In November 2007, we spent nearly two weeks in the US for various purposes. Besides meeting friends and relatives and attending a conference, the visit indeed turned out to be a holiday of a life time. We started our journey from the renowned sunny city, Miami, Florida. Driven in a car over 1000 km, we arrived at Atlanta for a conference as well as to meet our nephews, who surprisingly have become successful entrepreneurs. Then we flew to California where we had a lot of fun going through all rides and adventures in  Disneyland and visited Hollywood. In this visit diary, I  have tried to describe and reflect on these activities: both positive and negative. We are very much touched with the care and support that we received both from  friends and relatives. 

A near miss journey to airport

First leg of visit: Florida

After landing at the Miami International Airport, we queued for immigration clearance. Our finger prints were electronically verified. The immigration officers did not say hello, nor did they smile. They were, however, not as inhospitable as the immigration officers at TIA, where ‘namastes’ are always not reciprocated. First encounter with the Miami International Airport contrasted with our previous thoughts of a sophisticated America. The airport was chaotic, in fact, when it came to accessing traffic: it took nearly an hour for Raj Kumarji to take his car to the pick-up points. Once gone out from the airport, things appeared to be different. The roads in Florida were very wide; up to six lanes one side in dual carriage-way Freeways. The kind of complex multi-layer overhead bridges found there are not common in the UK. We first visited Miami Beach. It a was sunny, dry, white sandy beach where people were enjoying with their swimming costumes on. However, to us, it became no more than a site seeing and a place to take pictures. With our suits on, we felt rather odd to stay long there. I was laughing when Himkla started to moan in the beach, “I feel like a boiling egg with my double trousers on”. We were aware that Miami was going to be hot for us. This sunny city, where “good hot weather” is almost always guaranteed was not like what we had been through in the mid-November’s weather in Reading. It was a frosty morning, and my fingertips were aching due to cold. Sita Ramji had to unfreeze frosts from his car’s windscreen before driving me to his office at the University of Reading, where I printed few copies of my summarised resume and address slips. We, in fact, enjoyed this exceptional moment of being on sun away from Reading’s cold during this time of the year.

Next day, we visited Fortlaurdale city by a car and passed through the beautiful manmade piers and beaches. Time did not permit us to go to famous places like Kennedy Space Centres in Orlando. Meeting with and the hospitalities of Soti family from Lamjung, Bhandari family from Baglung and Takewondo ace Ritu Rai made our visit to Florida much more interesting. We had not seen Pabitra Bhauju (Raj’s wife) for a long time. Thanks to the change of lifestyles, she looked much younger, even with some digestion problems inherited from Nepal. 

Memorable drive to Atlanta

It was an exciting start to the 75 North Freeways at about 10am. The hired Honda Accord was not only spacious, but also reasonably comfortable for the long journey.  Driving 650 miles alone was not easy, hence, we were on our way to meet Bijaya ‘Dai’ in Sarasota and request him to join us to Atlanta. Soon after, our euphoria collapsed, but thankfully we survived a near accident. We had no clue until Raj Kumarji told us

“Our tyre might have burst”.

 About 135 Exit Point or so, our car was on the left lane with 70/75 miles/hour speed. All I remembered was him cutting rapidly to the right and bringing the car to the shoulder of the 3-lane Freeway.

 “My goodness, you did it!,” I uttered with surprise.

It was in fact an extremely risky moment as the Freeway was busy. The front tyre on the driver’s side was completely torn into pieces. The surroundings were of a scary jungle with “beware of alligators” signs.

Raj Kumarji did not have motorway breakdown services covered by his insurance schemes. We first checked whether there was a spare tyre. Yes, there was a tyre for temporary use. But, the hope did not last long as we did not find a jack to lift the car. On the other hand, it was quite risky to attempt to do things on our own as the tyre to be replaced was close to lane facing motors running at 70/75 miles/hour.

 “I am little used to this car”, said Raj.

 He made it clear that we had a little experience on DIY. The first thing we did was to dial 911; the police put us through the traffic department and we asked them for a tow to the nearest garage. We were informed that help would arrive in two hours. ‘Not bad’ I thought of the Florida police.

We were not sure where exactly we were and there was not any way to confirm that. Far behind us, we saw a motorway calling post. Raj and I decided to go and check for details, but Himkla was afraid to stay in the car on her own. It was extremely hot, and we already had been through attacks by the tiny beasts: poisonous red ants, outside the car. After a month, I still have two tiny marks of bites on my wrist. For these reasons, Raj went on his own. He past the post and walked further a mile down and came back.

