I love America!

Hi,

Well, America is a developed nation. And in a developed nation you cannot throw out pennies to get someone to wash your dishes or your clothes. Well, so what? They have invented washing machines and dish washers. If you think they are costly and not everyone will be able to own them, stop there. They have even invented the coin operated machines. Drop some quarters and zoom... your washing machine starts operating. If you are used to having a chat with the canteen owner at your office when you grab a pepsi, you are in for disappointment at US. You need to drop in coins in the vending machine to grab a pepsi.

Last week, 2 of my colleagues shifted homes and needed assistance from me and my friend. I was advised to flex my muscles before going to help them. Let me list out the facts here - you can rent a truck but not a driver - of course you can if you are willing to shell $400 :-O! Forget about renting man power for loading and unloading stuff. So I was picked up from office on a 24 ft truck. Oh yeah, the colleague of mine was driving and I sat beside him. It was a nice huge truck - I still hate myself for not clicking a photo with a towel around my neck and a beedi between my lips sitting in the drivers' seat of the truck. Anyways, it is quite a huge vehicle to manipulate and if you are thinking of shifting to US at a later point of time, keep in your mind that you will have to drive a truck at some point or the other - unless you wish to live and die at the same place. Whether you want to smoke a beedi and wear a towel around your neck is upto you. So we reached his home and started on the job. A ramp behind the truck can be pulled out to help you roll things up. There is a dolly provided - I would rather call it a trolley - but you can't use it for big stuff - only small ones would fit. So I carried stuff - dresser, sofa, TV, beds, boxes, big boxes, huge boxes. I never imagined a Toshiba TV of 32" screen could be that heavy. Anyways, gripping it was even tougher. So the loading of 60% of one home was done on Friday. Saturday started with the loading of the remaining 40%, then unloading the entire 100%. A nice lunch to follow and we were to set to the second colleague for his stuff. Luckily 80% loading was done by the time we went. So we helped with the remaining 20%. And then the unloading at the destination - thankfully there were more people to help here. At the end we had nice chinese dinner. I felt very proud when I came back - I never might have thought I would be able to carry that heavy stuff. But yeah, for the coming two days, I had my hands and legs aching and had to walk like a robot. I'm Lovin' Ammerikha!