NACHIAPPAN

This was my first flight journey and and in one sentence, everything went smooth without much drama . Flight was from Chennai at 4.45AM, and the route which I took was Chennai->Doha->Washington->Raleigh. Reached Chennai airport around 1AM and it was pouring all through the night. Because of the rain the whole airport was a big mess. I went to the Qatar counters and weighed my luggages. Chennai airport guys were kind enough to allow excess of weight than the specified limit. After luggage check-in and getting the boarding passes, spent some time with mom and dad. Flight was delayed by 45 minutes from Chennai, after the immigration I was waiting in the lounge for the flight. After boarding the flight there was a video running regarding the safety measures, the suggested methods of saving life were pretty scary, I don’t know how much those life saving techniques really work . The first flight was Qatar airways to Doha, the take off was smooth and breakfast was served after the take off. I opened it and was completely surprised to see Pongal and Masal Dosa being served in Qatar airways. Happily completed the breakfast and took a quick nap since I had no sleep the last whole night. It was time for landing in Doha and my seat was a window one, had a very nice view of the city and airport. After all the security checks immediately boarded the connecting flight to Washington which was supposed to be a pretty long journey of 14 hours. This time the flight was huge, and there was a guy sitting between me and my friend. Every seat had a separate TV which kept me busy through out the journey. Again the same safety videos and take off was smooth from Doha International airport, I was served a another breakfast and I had no clue which time zone I was in and why was breakfast being served . After breakfast it was a marathon of movies, now and then walking across the flight to prevent swelling or numbness in legs(lot of guys scared me on this). After ~9-10 hours lunch was served again I had no clue in which time zone I was in. It was close to 8pm Indian time and I was having lunch . Again the landing at Washington Dulles Airport was smooth. Washington Dulles Airport was huge and there was a big immigration queue. After getting the I94 form stamped I was let in, fortunately there was absolutely no security checks and unfortunately there was a 7 hours transit in Washington Dulles airport. The next flight was United Airlines, did the baggage check-in and sat in the waiting lounge, I was not able to keep my eyes open, I did all possible things to keep me awake by walking, listening to music, etc etc. Finally had some Chicken Panini for 7$ – two slices of bread with a  chicken piece stuffed between and this cost me 7$ and this was my first spending in USD, I was literally crying for spending ~350Rs on one sandwich . Again lot of security checks and finally I boarded the flight, I immediately feel asleep and only after flight landed I got up, and it was around 11.30 PM Raleigh time. Collected the baggages and Maitri – Indian Student Association of NCSU was already waiting for us with a big warm smile on their faces. Trolley for carrying a bag was 3$, cried one more time and told to myself not convert USD to INR from now. Balaji – Maitri President (as well my friend) had come for the pickup and my temporary accommodation for me was given in his room itself. I had the privilege of staying with the Indian Student Association President . Maitri took us to a short tour of the campus at 1.30AM just on the way to the temporary accommodation. Had a glimpse of the campus and was really excited. I will take the whole 2 years of my course time just to figure out where things are located in the campus, campus was that huge. Came to Bala’s home mailed people saying I have reached safely and went for a sleep.