Most expensive appointment of my life ; Adventure on US highways... 16/11/06

I am extremely sad at the moment...but will still write the entry with enthusiasm.

So one of our ICX members here fixed an appointment with a big company called "Mortgage lenders network". Her name is Michele. Since the company was exceptionally big and we did not want to loose this opportunity to raise a TN, I was making documents the whole night before and next day was busy since morning preparing for that. Wore my suit and took all the printouts etc, called up a taxi to reach at 1pm near Phelps Gate(Place in New Haven). Michele and me took the taxi and after 45 mins reached the place. This is a very small town called as "Middletown" There was a huge business complex where the taxi dropped us. Now guess how much was the bill for taxi??....fucking $60...Rs.3,000 !! I never took such an expensive taxi even in my life ! hahah
So the appointment went good and he was extremely interested and very nice gentleman. He was very friendly (COO of the company). In fact luckily we took all the great documents to satisfy his questions. He even showed us Middletown from his window when he got to know that we will go back in the evening time by a bus. He pointed some nice restaurants and the river side etc. Its looked a beautiful small city.

So we came out and were really happy with the appointment. Now thought of travelling somewhat in Middletown. It started raining like in next 5 mins so while walking we found this random community centre and we thought it might a good place to stay for a couple of mins. So went in and I never saw such a good community centre in my life before. It was awesome with all those old archaic paintings and nice furnitures , rooms etc. The lady in there was extremely polite and gave us a tour of the centre and then invited us to stay there as long as we wanted. We stayed for some time, reviewed the appointment and made the follow up sheet.

Now since this taxi was extremely expensive and we had lil money left (after eating for $11), it was a good idea to take a bus back. So after figuring out there was only one bus back at 6.40pm and starts at a place 5 miles away. Now the challenge was to figure out this 5 mile away place to catch the bus. In between I was very happy coz it looked like a great adventure and I guess Michele too ;-)..hahaha ! Almost after 20 mins we could not figure out this place and then we went into this shop to ask them the address of the place to get a bus and to my surprise they do not speak english (not good). Here Michele comes to the rescue as she speaks Spanish...this was a such a lifesaver !! wow !!...Spanish helps in US too. In fact it helped us again in our adventure 2 hours later...keep reading ;-)
So the shop people helped us to find a bus to reach that 5 miles away place. We took the bus at 5 pm. Now since we had no clue where to get out of the bus we told the driver to drop us this place called "exit 20" where we need to catch another bus to New Haven. Now bus after a 30 min ride stops at Meriden. Michele got up from seat and says "lets go, here we are". "Okay". We go out of the bus and crossed the street and was waiting for another bus to pick us up at 6.40 pm to New Haven. Its been hardly 20 sec and the bus we got out of is still in front of us. I said" Michele you sure this is the place?".."yes it is" "Are you sure?"..."You can ask the driver again". And I don;t know why I just ran across the street and asked the driver again "Is it Exit 20?"..."NO"...what???? I almost shouted "Michele come backkkkk " Fuck now imagine this place..All dark on some highway and not a single person out there..if I had not come back again. We had been waiting there the whole night, which is not safe at all in US.
So finally the bus dropped us at Exit 20. Now we still had 1 hour for the bus to come. This place was on a major highway and there was Park & Ride Lot nearby. So we went there and sat for like 45 mins. Out of boredom Michele told me this fucked up game called "Sally does not like..." Ohh god I can't play it again ever in my life. I could not figure out this game and couldn't handle it any more. I was literally running on the road to stop Michele from this game. It's too much of stress and madness...hahhah !
Now almost 70 mins have passed by and the bus has not come. We got worried...infact Michele got not me ;-)...I was still in a adventure mood. ;-). Alsmot 90 mins passed by No bus !! So Michele called up the bus service and asked them about it. They said, Bus has already picked up people from there??? What the fuck?? Impossible, How is it possible? But on Michele's request they sent the bus back..WOW !! isn't that cool. Michele says they have to send it back !!...thts so coool !! hahha
Now there is this couple at the same place and there car broke down. They were also waiting for someone and then their friend comes in a car to pick them up. The coolest part is they offered us a ride to new Haven, which is really far. So we said No no it is very far. To my surprise they also did not speak good English. So here comes the rescue. Michele converse in Spanish..and bingo they tooo !! hahah Spanish is the language to learn. So we took a ride with them and called up the bus service to not send the bus. This was a family from Ecuador. During the whole conversation in the care everybody was speaking in Spanish...so couldn't understand word. Finally we reached at 8 pm back in new haven sound and safe. The total cost of the appointment came out to be $75 in total...fucking Rs. 4000 for one appointment. US is expensive!!! hahahah
This was such a great adventure though was not safe at all (in US people generally get mugged up easily and frequently)...but still I had faith in my luck somewhat that definitely we would not die so soon....hahaha !!
Cheers!!