Part-23: September 13, 2007 A Journey to Overseas My wife and I were busy in preparing the stuffs to be carried to my new home at overseas in the evening of August 12, 2004. Other relatives also joined to us for collecting and packing things. I was excited because I was going to the dreamland of most of the people in the world. On the other hand, my heart was heavy as I was going to be away from my little daughter of three years old, my wife and other relatives. I hardly slept that night. The flight was early the next morning. I could leave my place at any moment as everything was packed and ready. It was the dawn of August 13, 2004. All my relatives were there in the early morning. I ate some food. My mother-in-law had made a beautiful garland for me. She put "TIKA" on my forehead and the garland around the neck. We took some photographs too. My brother called a taxi. Now was the hardest time of departure. I bade goodbye to my little daughter, wife and all my relatives there and went to the taxi. I found tears rolling down my chicks when I sat in the taxi. Anyway, I had to go so I left for the airport to catch the first flight of RNAC to Bangkok. It was the first experience to fly in a jet plane. The plane took off, soared up and took a height. I watched the Kathmandu city through the window and bade goodbye. After sometime, we were above the clouds. After three and a half hours, I think, we landed at the Bangkok airport. The transit time there was about 12 hours. It was really boring because there was no chance to come out of the airport. I bought a telephone card and tried to call my wife back home but I could not catch her. Probably she was out of home. As we were five people going to the same destination, we passed time gossiping. We had to catch the Korean Air to Seoul from there. After a long and tiring flight, we reached Seoul the next morning. After a brief transit there, we caught another plane to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago. Most of the time I tried to be awake. I watched the position and the direction of flight of the plane on the screen. The air-hostess brought foods and drinks from time to time. The plane was over the pacific before it entered the sky of Canada. It was morning time. I watched through the window. The land down there was full of forest, ponds and lakes. Finally, the plane landed at the O'Hare international airport, Chicago. The plane made so violent movements while landing that we were really scared. Fortunately, everything went safely. We came out of the plane and went to the immigration office for clearance. We claimed our baggage. We had to take train at 6:00 P.M. from the Chicago Union Station. We headed towards the union station from the airport by taking a subway train. We were only two people there for the rest of the journey. The other three were to go to a different place. We gained some bitter and some nice experiences in the train station. We had a lot of stuffs in about six suitcases. Once we came out of the subway train, we had to bring those stuffs to the train station. It was really difficult to carry as each suitcase was 40 to 50 kilograms or so except the hand-carry bag. We two were trying to carry up the staircase; a black guy picked up one of our bags and started dragging. We were surprised and told him not to do so. He told me that he saw our problem and wanted to help us. He also assured that he was some security person. A little later, another black guy also joined to us and helped to carry some suitcases. Once we reached within the Union station building, we paid two dollars for one of them. The other guy who helped a lot denied to take anything, took off his hat and said, “Just remember that there was a tall black guy at Chicago train station who helped us” and went away. Within the station building, a person wearing a red cap came to us with his taxi, loaded our things and took to the terminal of our departure. That guy really gave us hard time because he said, “You can not carry such a large amount of weight by train without paying. The limit is 48 pounds per person. If you help me, I can manage." We asked him what he wanted. He replied, “If you want my help, you need to think about me too.” We unloaded our stuffs in the waiting room. He kept on coming and talking to other working staffs in the station. We were reluctant to give any money to him beyond the train ticket. But it was time to ride the train. Finally, we decided to give him 20 dollars. Then he talked to the conductor. The conductor signaled us to put our baggage to a small compartment of the train. We entered the train and sat in the adjacent seats. My friend slept for the whole three hours journey in the train but I couldn't. There were different things swirling in my mind including the behavior of the people in the train station, “People of any kind can be found at any of the places in the world!”