Finally - the moment arrived ! and the plane landed in Durham - my destination of the 30 hour long American Airlines journey.. And this was literally the longest part of the journey as I was all awake .. couldn't sleep , there was no personal entertainment system in the plane like Gulf air..
In the evening - we went to a hair salon - to get hair cut for my sister. The part of the city was called Downtown in Bull city. The salon had a very hand done - yet professional feel ! Raw brick walls , book shelf done out of old door and curtain rods - and overall very pleasant.
And then I realized the stint of jet lag as I slept off early in the evening... leaving no more scope to discover the place that day. Btw, this was 10th May 2013.
Last 2 hours appeared even longer than the previous 7 hours !
The moment came - when the captain announced - "Crew, ready for landing" - and I could see a glimpse of Durham from the window - from my aisle seat ..
The amount of greenery that I saw in few seconds was probably more than what I have seen together in my whole life ! No - its not exaggerated ... it looked like the city is covered with Broccolis and amidst them are rooftops of triangular shaped crowns of the houses. It was beautifully greeen !
And then were the usual formalities - customs clearances etc.etc. Only point to ponder was - while standing in customs queue - there were two separate lines - one was for citizens and the other for non citizens. While the citizen's queue was much shorter than the other one , the number of counters serving them were more ... and only once all the citizens were serviced by them - the non citizens' process coud be expedited .. I was wondering why this was - as a luxury to the citizens of the country - to say they are special / privileged or something else.. It's debatable and i dont want to become judgmental here.
Surely, this was not the America - I have seen across media. That America had glamourous lifestyle, tall buildings and fast moving people .. this city was like a country side place - with amenities like city. Truly refreshing !
My sister came to pick me up and here was the beginning of my experiences of the US life.
We went to her apartment and it is super cool - as imagined - pre-fitted with all amenities :) .
In the evening - we went to a hair salon - to get hair cut for my sister. The part of the city was called Downtown in Bull city. The salon had a very hand done - yet professional feel ! Raw brick walls , book shelf done out of old door and curtain rods - and overall very pleasant.
Hey looks like someone is having fun. Great. As u mentioned regarding citizens being given such importance may be cos the country value its citizens and respect them. May be our country should also learn some stuff . Anyway s have loads of fun and keep posting.
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