“Yes, they know we are in trouble and will be here within two hours.”

 I had to stop a road ranger’s vehicle and ask for help who checked with the police”. This confirmatory tone was relieving, indeed. Two hours passed, but nothing happened. Three hours gone, no sign of help. We felt desperate. Raj was tired of ringing 911. It was my turn. I was put through a man who I thought was speaking with a mouth full of potatoes. It was inaudible. All I did was to tell him what we had been through making little sense of what he replied. I guessed he told me that it was not the kind of their business. Within 4-5 hours of motorway stranding, other road users did not bother to respond to our hazard lights except one gentleman who came to ask whether we needed any help. We were extremely tired and hungry. We had no food left: a bottle of water and a packet of crisps were already finished. Trying to hold urine for hours was unbearable. I felt relieved to urinate in open which reminded me of the travel in Nawalparasi’s jungle. “Urinating in public could be punishable”, Raj warned. “Who cares; its nature’s law that governs here”, I responded.

We went again to the calling post. To our surprise, in fact, there was not any calling option other than pushing a button to signal that we had an accident and response was needed. We decided not to go for that. We felt that calling 911 frequently had not only been useless but also inappropriate. We decided to explore local services on our own. Within an hour or so, we, finally, managed to contact a towing company. After 20 minutes, our car was towed and three of us were crammed in the seat next to the truck driver. We were reversed back and driven 20 miles ahead to a garage where we had our tyre changed. Raj kept receipts to make claims to the hire services. 

Then we drove off, and arrived at Sarasota around 8pm. We travelled the town back and forth three times but could not locate the corner shop where Bijaya had worked. We decided to give up trying that side and went to the other side of the town across the Freeway, which ultimately led us to Bijaya’s place. With brief introduction, and an apology from Bijayaji for misdirection, we decided to cook and have dinner at his place. Raj was a bit disappointed when Bijayaji refused to join us as he had to be at work next morning. We still had 550 miles to drive and next morning I had to attend my conference at Atlanta. We bought some energy drinks to keep us awake and drove off the road ahead. I had to stay awake the whole night so trying not to make Raj go to sleep. To be honest, at several occasions, I found myself dozing off; but pretended that I was not sleepy. I was scared that Raj may also do the same. We took breaks at petrol stations from time to time. After finishing Florida and entering to Georgia, it was mostly rainy and sometimes the visibility was very poor due to fog. We did not have a navigator, but we followed traffic signs to the Atlanta city and only asked once before we reached Ganga’s place.

Even though most of our road travel was at night, we had opportunity to observe many things which would not be available to see travelling by the plane. This is why Raj had and arranged this travel. We took these above mentioned moments on the road positively, and as a memorable experience. We utilised this time to talk about almost everything about our lives: past, present and future. We were already indebted to Raj for his support to make us visit to the US. His arduous yet enduring driving for our sake did not only made us further grateful to him, but also made us proud of having a friendship with him

Atlanta

Three days in Atlanta remained busy for me while most of the time Himkla had little to do other than spending time with our nephews Ganga and (his cousin) Dhana. The visit to Atlanta was for three reasons: meeting nephew(s) and relatives, attending a (ARNOVA) conference and visiting around. All three things were in or around the CNN Centre located in the downtown. Our nephews would spend most of their time running their business in the CNN centre, adjacent to which is, Omni Hotel, where the conference was held. Most of the places of tourist attractions were just around the centre. 

Meeting nephew

During night, Ganga had frequently phoned us to update about our progress on the road, and was desperately waiting to meet us. Our eagerness to meet him finally fulfilled as we arrived at his home in the next morning. We exchanged warm and enduring hugs. At first glance, we found him tall (he is 6’2”) and thin. We started to complain whether he was eating enough and regularly. We took a chance to add more:

“You see! We had told you life in the west is full of difficulties. Making survival on your own while studying is not same like going college and depending on parents’ money”. He just smiled in response.

Ganga was sharing a rented house (detached) with his Vietnamese friends. He had already readied meal for us. Having meal there reminded me of the food that he used to cook for us when he had lived with me in Tansen to attend a school. But the taste of the leafy green vegetable made me feel homesick (Nepal). It was my favourite spinach (rayo) that we had never eaten in the UK. I asked Ganga for “all rayo” variety for next meal. Ganga went to college while we rested (slept). Later in the noon, we went to the CNN Centre.

