The Journey to Austin - Part 4

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*Note: Please check the photos at my online album for reference. I'm just too tired to copy the photos individually into this blog one by one... Too many photos... Took me almost the whole day doing my blog... =P so I just copied this from my diary into my blog...

When we finally reached San Francisco, Hon Mun and I were so elated! It is our first time on US land and we were feeling so upbeat; I couldn’t stop smiling and feeling gay (bear in mind that gay in this context means feeling of cheerfulness =P). It struck me that I am now part of a minority in a foreign land and everyone around me was a mat salleh. It felt that I was in some kind of a Hollywood movie; it is so surreal. Once we passed the custom checks – I came to realized one thing when I arrived here, people here don’t wear masks. Not even a single local person! I mean you can see foreign nationals (meaning non US citizens) wearing masks but you would never see a US citizen wearing one! In fact, when we arrived at the airport, we didn’t go through any health checks at all! I shudder to think that perhaps this could be the reason why the influenza A spread so fast in the US. This totally difference from what we experience when we arrived Beijing where we were already screened before we descended from our plane! Anyway, on the lighter side of the note, people here are friendly. They do speak louder here but it is just their culture to do so. Someone told me I spoke too softly so I guess I’m forced to learn to speak loud here. =D.



We had our small meal before we go for our next flight to Austin. I ordered a burrito; it’s a famous Tex-Mex (as told by my supervisor, Tim) or Texan-Mexican food. Basically, they wrap some beans, rice and lots of meat with some flour bread and you eat it with either the extremely spicy Jalapeno pepper or salsa sauce. Jalapeno peppers are one of the hottest peppers in the world; I learnt the hard way when I ate too much of it until my whole mouth was blistering red in color! Meanwhile, Hon Mun went for the six inch Subway sandwich. I found that people there go for a footer sandwich, even ladies! Talk about big appetites.



The flight to Austin was uneventful; we sat on an Airbus 320. It took us about three hours to reach Austin and when we arrived, Tim was there waiting for us. It was nice for him to come to fetch us from the airport personally. He even took us for a dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant; we ordered some Vermicelli with meat, it was quite nice really. After that, he drove us to our apartment which is located quite a distance away from the airport.



Our apartment is located in just beside the company where I’ll be working in, National Instruments. It’s called the San Marin and the address is 4025 Duval Rd, Austin, TX 78759. I’m staying in apartment no. 2122. It’s a fully furnished two-bedroom apartment with own bathroom and has a fully-equipped kitchen with all the utensils and appliances such as the microwave, oven, dishwasher, two-door fridge and a stove. In addition, we also have a washing machine, a dryer, tv with cable, sofa and others. Oh ya, we can drink from the pipe. Tastes like a Diamond-filtered water! XD. My bedroom has a large window which my bed is facing and I like it! I just love the sunshine. Hehe. My apartment is just ten minutes away from NI; a short walk through the cooling forest and we would reach there in no time. This would be all for now, until next time. I’ll be starting work on Monday where I’ll have an orientation program which will last for the whole week. I can’t wait for it!