Badshaa’s Blog - Travel and more…

My flight to Detroit was quite relaxing. I first flew from Duesseldorf to Frankfurt, as I was visiting my family before I vanish for 3 months

Then from Frankfurt I had a direct flight to Detroit. It took me around 9 hours. Also we can add 6 hours of time difference (Eastern Standard Time vs. European Central Time).

Actually everything was well prepared. After landing in Detroit I was surprised by the empty “international” airport. Took my luggage, went to a public phone and dialed the number of the taxi company which then would pick me up. Soon the car arrived, the driver was already screaming the name of my companies name… the ride from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport to my place in Rochester Hills takes about 45 minutes by car…. And I can tell you, it was a hell of a ride….

Why? Well first of all my taxi driver was bald and looking a bit crazy. Then the talks started, he tried to program his navigation system via voice and ended up with cursing it endlessly. Then after talking and swearing with people on the phone, he told me stories of the holy land of America of course by using the words f***, a****, and so on. Then he told me about his trips to Windsor, Canada, which is just a couple hundred meters through a tunnel from Detroit. Why did he told me about it? I don’t know, he just started talking about that prostitution is illegal in Michigan, legal in Windsor and so on and so on. During the talks I was really surprised that we did not ended up in some car accidents, or a police car chase with helicopter and cameras….

Well in the end we made it to the apartment. But first we had to pass the gate. Unfortunately the gate key was not working…. so after a car of a resident passed the gate, this crazy head pushed to gas pedal to an edge, ran the car through the gate while it was open and stopped with a drift like you never have seen before. This guy should really work for the police or some gangs….seriously…

Alright, the area where my apartment was, was a quite small safe area known as Oakwood, River Oaks North apartments. This is not usual for the average European. You must know that the living areas are quite separated and located far away. Thus you have small communities living in a secured or less secured area.

Anyway the apartment is quite big, one large living room, kitchen, bathroom with tub, storage room, a walk in closet, a large bedroom, bedroom and living room with a nice TV :-)  and a nice terrace toward the forest.

Here are some pics:

The day I arrived, it was already close to midnight, thus the pictures are from another day. The first interesting thing that happened to me the 2nd day in the US was, when I encountered three deers in front of my terrace…. You must know that the most accidents in Michigan happen with deers.

Of course my company also rented a nice car for me, because without a car….you can do absolutely, and I really mean it…absolutely nothing in Rochester Hills. You even have to take your car to get rid of the garbage bag. So this was my nice car for 3 months:

In a nice covered parking lot, helped a lot when it was snowing….

So day 2 was a Sunday, thus after waking up I checked in the Web where the groceries stores and the company are and then went for a nice ride. I am glad that the car was delivered with a navigation system I shopped at Trader Joes (a tip from Bruce and his wife Susan) which is basically the “Bio” chain of Aldi. Great shopping, good prices and good service with all the packing/bagging. We need something like that in Germany. Although it really took me some time to get adjusted to the sizes of meals, groceries etc. as in the US everything is bigger.

Day 3 was my first day at work. Luckily the company was only 3 minutes (by car) away from my apartment. This is what the company looks like:

and as an average office worker in the US you don’t get an office, you get a cubicle! The thing you know from watching American movies….

Thats my cubicle!

So I was welcomed and introduced to my colleagues by Bruce. Given a security badge to access the company and then after setting up the IT, mobile phone, land line etc. Going out for some lunch with the boss Bruce. One thing which I noted at the lunch which is unique for the US, free refills of soft drinks at most of the restaurants….

As the cantine was really bad (everyone said this) I often went to get my food at places around the area, subway, etc. But my favorite store was Panera bread….great soups and sandwiches. You should check it out when you happen to be in the US.

As first days went by, I was in the routine, working on US and German tasks, learning the American way of working and living… for example don’t take the question “Hi, How are you” not seriously….. short answer and short re-question. And I also got ready for the next weekend to visit the city of Detroit.