America: first contact!
[Republished from GOING USA's November/December 2004 issue]
Fresh H1-B visa in my passport, I am delivered to SFO by Qantas. In a jet-lagged haze, I stare at a bank of cotton-wool cloud resting on the nearby hillside all the way to luggage claim. I drift through passport control and gathered my bags on autopilot. The smiling face of my agency rep snaps me into some near reality for as long as it takes to get into a waiting car. The short trip up the 101 and into down town San Francisco is in hyper-real, slow motion, as I make a poor effort at sustaining polite conversation with my driver.
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