First Snowfall!

I have a roommate now. Jonah arrived during the first week of October. I was so happy that I spoke to him non stop about everything from the experienced in the US to people at work.

Both Jonah and I had our classroom session on driving, one Friday. It went well and after the class, Alan took us out for dinner. Rick (Jonah’s Boss) also joined. But the surprise guests were Alan’s wife and junior Alan. Alan’s son is also named the same and it was their family tradition to name the kid after the grandfather. This is something similar to what we find in India. His wife is from Vietnam and so she had another name for the kid too. Alan’s wife spoke very well. I found the culture around asian countries more or less similar. She jokingly complained about Junior Alan not having much hair and especially on not having dark black hair like we Asians.

The food was excellent. Alan had chosen a Vietnamese restaurant in Colorado Springs downtown. I got to taste some real good rice noodles after a long time. Jonah & I loved the place.

After the dinner Alan took us to watch ice hockey game. Famous Colorado team named “Tigers” were playing. We enjoyed the game as Alan explained to us the rules.

Jonah and I had now started driving. Peggy sat next to us while either one of us drove. If I drove while going to office, Jonah drove back. Company rented for us a new Buick century from hertz. As always, learning anything is fun and has many interesting stories. On my first day out, I had a very big confusion at an intersection. About right of way. As I hesitated to drive, the lady in the car opposite to me got confused and finally she took off knowing that i was confused.

And Jonah ran a red light one day. Aditi and I were sitting in the back seat and chatting when there was some confusion between Peggy and Jonah to whether or not pass the yellow light. Peggy finally yelled to stop but Jonah instead of applying the break, hit the accelerator pedal. Boooom we ran a red light. He was really upset that day as Aditi and I pulled his leg.

Aditi accepted a job offer in North Carolina. Peggy and Mike arranged a send off party one evening for her and we were invited. After the party we helped Aditi in moving out some of the boxes that she had packed. It was sad saying good-bye to her because in spite of having spent very less time together she had turned out to be a very good friend of mine. I shall miss her.

The month was filled with creativity. I wrote several stories. One evening, Sajil, Subbaiha, Jonah, Suman and me had dinner at Asian empire buffet. After dinner we all came back home and chatted. With four of us speaking kannada, it felt like we were in Bangalore.

I started enjoying purchases on Amazon.com. It is so easy to find and buy stuff here. Books of Virginia Woolf, Some rear DVD collections were few of my purchases.

The time changed today. Yes, all the clocks where reset an hour for day light saving. Strange, but thats what happens during winter and before summer to get more daylight. As it gets dark at 4:30 PM during winter and 9:00 PM during summer.

Around the end of the month our boss from India, Suresh traveled to COS.

And one night, at around 10 PM or so, Suresh called us to look at something. It was the evening of October 31st  and it was snowing!!!

That was the first snowfall I had ever witnessed in my life. There were many to follow but none looked so impressive as the first one. Small white crystals showered on the rooftops and dry lawn. I went outside and held them in my hand. It was beautiful. The pictures here can help you recollect the event but would never recreate that special feeling again ever.