CNN Centre: the reason behind visiting the US and a sense of owing it

It is the CNN Centre which made the idea of US visit emerge. Even though, at first, I did not remember which State Ganga was actually living, unusually, I remembered him telling me on phone:

“Mama I am calling from Dhana’s ice cream shop in the CNN Centre”.

One day I was browsing through the website of the International Centre for Third Sector Research (ISTR), my eyes just stopped at a notice, “call for participation at the ARNOVA Conference” which was going to be in “Omni Hotel, CNN Centre”, Atlanta Georgia. I thought that there could be many branches of CNN. Before registering for the conference, I decided to confirm with Ganga whether it was the same CNN Centre from where he had called us. In fact it was the same Centre. I had promised to Ganga that I would try to visit him, and it was a fantastic opportunity ‘to kill two birds by a stone’. Furthermore, I had desire to visit the US and Rajji had been inviting us to visit him for a long time.  Due to school term time, our children were not free for the visit. A family meeting permitted Himkla and me to take this opportunity. After getting a green signal from children to go ahead and assurance of help to them from Ganga Didi and Chirinjibiji, both our home mates, we finalised this visit.

The CNN centre became hub of our visits to Atlanta. First, we reached  Nature’s Ice Cream shop located at the ground level of the CNN centre. Dhanji asked us to leave our stuff there and led us to the Inside CNN tour of the CNN global headquarters located on the upper eight floors of the building. We went to the top of the building via what was explained as the world’s largest freestanding escalator. They asked us whether we wanted to take photographs. Raj said “yes” displaying his digital camera. The tour operator informed that we are not allowed to take pictures ourselves; we have to buy their services if we wanted. To avoid the high costs, we declined their service. The tour was an opportunity to have a backstage view of news production and broadcast. We were taken to a replica control room where we were given some insights on the environment of live television news. In the black box studio we had an up-close look at technologies involved in the delivery of news and weather. Then we were shown the other CNN networks: CNN Headlines, cnn.com, CNN International and CNN en Espanol. Was this 45-minute tour from backstage any good to us? Those in media profession would have much appreciated it than we did, but we did take this as a bonus since our nephews arranged guest tickets for us from the CNN’s security officers, who also were from the same town of ours, Pokhara, in Nepal.

The CNN Centre has an open square, food court, within its complex where small eateries and souvenir shops are located. The previous ice skating ground now was full with tables and chairs for eating. Due to the frequent concert and sports events around, and conferences at the adjacent Omni Hotel, the square gets over crowded at some point almost everyday. Himkla spent most of her time inside two shops owned by Dhanaji. At the other corner, Devi ‘dai’, Ram Chandraji and their families were too busy to find time to speak with us.  “Do you want to eat something?” was all Devi had time to spare with us. At another gift shop was a Gurung Dai from Pokhara. At the other corner was another Gurung Dai busy controlling entry to the CNN office upstairs. Moving one shop to another, we only did not appreciate the entrepreneurship of our relatives but

also felt as if we owned the whole CNN centre.

Attending conference and meeting Andrew Yong

I only managed to attend a few programmes in the conference. Initially, I had planned to attend most of the programmes but attending them all was not possible as there were 6-7 parallel seminars most of the times. I wanted to expand my academic networks, and through this, create other opportunities. I had already missed the introductory and new members’ sessions due to the late arrival from Florida. Ganga’s place, where we stayed, was far and we shifted our priority placing the conference participation to lower order. By the time I reached the conference hall, it was already lunch time. A full plate of salad (mostly lettuce) was served.

“Is this lunch?”

 This reminded me of most parties that I attended in Sweden and England where only cookies, sandwiches and few drinks were served. I thought I may need to go out and have something. While I was making up my mind, a waiter arrived asking what would I like to eat as main food. It was, in fact, a sponsored gala. I attended the social capital part of the seminars which is the area of my PhD research. In the seminar, I met Daniel Young, who is a past president of ARNOVA and a professor of Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in the Georgia State University. He took my CV as I showed my interested to work in the US. The most fascinating thing was to meet Andrew Young himself, who was a plenary speaker of the conference this year. A participant from New York, Chris, who had attended several ARNOVA conferences in the past, told me that Andrew Young is the most distinguished personality to become the keynote speaker at ARNOVA conference so far. Andrew was simple, and spoke without any written note. He made a little joke of modern electronic technology, by failing to initialise his own little gismo, where perhaps he had stored points to speak about. A former US ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young is a civil rights icon who was a lieutenant of Dr Martin Luthar King (Jr). He gave a simple yet very meaningful speech. He referred to several instances he had with King and made it clear with examples how arrogance among people in high professions inhibits efforts of social entrepreneurs to bring about social reforms. One example presented was a failed effort of a man who tried to make people of medical profession to wash their hands. But, doctors refused to listen. To him policy is about connecting these real world examples for the wider social implications. Policy is about practice, not mere theories. I don’t know whether so-called theorists attending the conference digested this bitter reality.

