So, here I am in the USA. It's Sunday night now, so I've been here for two full days, but I'd better start nearer the beginning...

Friday morning, after a sleepless night of tossing and turning, which usually happens to me before I travel, I had breakfast and leave for Heathrow. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, apart from the fact that we took off 45 minutes late, and I had a rather large Nigerian guy sitting next to me, so it was rather cramped for me (fortunately I was in the aisle seat and not him). In the last hour of the flight, as we were orbiting Baltimore-Washington International, waiting for permission to land, we were just flying inside clouds, without a single glimpse of land or sea. It wasn't until the final 10 seconds before landing that we actually emerged from the clouds. Clearly, it was a rainy day in Maryland. Being from a quasi-unfriendly country, I had to go through a special registration process at passport control. I was half-expecting to get rude and intimidating customs officers, but I got a black lady officer who was quiet but polite, even though there were a couple of officers who were rather unfriendly looking. The process mostly involved her asking me mundane questions and entering it in the computer, and then taking my fingerprints and photo. Nothing big, but merely time-wasting. By the time that ended, I was the last passenger from the plane to pick up my luggage, so there was the rather intimidating sight of a dozen customs officers waiting to inspect my luggage. Fortunately, again I got a friendly customs officer, and he made banter with me while asking me (again) a few questions. I didn't have to open my luggage up, fortunately.

Inside the USA proper, I emerged into the arrival lounge none the worse for wear. The first thing that struck me was the terminal building was LARGE but quite empty. The place seemed almost as large as Terminal 1 in Subang airport, but they handle something like a flight every couple of hours. I got myself a taxi, and it took us something like half an hour to get to the apartment I'm sub-letting, which is just next to John Hopkins University. On the way there, we passed near downtown Baltimore, and I saw the stadium that got nuked in 'The Sum of All Fears'. By the time I got to my apartment, it was about 6-ish in the evening. As I got out of the cab, I saw that there was $25.90 on the meter. I took out $30, and I only just remembered that I had to tip, so I just let the cabdriver keep the change.

I was supposed to get the keys to my apartment from Caroline, a friend of my landlord who's living in the building right next door, so I went over there and rang her bell. When she emerged from her front door, I immediately thought that she must be Eurasian (or rather, Ameriasian). She was chirpy, and she showed me to my apartment, which was one the fifth floor of my building. When I got the front door open, I was momentarily shocked. The apartment was in an extremely large mess. There were boxes strewn about the place, dirty dishes were piled up in the sink, and the floor was ridiculously dirty. Caroline is a very friendly girl, and she gave me some advice on nearby shops and how to get about. I was also somewhat surprised when she offered to accompany me to dinner nearby (surprised because she already mentioned the fact that she has a boyfriend). We went to a diner about 10 minutes walk away, and I greatly enjoyed chatting with her. The level of service I got at the diner was far better than anywhere else I've been, except perhaps Japan. After dinner, I went back to my apartment, and an emergency occured: I couldn't get the front door open. After about 10 minutes of trying, I went over to Caroline's place again and with great embarrassment told her my predicament. She came over to my apartment, and she had no luck either. She used her handphone to try and call the maintenance guy to the building, and after some time she managed to get through to the right person. She handed me the phone for me to speak to the guy, and when he found out that I'm not the official lease-holder of the apartment, he said he wasn't going to travel 25 miles from home to get the door open from me. As I slumped in desperation, he said 'I'm not supposed to tell you this, but you can try using a credit card', before the call ended. So I handed the phone back to Caroline, muttered 'credit card' (this confused her quite a bit), and took out my ISIC card (no point using anything of value). After a couple of minutes of jiggling, to our great relief and amazement, the door opened! Well, it's worked in movies before, but I always thought it was some kind of urban myth...

The next day Saturday was spent mostly in my apartment, trying to get the place cleaned up. My two Spanish flatmates, Gara and Miguel, aren't arriving until two weeks later, so I thought I'd get the place into a reasonably habitable state before they get here. Apart from a quick shopping trip to a nearby mall to get some groceries, the highlight of the day way managing to get my laptop connected to the DSL connection in my apartment, which is a minor miracle considering that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

This morning, Sunday, I was supposed to meet some of the other interns for lunch at a nearby diner. I couldn't get much sleep last night because my body still think it's in London, and I woke up at about 7am. I got to the diner at 11.30, and three of them were already waiting there. There was Scott, a Massachusetts native studying Vassar College, NY; Bonnie, a Pittsburgh native studying in Cleveland, Ohio; and Tom, a French-Brit mix on my side of the pond, at St. Andrews Uni in Scotland. A while later, Marie, a Chinese-American studying in Uni of Southern Cali turned up as well. After brunch, we decided to go and take a look at the Institute where we're supposed to be working. The Space Telescope Science Insitute is inside the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) campus, but it's independent. The JHU campus itself is a very green, leafy place with lots of trees, and the immediate surroundings are a very slightly boring suburban area. After that, we decided to catch a bus to downtown Baltimore.

The bus took it's time to get to our bus stop, and when it arrived it was pretty full of people. I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY OBESE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE. It wasn't a majority in any way, but still there was noticeably a lot more than anywhere else I've been. Another thing that I noticed was that there are so many churches in this place...a lot more than in Britain, I felt. I guess Americans are much more religious compared to their counterparts from across the Atlantic.

Outside the immediate vicinity of the JHU campus, the surroundings immediately took a seedy cast, with peeling buildings and a far more run-down appearance. I hope this doesn't sound racist, but there were a lot of black people, inside and outside the bus. After about 25 minutes, the buildings of downtown Baltimore came into sight, and we got off at the Inner Harbour area. Inner Harbour is the innermost part of Cheasapeake Bay, and there were a lot of boats in the area. The Baltimore aquarium is also situated here, as well as the USS Constellation, the US Navy's last wooden sailing ship. It was pretty crowded as it was a Sunday afternoon, and we took our time going around the place. Nearby, there was an old power plant that is now a Barnes and Noble bookshop, and we spent a bit of time browsing it. By the time we left, it was already about 5.30 pm, so we decided to take the bus back to JHU. When we got back to the campus area, we all went home (all of our places are around the JHU campus area).

So far, it's been a rather disorienting experience to me. It's normal to feel out-of-place when coming to a new place, and not knowing anyone around, but somehow this is different. Americana is so ubiquitous all over the world, so actually getting here and being immersed in it is a somewhat surreal experience. The people here are friendly and cheerful in general, but I cannot help but feel that in general Americans seem to be insular and ignorant of the outside world. Other things also stand out, like their love and obsession with cars (in part driven by necessity), and their liberal use of their car horn when driving! Of course, the incidence of obesity is also rather disturbing. So far, much as I hate to say this, my impression of America is a country without direction, and at siege with the rest of the world.

I start work tomorrow morning. Will keep this updated, and get pictures uploaded as well.