First Time in America

Phew! Finally...... I'm here in America.  It was definitely 'the' longest journey I have ever made from Brunei.  And let me say the stress level was ten fold when I got to the immigration check point.  For some odd reason, the men in uniform were pretty intimidating and I got a bit nervous when it was my turn to have my passport checked.  The officer checking it was quite stern and just huffed at my passport when he saw it.  And the first thing he said was," ....I don't think you can use ESTA with this passport ".  My heart just dropped immediately and I instantly thought 'damn it, I'll have to make 21 hours flight back to Brunei again!!!!???' I explained to him the passport was definitely a biometric passport.  He then said," Well, we'll find out then!" ..............You know what, my passport did checked through.   I'm not sure if this officer thought to himself,' Let's make this woman's brain go to panic mode before she lands officially on our soil'
I think I was pretty intimidated by their loud voices as well.  I felt like my voice sounded like a little mouse next to theirs.

Glad my sister didn't live too far away from Dulles Airport.  It was a 20 mins to 30 mins drive to Reston, Virginia.  All I can say is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.  Love the view of Lake Thoreau from my sister's house.  Her house sits cosy-ly at at gorgeous lake surrounded by forest.  Even though I was jet lag, I felt so awaken by the beauty of nature around her house.  Lucky her to live in such a nice place! 

In the past two days, I've already decided I like America.  They have a wide range of everything.  We went to Trader's Joe and it had one whole aisle just for a selection of bread alone.  Aiyayai!  And there were different sorts of hommus (my favourite), lovely selections of yoghurt ice cream, all sorts of dark chocolate and all sorts of whole grain cereal.  Woo hoo!!!!!! And I got to try my first black bean burrito.  D-licious!!!! And we got bargained goods (good quality) for reasonable prices.  Ohh and I finally came across Gaiam yoga products.  There's the yoga gloves to yoga socks.  I wanted to get the yoga gloves but there was only one glove left.  Never mind, I'll keep looking for other yoga stuffs.

I'm still not used to americans saying," Hi, how are you ma'm?" I mean I lived in UK for 10 years but not everybody will ask and say it to you.  But here in the States, everybody says it and they say it so loud too.  I feel as if I'm being 'questioned'.  My reply to them is only (with a very quiet voice) ," I'm fine,thanks?"

Well, we're off to Washington D.C today and we might just hello to Obama today.  Not!