I felt privileged to have a chance to introduce myself to Andrew Young. He said, “Nepal, the country where Mount Everest is? It is on my wish list of visits; but I have never been there”.  

Seeing around in Atlanta

ARNOVA had organised a tour to Martin Luthar King’s Museum, but I decided not to go there as we had little time left to make our own tour and shopping. Dhanaji stayed at the shop and Ganga took us out. It was a sunny day. We visited Atlanta Olympic Park where we mostly spent time taking a variety of our photographs. Then we had confusion what to do next. There were two things near to us where we could visit. Ganga was pressing us to go to Georgia Aquarium. However, I did not want to visit it as I had been to a big Aquarium in Stanley Park, Vancouver Canada last May. Being from a landlocked country, no wonder, I had found myself having very limited knowledge about sea creatures than that of my entourage from Indonesia. The most enjoyable part there for me was to see the activities of trained white dolphins. Himkla had seen some of them in the video that I had recorded then. To avoid cost, I suggested two of them to visit the Aquarium which they refused. We considered another option of visiting the Coca-Cola Museum. The rational man in me was active making me think: “paying $15 dollars to visit a company? Rather we should be paid for that”. There was big queue in front of us. “How come  a commercial company is successful enough to make people pay to see their own products?  “Crazy westerners,” I told myself. Finally, we decided to give into Ganga’s insistence. I do not know what he did, but managed to reduce our tickets to $13 each from the standard $15.  “Worthless”, I muttered while entering. Tour guide made us to chant “coca cola” after some old giggles were played. It was indeed entertaining to watch old and new coca cola ads from around the world. Watching a short Inside Happy Factory cartoon film was good, least for its 3-D technology and for having similar experience of being in a western movie theatre that Himkla had never been to before. Watching a demonstration of cola processing by robotic system was equally interesting. The thing that we most liked was to taste different cola products from across the continents. The pineapple flavoured drink from South Africa was the most tasteful to us. Finally, the gift, a free bottle of coke, before leaving the museum made me say, “not bad, it was worth it to be in the coca cola museum”. What a change of perception!

Good-bye to Atlanta

We gratefully accepted the invitation of Dhanaji for a meal and accommodation, but left it for the final day. His place was closer and accessible to airport than Ganga’s place. Our outward flight was at 6 next morning, and his offer to drive us to the airport was an added advantage. We had dinner at a didi’s home and slept at Dhana’s “condo” flat at a newly built apartment in the downtown of Atlanta. Basement parking, 24 hours manned receptions, in-house communal movie theatre, party lounge and swimming pool are some facilities available to residents with some monthly fee. Next morning, we got up as planed. We got ready to go to airport, but Ganga told us that he is taking us as Dhana was not feeling well. I went to wake Dhana up to thank him for his hospitability and to bid goodbye. We thought we would take a bus and a train, but later realised that it was Sunday with no early bus and train services. The time was not enough, either. Hence, we took a taxi to the airport. After the self-check in for flights, we wished Ganga good luck and all the best for his study and career. He seemed proud to have us visiting him. Ganga waved his hand for goodbye telling us that, “I have gained a lot of self-confidence and hopefully will be doing well.”

We went for security checks. A micro checking process meant we had to put everything in trays including shoes and laptop for scanning. Himkla could not pass the test as the scanning gate triggered an alarm. She had to go through manual check, but was kept waiting, long, making her attempt to go without being checked. Atlanta Airport should be very big as our gate D was about1.6 miles away. We started to walk, but later realised that there were auto cabs/trains on our right running frequently. Then we got on the pod which was running without a driver. We boarded on a small two-seats- a-side plane, and in the journey of 1 hour to Dallas- Charlotte airport, all we were offered was a cup of coffee. The taste was horrible. Adding more sugar did not help. I managed to finish, it but Himkla gave it up at the start. 

