Friday, February 26, 2010

Tips for travelers to US from India in Winter

I have recently traveled from India to US. My friends and well wishers have told me many things which have been very helpful to me here. There are some other things which I found helpful here. So here is the list for winter.

1. The coolness in US like nothing you have seen in India. Here you cannot even stay for two minutes. So you should have things to cover you from head to toe. So get a good jacket, cap or scarf, gloves and shoes.

2. Next if you wear one layer of clothes is not sufficient to beat the cold here. There are thermal clothes available in Hosiery. Get them.

3. Next here you shouldn't wash clothes in your home. You should by mandate go only to the washers and get them washed. So don't get any soaps from India as you will not use it here.

4. The body soaps which we use in India are not useful here. They take all the moisture from our face and body. So only Dove can be used here.

5. Here transportation is not cheap. So always try to stay where you have to travel to most i.e your workplace.

6. If you have to stay for a long time, get your International driving permit from India only as it is cheap there and life is difficult without a car in US. More about here.

7. Get rice, pulses and tamarind from India. And if you have an Indian grocery nearby, you can get some frozen parathas which are good but rice, pulses and oil is costly. But oil might not be allowed to be brought so get the other things.

8.Don't buy sports shoes from India. They cost the same here or there. So you are better off buying them here.

9. Milk and Curd are relatively affordable. So you can have cornflakes for breakfast.

10. After settling here, go to Walmart and Costco once to get the other important things.

This list is a work in progress.. If any of our readers can add anything, please comment or send an email to me.

You have to build credit history before you can get legitimacy in U.S. I will write about the credit centered society in US and how to build a credit history in my next post. Stay tuned.