Part 2- Guess what happened when I visited USA for the first time

in travel •  7 years ago 

Thanks for appreciating the first part, it indeed motivated me to continue with the second part.

So let’s continue from where we left...

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The Flight Captain said “We are facing major Thunder storms and due to these storms the Chicago airport has been temporarily closed, we need to reroute to Detroit. We will update the landing time as we get close to the destination".
All the passengers started frantically discussing on change of plan and how they will manage their commitments. Most of them were pissed off.. Some said "Chicago airport closes even if there are light showers". The flight time from Chicago to Detroit was around 1hr 20mins.

We reached Detroit close to midnight. Detroit airport was not prepared for international immigration. The flight was not allowed to dock and connect to the ramp till clearance was provided. We had to sit in the flight for over an hour waiting for clearance.

Announcement was made by the captain again, he said “Passengers bound to Chicago will be escorted by Coach to Chicago" most of the passengers frowned as they were not interested in the proposal. I was thrilled hearing the captain, wow we will be escorted by Coach. I thought “I have someone to speak to and Coach will help me".

We received the clearance to dock after an hour. We all proceeded to immigration. My destination of Origin was Bangalore (India) so I was scrutinized more than others (Please read the part one for more clarity, why I was asked more questions). I was allowed to enter United States with only 12 days of I94 permit after fifteen - twenty minutes of questioning. Generally on business visa you get up till 6 months of stay in US. I was happy with 12 days as I would be flying back on 12th Day.

Once we got into the terminal, everyone was looking for baggage carousel. I asked few of my co passengers if they knew where we could find the carousel. Most of them said no as they were new to this airport. We managed to find it after spending some time searching for it.

All the confusions start’s from this point ;). I collected by bag and had no clue where to go. All the passengers had dispersed by then. I went to ground floor (In India ground floor is called - Zero floor, in USA it is refereed as level 1).. This was the first confusion. Every time I would check with others if I am on ground floor, they will tell yes level one and I would think I am on 1st floor and need to go one floor down lol).

I met an African American housekeeping lady , she was mopping the floor.
I asked her “where can I meet my coach?"
She said " Whattttt".
I asked here again “Where can I meet and speak to the Coach"
She looked very puzzled. She asked me “Do you want to speak to driver of the Coach". I was happy to know that I would be helped by driver and the Coach :).
I told her “yes I would like to speak to driver & Coach".
She asked me “where did you come from in a very sarcastic way ".
I said “I came from London on British airways".
She said “Go to level 4 and speak to British Airways Staff"
I said “Thanks to her" and continued to level 4.

On level 4 there was huge queue waiting for guidance from BA staff. I joined the queue; the man standing in front of me looked like Indian so I confidently asked him “did you happen to speak to the coach?” He dint give any response so I asked the question again. He looked back at me and said “Coach means Bus in United states”, second time I was embarrassed in last twenty four hours.

The British airways staffs were giving out vouchers for best western inn and shuttle. They were asking everyone to collect the vouchers and call 1800 British airways and find the time for next available flight to our final destination. I dint have cellular connectivity in USA. Was getting really nervous on how I would be able to call them. Looks like God heard my prayers. One of the Gentle man in the queue said " I from Ukraine.. No English". The staff asked him "you don't know English” .. He repeated “No English". The staff asked him to proceed to the booking counter and collect his final destination boarding pass. This gave me the brilliant idea, when I got my turn, I said " No English ;)". The staff asked me again “you don't speak English". I just nodded my head in typical Indian style. She asked me to proceed to counter to collect my final destination boarding pass.

The staff on the counter was quite pissed off, she was asked to work overtime and was cursing us (Ukrainian N me) but she did help us with our final destination boarding pass. It took her some time to get the passes printed. Denver flight was at 7:45AM in the morning. It was 2am so I had close to 4 hours to rest and be back in the airport.
We proceeded to exit the airport and catch the shuttle as instructed. We could not find the shuttle outside the airport.
We asked one of the guards standing there about the shuttle, he said (.....)... I will continue remaining story in part 3.

Few questions to readers:

  1. What did the Guard say?
  2. Did i manage to go to the hotel?
  3. Did I spend the night in the airport?
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