At Dallas-Charlotte, we boarded on another plane for Los Angeles. The 6-hour flight in clear day light was very exciting, but the on board facilities were poor. We were asked whether we would want to buy food, but we refused.

“How come no food in such a long flight?”

 Himkla and I often had disputes on who would sit next to the window. Mostly we flew over, I guess, the Mexican desert. I took some pictures and video of the landscape below us. The most intriguing scene that we saw during the flight was thousands of large patches of blue and grey circles on the ground stretching across a large area. We could not identify what they actually were. They did not look like farmlands: they were round, not square. I enquired other passengers, who too did not have any idea. Later, in California, Khem told that they were farmlands. After passing over desert plain and hills, we entered over the green parts and later the urban settlement areas. The closer we were to land, the cloudier the sky was.

Arriving to Los Angeles

Contrary to our beliefs, the Los Angeles International Airport appeared to be very small and old. While we were looking for our baggage, there suddenly appeared Surya Adhikari. We were surprised:

“how was he allowed in the baggage claiming area?”

We greeted with cheering.

“Uncle is trying to park his car”, referring to Khem, he informed us.

“So both of you managed to have time off from office today?” I asked him.

 “No, it is Sunday, but uncle, has, after all, succeeded to get two days off ”, he replied.

Realising how stupid I was, I went to enquire about our baggage which had not arrived until after few minutes. After collecting them, we came out of the terminal. Himkla’s face was glowing to meet two of her beloved brothers. We had had a feeling as if we had been back home in Nepal. After exchanging warm hugs, they handed a bouquet and told “though late, congratulations for gaining a doctorate degree”. We were meeting Khem after 7 years and surprised not to see any change in him, physically. We had met Surya three years ago, but he looked slightly different with some added weight. It’s an “orange city”, Khem emphasised answering my question on whether it was mostly cloudy and warm in California. We were desperate to meet Bishnu, Surya’s wife, and their daughter, Subina. They had been to Nepal and had arrived only four days ago.

Village nostalgia

We arrived at 10am local time (time in California is 3 hours behind Atlanta and 8 hours behind UK), and wanted to spend whole day at home. With a warm welcome, we started talking about numerous things: Surya’s travel to Nepal, his daughter’s health, families, villagers, school days, village development activities, and so on. We went on talking about every person (mostly of our age or older) in our village, starting from the top to bottom of the village. There were hundreds of pictures to see from their recent trips. We talked about some recent developments in the village. Young children have grown up and some of them are married now. We felt ourselves as strangers, as we needed help to recognise many faces in the pictures. One major change in last 50/60 years was a complete reconstruction of houses in the village. Hung on the wall in the room was a calendar containing pictures taken by Tony Hegan over half a century ago.

Even though the name of a picture in the calendar is “a Gurung village, Paudur”, it was in fact our village, Serachaur. All houses except one were typical thatched round houses. Interestingly, most of these houses have already been replaced by new stone or corrugated sheet roofed houses. “In fact, I want to preserve my round thatched house. It is invaluable” Khem shared us his plan. “That’s a marvellous idea”, we admired him.

Playing like a child: lost in Disneyworld

Visit to California was for family meeting and holiday pleasure, and nothing more. Hence, we were ready for adventures and site seeing. Surya took us to pacific coast of California, including the Long Beach. Had so many times heard about it, but it was a great joy to be there, physically. It was windy, but we went to the end of the pier and enjoyed watching around. There were a great number of surfers taking advantage of frequent high tides. Some were playing volleyball, while some others, like us, were just enjoying watching others and looking around. Throwing sights far and wide in the endless Pacific Ocean, we contrasted it to our own geography that how we are locked by hills and mountains. Surya showed us his office and explained about a part of his initial job, which involved travelling around that part of the Pacific, testing emission contains produced by ships in the ocean.

