Greetings from/of Providence

so, it's been a week - AND my very first weekend is just getting over - in the Unites States of America - a country I never in my wildest dreams expected to be my first (voluntary) international experience - for various reasons! Ok, not counting my stop over at Frankfurt and of course, strictly speaking, this trip isn't voluntary either!

anyhow, landed in Atlanta, Georgia (that's where our company's US office is located and no, I don't work at Coke) and my first impressions were rather on the lines of "So, this is the US? What's the big deal really?...etc." Coz apart from wider and cleaner roads, I didn't really 'feel' anything.

Moving on, spent a day and a half there and then, flew down to Providence, Rhode Island where my clients are located. Now, THIS is a really pretty city - firstly, it is kinda compact and therefore, nice! secondly, the buildings here are a mix of old/quaint red brick stuff and new, modern high rise-y looking stuff. thirdly, there was left over snow all obver the place which looked just right around all the red!

So, what exactly have I been doing here? Am officially here on a business trip for a project but have been trying to get some sightseeing plans built in to my shedule. The first dampener (pun unintended) to that came in the form of heavy rains today that killed my plans to go over to Boston for the day. I spent yesterday walking up and down the beautiful roads stockign up on my groceries and stuff coz snowfall is predicted next week. Next weekend I need to be in Atlanta again and so that leaves me with two more weekends to 'play' with - one is DEFINITELY in for NYC - what boosts my trip is that I have friends there so finally, won't be groping my way through a city! and another for Newport, RI and Boston (Amen!)

What have I learnt?

• how to turn on the heating - didn't realise that I didn't have it on at all for two whole days - and I was freezing my a*& off!
• how to use the commercial laundromat - was praying hard that it wouldn't eat up my quarters like the damn vending machine in Atlanta did!
• how to use a payphone - do you put the coins in first or do you dial first? well, now i know!

Since then, the only leisure activity - apart from my long exploratory walks - I have done is to go watch a movie (Brokeback Mountain - the truck loads of hype maybe did it but I didn't feel it was all THAT great) and I plan to go back for more. Hope to have some pictires of the beautiful city the next time I post.

I absolutely love the peaceful solitude of my existence and the fact that now, I finally am getting the chance to take care/be responsible for my own self!

Oh, and Life is just so convenient here!

(I wanted to say a lot more, but for now, this will have to do.)