US Trip - Part II

Okay.. I'm exhausted after a marathon y'day to get the August OT newsletter out.. I definitely deserve a break and the I'd say the best option I have right now is to write up the second part of my US trip considering the traffic out there basically threatening me not to leave office!!
So.. having left the moron with the attitude (he he), I settled into a long flight to Narita (Japan). Surprisingly it turned out better than I imagined which I suspect was mainly due to the mental preparation in anticipation of a long flight. The only disturbing factor being funny smelling flight food that seriously puts you off from indulging in..
Having arrived in Narita after 7 hours of flying time, I walked all the way to the departure lounge to board to my next flight that would take to my US destination of Portland (Oregon). Airport was seriously less than what I'd expect from the Asian electronic giant. I'd say comparatively, Sri Lanka is far ahead. This kind of killed a long lived dreamed of mine which was to visit Japan:(
Anyways.., the transit time was short and was only about 45 minutes before I boarded on to the flight to Portland. I was getting very excited as I could see that most passengers are Americans and mostly the Portland crowd. They looked and sounded extremely nice and polite and that made me want to get there more and more. A 10 hour flight came to an end when we landed in the Portland International Airport and I quickly moved to collect my luggage and get to the immigration. Only few questions were asked (to my delight) and I was on my way to the customs. They were the most friendliest custom officers you could ever think of. I could not believe that I was out in the open, breathing fresh air Portland winds bring in less than 20 minutes after arriving in the US!
I decided to find out about my travel options from the airport to the hotel and figured out that the airport shuttle service is the best solution considering the 2 luggage bags I had to carry. This was better than taking a taxi, as it costs more than $30 dollars and the shuttle service is only $20. From the airport to downtown Portland where Hotel Modera is located, it kept on reminding me how much it reflected of the Melbourne city. I think the similarity is the result of both cities being designed after ancient European cities..
Getting off at Modera, I was greeted by Hotel staff. I realized that cab man had charged me $20 instead of US$16 he mentioned initially. I decided not to ask why since I was a newbie. And that turned out to be one of the wisest moves I've ever made, when I later heard from Katie about America's culture that includes a relatively heavy tipping component..!! My instincts had saved me so much embarrassment!
Inside the hotel I was told that my room will only be ready in another 2 hours!!! This was not helpful as I had to rush to OSCON that had already begun. (time at this point was close to 12 noon and OSCON starts at 10 am). I received a note and 2 t-shirts Katie had left for me and I ran across to the wash room and got changed and took a cab to the Portland Convention Center. There I found Samisa, Jonathan, Katie and the rest of the OSCON crowd.
In my next blog post, I wish to write on OSCON and everything that happened there to the best I could remember.. So keep reading..