Next day was going to be a big day. Khem drove us directly to the Disneyland. We parked our car in the Disney’s huge car park and boarded on a tram to come to the gate of Disneyland. After a few minutes, a lady arrived leading us to the gate where we met a smiling gentleman. After arranging tickets, the normal cost of each of which is over $90, we entered Disneyland Park. He gave us three tickets, maps, and some guidance and recommendation for the day. The Disneyland was really huge offering several fascinating activities. We had to be selective. Then we also wanted to go through the Disney’s California Adventure Park as the same ticket allowed us to do so. We started from the Indiana Jones Adventure. This led us to the deadly chambers of Forbidden Eye. The first few adventures we had been through gave us an impression that we were in chambers where we were to save ourselves from the attacks of different monsters; a kind of game experience. The Jungle Cruise was equally exciting with a very joyful guiding/interpretations in a light boat trip. The wild creatures such as herd of elephants, monkeys and tribal hunters were presented on the way of jungle waters as if they were real and in action. We went  into the Haunted Manson, The Pirates of Caribbean and so on. A journey on a boat in dark chambers full of ghostly things such as dead bodies, skull, skeletons, witches, wizards, and dead people in action to attack, and various creaky and ghostly sounds were most common features of these adventures. They were aimed at giving a sense to visitors that there is no way out from the underworld travels. I think these kind of presentations give false impression to kids that creatures like these exist in real life. There were three forms of Pirates of Caribbean. The second one we went to was to sail in a large ship around to observe simulated characters of Pirates of Caribbean. The third one was stage performance, which we did not attend.

The most scary and enjoyable part was (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) to ride fast, twisty, speedy rails. We went to three of such rides, and all of them were very scary. Two of them (second, riding in Matterhorn Bobsleds) were circling rocky mountain, where sudden steep twists in sloppy tunnels gave a nerve racking sensation of fear to riders. They involved riding through mine shafts, bat caves, water and passing icy, and rocky twists and slops. They involved train roller coasting. I liked these rides, but Himkla at times was expressing her fear by screaming loudly. We also went through two rides related to space. The first was created to give a sense of travelling in a space craft. Taking off the land, a number of such crafts spun around, first gradually ascending and later descending to land. The speed was slow and it was less enjoyable. Another ride was Buzz Light Year Astro Blaster. We were seated in a joystick controlled revolving seat fitted with a laser gun and score counter. Our job was to shoot stars and collect scores. As our vehicle moved forward, we started our shooting. It took a bit time to learn, but it was a good fun. Those who play these kinds of games would really enjoy this big simulation of being in action.   

Now it was Christmas parade time. What a fabulous parade: what a preparation and what a performance! Snowmen, Cinderella, Mickey Mouse, Gingerbread Man, Rulpoph Men, Father Christmas and so on. I wished I knew the names of all characters. We wished Prabhat and Usha were with us. The parade participated in by hundreds of trained characters was with a full swing music. The organisation of the parade was beyond imagination, and could normally, only be seen in cartoon pictures. Thousands of people lined both sides of the road were waving and cheering as the parade advanced. Many of them were taking pictures and videos of their favourite characters. The parade was so long that it needed almost an hour to observe all presentations.

We were extremely tired, but there was a desire to do more. We decided to stay until dusk and make most of the available entertainment. So we went to California Adventure side taking a Disney mark on our hand through the gate. First thing we did was to fly (Golden Zephyr) a kind of spacecraft spinning around, going high and coming low. It was much faster than the one we had been to before. The second one we went to was (Mulholland Madness) riding a mini-coaster that ascended first through a steep up rails taking us to peak and turning curvy bends. Passing through open rails standing on pillars without side supports, the ride was extremely scary. It was the scariest drive we had been to so far. Himkla decided not to do anything further after this, and I too was feeling a sense of fulfilment. It was getting colder and a sense of thrill was running through my body. Then we went to try the (Maliboomer) a blasting off and dropping down ride. This kind of ride is available in most other places, but this tower looked really tall. I was hesitating at first, but Khem encouraged me. Fastening belts, locking front frames of the seat, throwing sights up and far and holding my breath, I was crazily waiting for a launch. It came like a bolt, a sudden ascent (180 feet in 4 seconds) forcing my bottom leave the seat. What a thrilling experience! But the descent was not that rapid; what an unexpected relief! I realised that it is not everybody’s kind of entertainment, but only for the daring ones. Then we went to try the Sun Wheeler, which, looking like the Sun from far, is a London Eye type of spin wheel ride. Since, it was moving very slowly, we persuaded Himkla to join us. There were seats in two rows facing each other and the car had wire net cover, with nothing to hold inside. As we started to ascend, a boy in our car started to cry. Though it was smooth, we still had hangover from previous rides, and it looked scary to look down. Being at the top was an opportunity to see city in the evening lights. Finally, we decided to try one more thing: (Swing Stinger) a swing around inside a giant orange. There were several dozen of swings, placed each other closely in three rows. They looked as if they would collide when in full swing, but in fact they did not. The swings were moving very fast and people were making crazy noises. This was really good, but not as scarier as it looked at the beginning. Everyone of us enjoyed this. The final thing we could try was rollercoaster, which I had promised not to try again when I tried it first in Sweden. 

