3 Even the switches are upside down. They are off when they are pressed down and on when up.

4. The taps ,you just push the knobs to one side most of them.Left side- warm water,right side cold water. But in one home I saw the traditional tap,where you have to rotate the knob and yup,even that was working the other way. So,it didn't move when I turned it to my right and water started flowing when I turned it to the left. Left me in a speechless stare for a couple of seconds.
5 Oh yea. Very natural and basic, But the time.That is inverse too. It's am here if it's pm in India and pm here if it's am there.

6. They write the away team's name and score first during sports but all over the world they write the home team's score first.

7.It's nokia all over..except in US.

There must be many more such things here so,this list is sure to be updated from time to time.

Also,on roads,the pedestrian is the king. It was so hilarious watching these huge, cool looking cars stop for me to cross the road at leisure. Kudos on the overall traffic here. Guess it comes from being so lowly populated. When you land in America first,and start moving around, you miss a camera so much.Especially from the summer of India. The place is so well kept,neat and tidy. I still miss a camera,the index finger tickles and tries to flex into a clicking position from time to time as the thumb gives a grip to the imaginary camera from below.Trees of a particular kind are grown I believe,cos they all seem in such order and shape.
Kroger store.You pay your bill yourself. I mean..just get the stuff checked in(by a machine) and put the dollars in the machine or credit card payment. Awesome concept.Loved it.
The masjid place disturbs though. Everyone starts their chatter as soon as they are done with the namaz. It becomes like a social gathering. A place of worship has to have it's sanctity,24 into 7. A decorum. An aura to it. It irritated me in India too, and it's more so here. But then...well, I just hope to change these things one day.
Hmmm..first impressions of the country.United States of America. Man! people are so talkative.Having little dawats and meet ups all the time. God help me there. hehe.
Edit:Sadly, the Indians are almost the same here. If anything it just increases their ego manifold that they are earning lot more here and that they are in America now or whatever. But it's the same egotist, cribbing personality.It's never their mistake,they are supreme beings but when you give them any honest compliment the cribbing starts instantly.SICK OF THE FAKE SACRIFICIAL SADISTS.Shoot! Whatever... Oops,no disrespect to the good ones though. The good ones are good anywhere.