The day got off to a good start and I fixed the problem associated with xmms in my notebook. I had some good food and cleaned up the room, as Dave had informed that someone was coming over to take a look at the room. I then went to school to get Dr. P’s travel itinerary and a detailed map of Santosh’s place in Pleasanton, CA. Soon, it was time to leave Houghton. After making sure that my officemates were ready, I called D. P and he came around 4.15 pm. Check-in process was very smooth, altealst for me. The journey started on time, was comfortable through out and reached Minneapolis on time After slowly walking through the airport, I had Cheese Pizza (same place as I usually do) and then Mocha in StarBuck} (same outlet), on my way to Concourse G. After copying the pictures to my notebook, I continued updating the diary, which I had partially done earlier, on my way to Minneapolis.

After charging up my notebook battery for a while, it was time to board my next flight to Los Angeles. It was nice to know that my fellow passenger, Susan Karasic, a web designer by profession. An interesting and informative conversation helped both of us learn some new things, although I learnt a great deal (keywords) about using Macromedia Flash in web sites and yet make them load faster than usual! I also took a nice video clipping of our flight taking off from MSP. I updated my diary a bit more, took a nap and the aerial view of LA traffic scared the hell out of me! We landed on time, and LA had lot more surprises in store fore me. First one was that there was a shuttle service to rent a car and the rental location was about 5 miles away! The rented car, (Chevy Malibu), was a bit too good and missed on important exit very soon. After roaming around for a while and asking people for directions, finally got back on road and reached Wilshire Grand around 12.45 am (Pacific Time) - it was, true to its name, very grand. After leaving Haiying off, I drove to Quality Inn and the at first (at night) it wasn’t very impressive. After settling down, I went out and familiarized myself with the roads and traffic rules (no free right turn here) and it was about 3.30 am (PT) I finally came back.