UNNNNIIIIVERSALLLLL Studios

This was absolutely everything I had expected and more. It was so not just a great experience it was a brilliant experience. I had booked one of those starline tours thingies, they picked me up from Motel 6 sharp at 8.45. Motel 6 was also the perfect choice, I am so glad I booked my hotel on hollywood bvld. It was like less than 2 minutes by foot to get to the holly wood walk of fame, perfect choice...

So ya back to universal, I was dropped at the Universal studios gate at 0945 and since I had one of those starline tours tickets I did not have to stand in the line again to get my park tickets. At the entrance of the gate they have this music from the best of their movies playing, movies like jurassic park and others.

As soon as we entered everyone had started running in a specific direction. As soon as I picked up one of them pamplets with ride timings I realized why they were running. Everyone was trying to get themselves the first ride on the studios tour.. And SO i started running as well, hehe.. And mananaged to get the first trip.. This ride was like a tour of the studious with their latest and greatest "king Koong Ride" Now was that cool or what. Remeber the movie king kong there was a sequence when the dinosaurs are after the chiq and king kong saves here. In this ride the bus that we are on is the chiq and dinosaurs start attacking. The whole damn bus moved and rattled and when king kong decided to show up it was like the roof of the bus caved in and we could even feel the breath from the animals barking or howling at us.. It was BRILLIANT, the most exciting ride ever ever...While making our way back I looked at the brochure of ride timing and decided to make a run for the next ride.

Timed each ride to perfection and I was able to dooo iitt allll.. It was perfect :

Tour - King Kong 4d

Shrek 4d

Terminator 3d

Jurassic Park

Mummy Ride

Simpsons Ride : this was like a virtual roller coaster. So the thingy that we were sitting in never left its place but it felt like it did cuz of the screen and the 4d effects. Just like in the simpsons show this ride was filled with typical simpsons knick knacks and effects.

Water World : This was a real life enactment of the movie with guns and pyro effects. This was cool tooo..

And yes how did I forget I got to meet scooby, bart lisa Simpson, Shrek, Dora and other movie personalities. Even got my picture taken with a few. It was cool.

I was to make my way back at the entrance at 6.00 that was when the park closes. So outside the park they have this small street with a bunch of shops and eatiers. GameStop is like a gaming shop which has demos setup of xbox and PS. Being the Fifa fan that I am I couldn't resist but play with this guy and man did i woop his ass. All these over confident gamers its so much fun to beat them, and I could see it in his face Damn I got beaten by an Indian.. hehehe was fun.

For all those reading this I very strongly sugggest not to miss Universal Studios it is a must visit and deserves respect. You will not regret it.

-Santosh

Week 2

Being the scarred pussy that I am and when bobby told me that this will be an interesting experience I was shit scarred or rather very very anxious and looking for reasons to not goto the Grey Hound terminal in San Francisco. But it turned out to be alright, checked my bag in and hola I was headed to hollywood beginning the second leg of my journey.

So ya grey hound has its share of surprises for you, like the homeless guy staring or drunk guys in the bus. It can be a scary experience but its alright, we as Indians and Mumbai'ites have seen worse. I was getting worked up but once there I was like ya I can handle them if the need be.

SF - North Hollywood and then a subway train took me to hollywood bvld. Having taken a quick cofee break in starbucks I was all ready for me trip to unniivveerrssal studios. Was that fun or wahat.....

The three major highlights of my trip were Universal, Disney and the Grand Canyon which I think need a special mention........

Continuing to Universal in the next blog...

Week 1

Week1 has been interesting, not as interesting as the kind and loving Mr Hurley. The first day I met him and he was so forthright so funny so full of joy, fun to be around.

So I arrived here on saturday checked into the nice and shiny hotel took a quick bath and before the jet lag cold get to me got ready and went to PA downtown. Nice little bubbly place, since it was saturday there were alot of people around. What I love the most about the Americans is that they "YIELD", yield is a traffic term here which means let pedestrains cross first wait and then go. And hence this is bred into themwhile walking while opening doors while in the elvator, everywhere they want to let you go first and then follow.

Slider BAr and Cafe :

A very interesting small little cafe which serves burgers and beer. What was so interesting about this cafe was that their burgers are small and tall, kinda like mini burger but was very good. Couple of glasses of draught beer burger, garlic fries was more than enough. This interestingly enough is the de-facto american lunch. Burger Fries and Beer and god bless the person who came up with this, hehe... Love the amount of calories it adds to the body heheh...

Had an awesome two scoops of the very famous HagenDaaz ice-cream. I did not give the jet lag time to set in, beer /burger and good enough sleep enducers if you know what I mean..

Pier 39 :

The next day was a site seeing trip to SSSaaaann Francisco... Every time I say San Francisco it reminds me of the song...Well The pier is like a "fun-fair" that we have here back in India. People eating playing drinking taking pictures. With Christmas around the corner there was an obviously huge chritmas tree. I went there early as in at around 10 in the morning and it was freezing. People had warned me about the cold breeze and so I was carrying a jacket sweatshirt and an umbrella. Thank you RUPALI for forcing me to buy a damn umbrella. It never rained......

Had a good fisheraterien lunch at one of the peir restaurants. Expensive but good. We then ran into a guy who was offering a 10$ ride under the golden gate bridge and so it was to be.. Ride under the golden gate bridge was excellent. It was a very interesting experience looking at the streets of SF from the sea. The golden gate bridge is humongous, when looking at it from the ferry below the bridge it looks so much more bigger than it might be. It was larger than life, downright beautiful.

We then walked upto lombardt street "the crookedest street" in the world. It was fun a lot of walking but ya it was fun. China town was a let down, I was hoping to catch some nice interesting street food but that wasn't the case. It was like the "FORT market" out here in Mumbai.

Drive back to Santa Clara and dinner with Prasant was fun, But special mention to Prashants wie for coming up with a brilliant cpu of tea. It was like tea at home but only like on the other side of the world.....

First day at work was fun, met some of the brains behind Zimbra... Jim Kevin Ellen Maria Boris to name a few, the UI guys hadn't checked in yet but the "Amber's VMware Special" trip was fun. I was put up in an office sharing with Mr Hurley and it was sooo much fun. Mr hurley is like the funniest guy I have ever met. I begged him to take me along to the next "Sharks" game..Spent that night with Karthik Rajesh Satish and their families, it was fun..... They ordered a Jumbo burger for me which is like with two meat patties and I had a very hard time finishing it...

The next night was probably the funn'est night I spent in SF, Ice Hockey game in the "HOME OF THE SHARKS" San Jose. Firstly let me tell you the fans here are crazy, hehe and since it was the home court of the Sharks it was filled with Shark funs and the "Wings" only had a hand full of fan following. By the way Mr hurley is such a big fan that he has his seat and he just won't let anyone sit there.. Its like "THATS MY SEAT". It was fun to watch the game :

"Whats the matter with howard he's a bum" And Howard was the visiting teams goalkeeper...

Met a very interesting guy in the PA office, a Mr mike he is like the vmware know it all GSS guy and fun. He can go on and on and on like one of those Duracell commercials.

I was at 6th street on SF downtown the day before the last day in SF, and man o man it was scary. It had a bunch of homless guys hanging around and a bunch of those cross dressed men, with everyone shouting and drinking. Damn scary place to be in, but if u keep your head down and walk like you know where you are going then probably you will not get bothered. Out here in the US if you look a person in the eye, they consider it as a engaging and feel that its necessary to respond. Now this response can be a simple nod or can be "wat you lookin' at brother".. So my advice do not engage, look away simply.