18 Aug, 1988

On 18 August, 1988 I came to the US. I flew from Hong Kong to San Francisco on a United Airlines flight. It was a long flight and I think I cried most of the way here. I was excited to go to college, but leaving home turned out to be a bigger fear than I had imagined. This was the first time I was leaving home. And I wasn't going closeby. I would be 6000 miles away. That can be a little disconcerting for an 18 year old. Well, it was for me. So there.

It also didn't help that immediately before I left I was really really sick. So sick that I was in the hospital in HK just 2 days before I had to leave. I had a viral infection while we were vacationing in India in July of 1988. And sometime after we passed through Jhansi and ended up in Lucknow, I got real sick. Until then, I was having a great trip as always, but even more so since I was headed off to college after returning to Hong Kong. I remember staying up many a nights and talking w/ my close friends and my cousin(s) who I grew up with. We talked a lot about going to college - which is really code for "girls". Yup, that's pretty much what we spoke about. :)

In Lucknow though, I fell sick. Real sick. Dr didn't know what it was - so I was on a bunch of medicine. I remember going out sightseeing one day since we were leaving Lucknow soon - and I hadn't been out of the house at all. We went to see the Bada Imambara and Bhool Bhulaiya. Amazing stuff. 

Can you believe that was the last time I went to Lucknow? It was also the last time I was in India with my family and friends until I returned in 1994 for my wedding. Wow. I never even for once thought that it'd be another 6 years before I would return and that too for my wedding. Incredible, what turns life holds for you.

So sick I stayed, from Lucknow to Bombay. 2 days in Bombay. A business class flight on Swiss Air back to Hong Kong. Still running a high fever and by this time I had lost a lot of weight. A whole lot. In Hong Kong, I was admitted into a hospital about a week before I was supposed to leave and move to Austin.

In this hospital, the Dr gave me no medicine. He just made sure I drank a whole lot of water. Since this was a viral infection, apparently that's all I needed. 2-3 days later, I was good to go. Still a lot thinner, but ready to go. A heck of an alternative to "weight watchers" - don't recommend it to anyone!

August 18th, 1988. I land in San Francisco. I am really hungry since I pretty much didn't eat much on the plane. My dad's with me and I still remember we both got a chili dog. It was huge! And we loved it. If only my mom were to know that the first meal in my new home country was topped w/ a hearty topping of beef! ;) Oh well, I think she gave up on keeping me a vegetarian long ago. And especially in HK - where my dad, my sister and I (everyone but my mom who is still a pure vegetarian) pretty much ate everything. And I mean everything. That's a whole other post, right there.

From SF, my dad and I got on an AA flight to Dallas. I still remember flying into Dallas, as we flew right by downtown. I was sitting by the window looking outside, filled with curiosity. I remember staring at the Reunion Tower with the bright lights lighting up the globe. I remember 

seeing the tall building w/ the green lights. Little did I know that almost 20 years to the day later, I will be sitting in a house in that very city next to my wife (whom I met in this city) and my daughter (who was born here) writing about that moment on my blog. 

Another short hop on AA and we are in Austin. It's now probably around 10pm. I come out of the plane into the terminal and carefully inspect what looks like a very very small airport. Shit! I thought - this looks tiny. When the main airport you know of is Hong Kong's (at that time) Kai Tak - the Austin airport to me looks very empty and small-townish. My immediate reaction was, if the airport is this small what could we say about the city? And I'm committed to spend at least the next 3-4 years of my life here. Crap.

But then, as I walked towards the exit I saw this big banner: 

"Welcome to Austin. Live music capital of the world."

Hmmm. I thought, it can't be all that bad, eh?

And of course, it wasn't. It's Austin. The best college experience ever, in one of my favorite cities in the world. 

20 years ago, I left my parents, my sister and my home in Hong Kong and I came to the United States.

20 years later I am from Texas, ya'all!