We were tired, but extremely happy for the joy of the day. It was a fantastic day and being in a team played an important part to make most of the Disneyland Park and California Adventure Resort. I have been to different parts of the world, but none of my previous visits, except the 28-member team visit to India in 2000, had been as pleasant as this one. This visit today has beaten the record. After having a last cup of coffee in the town and admiring colourful and well decorated Christmas lights, we returned home tired and exuberant. 

Hollywood and Beyond

One attraction of visit to California is Hollywood. Khem’s idea to take us Hollywood next day had already taken us over the moon. We had decided not to go to Universal Studio as it meant further rides that we did not want. We wanted to see Hollywood sign on the mountain and take pictures. Khem took us Hollywood by car. We spent some time, taking pictures and looking around. In one pavement attached were the names of Hollywood stars on metal plates. People duplicating as famous Hollywood stars such as Michael Jackson and other heroic characters such as Spiderman and Superman were found in the streets of Hollywood, luring tourists for photo poses. We returned to our car, where a $45 penalty notice was left for parking ‘violation’. There were three confusing signboards about parking permissions, and none of them mentioned a parking ban on that day and time. But that would not constitute an excuse. We used the car, but left Khem alone to bear the cost. How selfish we had been!

After spending the whole afternoon we started the return journey via San Diego. There we had the first encounter with a traffic congestion in the motor way and had to take a bypass.  Then we went to San Diego. We had a pizza as our lunch. The order made pizza with spinach and chicken stocking cost $20, but it was too much for us to finish. It was so delicious that we took the remaining peace as a takeaway. The return journey was very slow and we had to meet Bhuwani, another guy from our village. We went to the Seven Eleven where he worked. It was delighting to meet him. I had seen him when he was a young boy and did not have any idea what he would look like. I found him a slightly shy but humble person. We had photographs together and decided to meet the next day. Though we could not visit some of the beaches that we planned in the morning, the final spot we went to see was Signal Hill overlooking whole California at night. On the way, there were several oil refineries and one oil pumping plant was at the Hill top. The California was really glowing with the night lights and this kind of view point in the European cities is rare.

The next day was Thanks Giving Day, but we had not done any shopping as yet. It would be a disappointment if we could not buy anything for our children who so empathically had cooperated by permitting us to visit the US for two weeks. Most shops were already closed; so we went to a shop called Russ for clothes. We were too tired to do thorough browsing, and did not find things appealing us to buy. We bought a few body creams. Next day we decided to give a try to a variety of places. Luckily, we found one place open where we had to buy whatever was available.

Besides meeting our own relatives, we had the honour of attending parties. Ash Kaji Gurung, who lives with a lovely family of three, invited us for a dinner. Until I met them, I did not have any idea that they also were in California. On the Thanks Giving Day, another party was thrown by Chitraji and his sister, Sujana Ghimire’s family. A wonderful feast with roasted turkey gave us a Christmas flavour long before Christmas arrived in Reading, UK. The most difficult thing for us was to leave behind Subina, Surya’s daughter, whom we had developed intimacy and so much love. The frequent “thank you” from her continues to echo in my ear while her smiley face emerges in front of my eyes even after a month we visited her.                 

Contrasting two countries

“You may find America different in many ways”, Dr Panday had mentioned in his email. Indeed, America was different from the UK in several ways.

The part of America we visited was warmer and sunny. Florida and California have warm weather round the year. Atlanta was slightly cold in November, but not like in the UK. Of course, parts of the States are extremely cold with snowfalls.

Transport infrastructure and system is very different in the US than that of the UK. Given the huge size of the country, travelling from one part of the US to another requires air travels even though several adventurous people that we met explained us about their cross country drives. Domestic air travel is increasing in the UK given the high cost and long time involved in train travel. However, on-land public travel is still dominant. Not only the long distance travel, but for a short travels and commuting, people in the US have to widely depend on personal means. Not many Nepalese in the UK own car, whereas only few in the US depend on public means. Without a car, it is very difficult to find a work in the USA. For example, it took nearly half a day for Bhuwani to travel 25 miles by public means to come to meet us in California. I did not see cyclists nor was there much road to ride bike. California, which has earned name for its environmental progress, does not seem to be green in transport system. Surya told me that the public transport systems that existed many years ago were abolished due to the strong lobbying by car manufacturers. In the UK, there is increasing emphasis on public transport management and people are urged to share cars and use bicycle as much as practicable. On the other hand, transport fares in the cities where trains/buses are available (such as Atlanta) were cheaper. But these services are less frequent as compared to those in the UK.

