IT IS ME AND THIS IS MY STORY!

Finally I decided to write the entire challenges I endured to reach and participate in one of the International competitions organized by NASA,(Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2015).

MY CHANNEL

A month before the competition

It will be apt to start my story from the doors of US embassy. On 04^th March 2015, I along with my teammates attended the interview to obtain US B1/B2 visa, but during the process I failed to produce my CV, when councilor specifically asked it along with other documents. Soon I was instructed  to e-mail the consulate  all the documents along with my CV in text format before 2pm that very day and handed me a “221g form” which marked “ My application requires additional Administrative processing” which apparently takes 60 days to process , until then my passport will not be issued.

I had lost hopes of receiving visa so did my teammates and they carried on with their preparations to leave country for the competition.

A good friend of mine, probably the only one asked me not to lose hope and I might receive it someday before the actual competition.  This encouraged me to check my visa status again on  06^th of April 2016, to my surprise the status had updated to “Issued”. 

 I quickly informed my good friend , he wished me good luck and helped me in my preparations.

Then I informed my teammates about this news and realized that they had already prepared to leave the country on 9^th of April. I would receive my passport only on 9th. So in good hopes of meeting my team in US, I started preparing for the items to carry, hotel to stay and air tickets with the help of my good friend.

He help me in booking a motel and flight which were the 2 majors tasks. Mean while I did not receive any message from my teammates, “The reason is unclear to this day”. But the day before leaving I found an image of my friends , this image apparently had a greater significance in my journey after reaching Huntsville,AL.

I was prepared to leave on 13^th April and it was a very new experience altogether. Apparently  I had to fill an immigration form the pass through all the security booths and finally board the aircraft.  

It was Qatar airline’s A320 to Doha, I was very pleased to be on this airline and this was my first ever flight. I was very excited and enjoyed the food and hospitality from the crew.

Airports and free wifi connections

I connected my phone to the open wifi at the airport and informed my teammates about my status through whatsapp and I will only be receiving their reply once I connect back in the next airport. So that meant I will not be able to receive a response for my message that I send from Huntsville,AL airport. That really did not bother me, as my teammates did not provide their address. So I assumed that they accommodated somewhere near the US space and rocket center which was the venue for our competition. So I took a trans-city cab to Motel 6 which was in Madison as there were no bus or metro services at Huntsville.

It was a pleasant stay at Motel 6 and the receptionist “Ms Wanda” was very kind and she briefed me about the facilities that the motel had.

My mobile phone battery was low on charge and was not working, so Wanda from the hotel helped my contact the trans-city cab’ s driver as he had given me his card the previous night when he dropped me.

He came by in the morning and we left for the only place I know at Huntsville,AL, you guessed it ’US Space and Rocket center’.

My teammates had given me their local number to contact, so I asked the driver if he could lend me his phone to make a call. He was very kind and gave his phone so that I could contact my teammates.

But unfortunately the call was not going through.

US Space and Rocket center

The cab fare was 25$ but I had three 100$ bills, poor cab driver was not having enough change for me. I asked him if I could just go inside get exact change from my friends and then pay him. He agreed and I went inside the visitor’s center in the hope of meeting my teammates.

I went inside the visitor’s center and asked one of the workers there regarding the accommodation of the teams who had come for this competition and she was clueless about what I was asking. I gave her the number which I tried calling earlier but it was not working as the sim-card was not activated to receive any calls. Then she asked for their address and I was not aware of that. Then suddenly I recalled the image that I saw before leaving my country.

“LAQUINTA INN” the next destination

Now that I had hopes of finding them in LAQUINTA INN, I asked the worker at the “US Space and Rocket center “ for the directions to this hotel, so she grabber a mini map of Huntsville and marked 3 different LAQUINTA INN and explained me the routes to each of them. I thanked her and left the center.

I explained the same to the cab driver and asked him to take me to the closest hotel at the same time I did not have enough money in hand.

Reached the first LA QUINTA INN:

Cab driver asked for 25$ as the fare, then I realized he did not add the waiting charge as he understood my situation. I thanked him and went inside the hotel  where at the reception desk I enquired about my teammates , unfortunately they were not there. Then I asked her if she could contact the other 2 LAQUINTA INN and enquire the same?

She made the call and she informed me that they were staying at the third LAQUINTA INN which was quite far and I had luggage to carry at the same time I did not wanted to spend anymore. As I was leaving the receptionist asked me “shall I call a cab”. In response I said that I don t have enough local currency.

She felt bad hearing this and she took 20$ from her pocket and offered me. I was touched by her concern , and I said I would like to walk and explore and I will be fine. She insisted! but I did not take that money. I thanked her and left the hotel with a big smile.

It was definitely tough reaching the destination as I was too far and carrying the luggage was exhausting. 

Finally I reached my destination and asked the receptionist the same question that I was asking to every single person I came across. She said “yes they are staying here but now they have went out” and handed me a piece of paper which had the same phone number that was not activated to receive any calls. I asked the receptionist if they could help me charge my phone?

She helped me charge my phone, then I connected my mobile phone to the hotel wifi and finally contacted the teammates who then came by the hotel to pick me up.

Competition Winners

Finally my story also had an happy ending just like any other. We won the competition.

My message

I want to thank every person my story starting from my good friend, Trans-city cab driver, workers at US Space and Rocket center, receptionist at the LAQUINTA INN and especially my parents who helped me step out of my country and meet all these awesome people.