Chicago calling....

Dinner was at P.F Chang’s a Chinese restaurant nearby. Me being a vegetarian had to hunt for options, rather take whatever veggie is available. Settled for lettuce wraps. It was a mix of veggies stir fried, to be wrapped in lettuce and eaten. Hardly ate any of it though as was not feeling hungry due to the jet lag. Just wanted to go home...Oops the hotel and hit the bed. At the end of dinner we were presented with fortune cookies. It’s a sweet cookie like a shell, inside which is a small chit of paper telling your fortune. I read mine and it was good. So happily went back to the hotel…..
The alarm went off at 7.15am; I woke up startled in bed wondering where I was. I walked to the window and pushed the curtains aside to witness the amazing morning sky, with the sun just rising above the horizon. The sun must have just travelled from Shivaji Park to here I thought. There were some ducks quacking in the lake, unmindful of the surroundings. Cars were pulling up in the parking lot. One car per person. I freshened up and put on my best dress to start work at my Client’s office.
I was greeted by my old colleague at the office. I talked to him over the phone for some months now and it was great to meet him in person. The office was nice with the client color of Violet everywhere. It was spacious and airy. The cubicles were so big; you could sleep on the table. Attached drawers and some overhead like inside an airplane. A VOIP was available on each desk. I opened the venetian blinds of the window to look at the view outside. Cars neatly parked in rows at one side and houses with slanting red roofs everywhere, a skyscraper amidst them in the distance getting lost in the fog.
We went for lunch with our colleague at Flat Top grill reastaurant.Once seated, we had to write our names on a stick and take the bowl with us. The idea was like our Tawa masala bhaji in India. You pick the veggies or meat and noodles or rice in a bowl, select the sauces and give them the bowl. They would put in different color sticks in it for any allergies you have, the one with your name on it and stir fry for you on a big rectangular tawa and present it at your table. You had an option of a paratha with it. A blue color stick for that. Content and satisfied with our meal, we went back to office.
Taking out my laptop I realized the voltage converter we had brought from India was useless. We were driven to a nearby electronics store by a colleague. The store was huge, and you could get any electronic component under the sun there. Aisles marked with the component names. But finding the right adapter was a herculean task. The salesman did not understand what we needed and the things he showed us were too expensive. We gave the task of getting one for us to our colleague and stepped out. That meant an off day at office, without the laptop, so it was a great idea….
Weekdays just flew past. Every day was a new realization that cooking is a tough job and how different vegetables take different time to cook in a microwave. My anger at mom asking me every day,” What do you want to eat?” seemed so insensitive. That was the toughest question in life for me now. But I somehow managed with my limited culinary skills.
Before long, my first weekend in America arrived. After much deliberation and research, going through many pamphlets available at the hotel front desk, me and my colleague decided to buy a Go Chicago card. It had a onetime fee and access to all the major attractions. Seemed wonderful....The plan was to reach the Chicago Union station and take it from there.