Highways are known as Motorways in the UK whereas they are known as Freeways in the USA. Freeways in Florida are much wider with up to six lanes a side, whereas they are mostly three lanes a side in the UK. Complex multilayer overhead bridges found in some parts of Florida are uncommon in the UK. Right hand driving system itself is a big difference as there is left hand driving system in the UK. 

The kind of difficulties students face is similar in both countries: earning and continuing education. In the UK, very few manage to go to University as others join professional courses at cheap private colleges. On the other hand, most students in the US have to go to university, even though many benefit from relatively cheaper community colleges for a couple of years, during their study. Not many Nepalese in the UK have entered to marital ties with non-Nepalese, whereas the trend in the US seems to be relatively higher. It could be because many go to the US as young and unmarried, and falling in the love would also mean a fast track settlement.

One striking difference for Nepalese between two countries is entering job market after study. Several people that we met have been able to get a good job after their study. One Indian student who I met both at Bangkok and Atlanta conferences has already started a teaching job after completing her PhD. “You can do teaching easily, but need a network and good publications” she reminded me of my ability. But the case is very different here in the UK. Unless scarce and a technical job, the UK system is not enabling for the overseas students to make a leap to the academic or white collar job. I have met several frustrated “bright and best” PhD holders in the UK who have even reportedly stopped making further applications. They say that there is hidden discrimination in the UK; penetrating this barrier is almost impossible for those like us who do not have any support networks. A retired lecturer (Englishwoman) told that USA and Canada are the immigration countries where immigrants are accepted in good positions, whereas UK has become an immigration country but this fact has not been accepted in practice. Recently, UK has started one year International Graduate Scheme (IGS), which is going to be replaced by a two year Post Study Work scheme. There is similar one year scheme for graduates in the USA. However, as long as the attitude remains unchanged, the options for post study work are not going to be useful. For those choosing a place to start study, my advice is: choose a system that lets you in after study no matter how hard the study period is going to be.

Wherever we visited, we have been envious of the housing systems in the US. The houses in the UK are mostly terraced. Being centuries old, they are too narrow and very uncomfortable. To explain them, we compared them with katero. Yet they are very expensive. In the US, people live mostly in flats which are both modern and spacious. The cost of living in California was higher than other parts that we visited, but it was still cheaper than that of the UK.  House prices, flat rents, and prices of clothing and food are much cheaper in the US. Nonetheless, people that we met were worried about the weak dollar and weaker US economy. At the time of our visit, pound was strong at its highest point as compared to dollar, but using our dollar traveller cheques that we had bought at Rs75/dollor in 2000, we too proved to be losers.

The size and density of Nepalese in some pockets of UK, particularly Reading is very high whereas that was small and sparse in the cities that we visited in the US. There were relatively few Nepalese in Fortlaurdale, but relatively more in Atlanta and California.

We also realised that unskilled Nepalese women in the UK get jobs easily and make more money than that of those in the USA. Any persons in the dependent status are allowed to take fulltime work in the UK whereas that is not the case in the USA. We realised that the UK’s basic pay rate, which is £5.35, was much higher than that of the US at $7 or $8.

Finally, in the USA people have very difficult circumstances due to the lack access to health services. One has to buy expensive health insurances and there are several people who still do not have one. Unlike this, in the UK people have almost free access to health services.

Gratitude: It is who you know matters

We believe that this visit has been very successful. Our investment in social relations resulted in us being able to visit several places without investing much economic resources. The support, love and care of many people that I have mentioned in this memoir has reaffirmed the fact that it is who you know matters. I am thankful to all, especially, Raj, Ritu, Ganga, Dhana, Khem, Surya, Bishnu and Subina for proving that they care for us. Those who helped to provide us with guest passes on Inside CNN tour and Disneyland also deserve special mention. We gained a lot from the visit, but Himkla’s gain of two Kg weight is added benefit. Thanks for forced feeding, guys!

New Year Eve, 2007

Reading, UK