Tale of 3 cities

Its been a long time since I have written a travelogue, mainly becoz its been a long time since I travelled. But as it happened, I got the chance to tour more than one city all at once.
The first city I visited was San Francisco - weekend of March 1-4th, for the annual CRA-W grad cohort. The conference in itself was very inspiring. You get to meet all the women in your field who have struggled through their careers and now become established. If not the round-trip to SFO,
or the stay at a five star hotel which in this instance was Westin St.Francis (right in the middle of Union Square).........meeting people from all across your field is motivating and awe-inspiring enough. One of the things I finally got done was get my name on my passport corrected. :) So I am no longer FirstName Surname (obscured because people scared me with privacy laws) where first name = FirstName Surname and last name = Blank.

But the best thing by far was making two new friends , Deepa from NCSU and Khushboo from TAMU. We met over the conference dinner and it took what 5 mins to gel .......just like that. I had been doubting myself for sometime on being actually being able to get along with people. Believe me, I couldn't have asked for two closer soul-mates. :) We had an adventure tour of the city around mid-night (to experience BART trip to Berkeley = the equivalent of metro in India). We danced to the tunes of ABBA and others at a Google hosted party (last time for me would have been college where I have had so much fun), we ordered margheritas but took two sips before settling for fruit mocktails , becoz we could not appreciate the taste, we rode the hotel elevators some dozen times until it became out of service to enjoy the view from the 32nd floor, we took pictures dil chahta hai style :). When it was time for goodbyes, all of us were equally sad to say farewell to the times together. The only smile was bcoz the conference would be shifting to Seattle next time and maybe we would be able to meet there for another rocking time.

SFO itself however did not welcome me like last time. So the entire Sunday morning I spent trying to study compilers in the hotel lobby. I did not have anybody to go around town with and thats when I realized that out of all the things that can be done alone....... touring places is not one of them. Maybe at another time I would have convinced myself otherwise,......... but then the very thought of taking the cable car and going alone to visit the water-front or Golden Gate bridge did not sound appealing at all. Nevertheless I left with happier memories than I had had in a long time.

Moving on, next stop White Mountain. The gang : Karthik, Lopa, Natasha, Swapna and myself
the cause: Road trip to Grand Canyon. Much as it seemed that the trip would almost not happen, it did and started off my spring break with a most cherished dream coming true. I did not want to leave Arizona without having seen Grand Canyon. Its like living in Kolkata all your life and never visiting the Victoria Memorial.

We started off at 7:30 a.m on Sunday, March 11th to the White Mountain, Sunrise run by the apache indians there. (The latter fact, by the way I came to know only today.) The road was amazing, there was snow around with pines and conifers sticking out, looming mountains in the distance with white snow covering them. The ski resort where we landed was just like one out of a movie with the cable cars plying up and down the slopes and people on skis and snow-boards all around us. We were beginners but that did not stop us from hiring skis to try our luck on the slopes.

Firstly, it is difficult to balance in the hard boots with two long poles attached beneath them (incase you haven't figured out I am talking about skis). Once you have lost your fear of falling, and learnt to balance and walk or slide around on the flat ground on your skis........then comes the part when you have to actually try it out on the slopes. We, brave or not, managed to get into line for the cable cars for the steepest slope. It was only when the operators saw us shaky and unable even to get on to the cable car without it stopping (like all the other skiers)...pointed us in the direction of the childrens' slope. Natasha, Swapna and Lopa after a lot of waiting and poising for the right moment, hoisted themselves on to the cable car in front of me. Lopa in the run, lost her skis however. So much for the effortless way in which everybody just stood in front of the cars as they came and just smoothly, (as if nothing could be more simple) plopped down on the seats as it started its journey up.

I took the next cable car and thankfully managed to hop on without much of an act. The cable car journeyed up the slope, with all tiny dots of skiers and snowboarders below us, jumping over the ice hills, falling down, getting up and continueing on. The difficult part seemed to be to get down from the cable car. Guess what, Natasha and group figured that they should jump. So no sooner than the cable car came close to the drop off that they jumped. Natasha fell, Lopa fell on top of her. Swapna stayed on and the cable car almost was on its way down when the operator stopped it. :) The skier next to me with his ten year old or so kid beside him, remarked how he had never seen that happen before. I was sure he would see more interesting things in a few moments. Inspite of his advice to just stand when the drop-off came and I would automatically start skiing down the slope,...... I stood up, lost my balance and fell. :) And then I couldn't stand.
I managed to push myself out of the way of the other skiers. Finally the operator came out and helped me out. I went a few micro-seconds before my feet flew up from under me and I was on my back again. Natasha was faring better, she was atleast standing. Swapna and Lopa were in the same plight as me. Swapna managed to stand , Lopa managed to slide down the slope on her back to where the others were. I could not stand. I had no idea how. :) No matter how I tried the skis did not offer any help. I finally decided to take them off, stand up and then re-wear them. Once I had managed to pull off one ski, and placed it on the snow......... guess what happened. The ski started on its own down the slope to where the others were a few feet below.
I started shouting , with one leg in a ski and the other in a sock. Natasha did try to hurl her pole out and stop it but alas! :) My ski apparently seemed to know how to ski and I didn't.
The only thought that crossed my mind then was what if it continues all the way down the slope .... I would never be able to follow it. :) Well the ski missed a turn and stopped. And I took off my other ski, hopped along in my socks on the ice and managed to grab it. I fastened both again
on to my feet. And then I stood up and fell again. This was impossible for me. Ice and I did not seem to be on the same ground. Well I did what seemed to me the best idea then. I took off the skis, held them and hobbled in my socks to the cable car drop-off. I would take the cable car back down.
To my embarrasment, I was the only one going down. Everyone coming on the up-ride stared at me and kids even managed to comment about whether I was too scared. :( Well I fared better than the others, who got on all three on one car and followed my cue. The kids did not spare calling them weepies.

Imagine my relief when I finally reached down, in front of all the kids and their parents asked the operator to stop the car and then got off. My friends followed up a few minutes behind me while I related to Karthik , our snow escapades. Then all of us noticed the children slope. It was a small-few-feet-high hill which would still have been doable, nested on the extreme right. We laughed and clicked snaps, posing as if we had accomplished a lot. Well we had, we had been on skis.... :)

Next stop Flagstaff before continueing to Grand Canyon. But I am too sleepy to write anymore. Will be continued........