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Al-Chico

I felt that I was busy to write this email for more than a couple of weeks now.
Hmm .. lets see why ...

Twice to Charleston, moved to my new appartment, thrice to Al-Chico the mexican restaurant (courtesy my ever young project manager, Patty, who thought thursdays nights were mexican nights), four times to Walmart, bought a bicycle, planned a NY trip, twice to second-hand furniture shops and my first ever league cricket match at Charlotte. Seems busy eh? Oh yeah also, since I was left with just $3 in cash and two $500 american express traveler's cheques, which no one wanted to encash unless I had a bank account, I opened a bank account too. And a mexican wife.

MEXICAN WIFE! ... ok, let me explain. I was caught half-naked in my hotel room by an unsuspecting mexican room service girl. After a lot of "sorry"s from her and "no problem"s from me, I hurried down stairs to tell this to my buddies who were ready with a story which went ... every mexican girl marries the first half-naked guy she sees. Hehe ... now you know its not real :-)

My first ever ball bowled in US was a wide.

I know I'm a mediocre in every game I play but still after Saturday's tapped-tennis ball match, I was invited to play the league match on Sunday. I must have really impressed someone or they were really short of players .. probably the later ;-) Sunday's game was on a private cricket ground of a wealthy (obviously) Gujju businessman. With 3 West Indian players in our team, we still manage to break a record in the league's history ... the lowest runs ever scored by a team .. 55 in 30 overs. But I'll remember this match for it was my first leather ball cricket match and I strongly felt the abdomen guard deserved a re-design ... somehow I didn't feel safe in them.

The US dollar's value beats my relatively weak financial sense ... from Columbia to NY, 2 way flight(716 miles) costs $250 and a taxi ride from NY to Newark (10 miles) costs abt $200! I went for the "flight and a friend" option :-) Yep its finalized, I'll be in NY for the American Independance (from whom?) day, July 4th, courtesy my college buddy. I'm expecting a lot of fun, fireworks and a gruesome dent in my already pathetic financial situation.

It'll be still worth it .. no doubt ;-)

- Raghu

 Written on Jun 12, 2006 1:28 PM

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