The weather was bone-chilling when we landed in Boston after 14 hours of flight from Doha. We took out the woolen caps and immediately put them on. Madhukar managed an Uber ride for me, and I headed to Ashay Dai’s apartment at 4:30 PM. The changeable weather welcomed us with snowfall. I was thrilled to meet Ashay Dai and Ekta Bhauju. I felt exhausted and went to bed after dining. A thought ran across my mind: “Is this Jetlag?”

The next morning, I saw snow everywhere. The snow was floating in the air like a feather. Ashay Dai was clearing the dense snow from his car. The moment I got out of the room, every step I took felt like I was crunching the snow below my boots and something freezing was kissing my cheeks. It was a happy feeling. Ekta Bhauju had already prepared lunch. I was excited to reach the US office on the first day. Ashay Dai’s car was ready for the first day to reach the US office.

I reached the US Deerwalk office and got a warm welcome from everyone. I was thrilled to meet everyone, and the good thing was I knew most of the faces. The environment in the US office was excellent as well as peaceful. Thanks to Liana who took a group photo to welcome us to the US office. The office assigned me with some database tasks, documentation, research in the Parquet file format. I attended online MariaDB cluster training which was scheduled on December 12 and 13, 2019. The total duration of this training was 12 hours. Mrs. Catherine Trejo was my trainer. The training was fruitful, I learned a lot of things. I got assigned to some lab exercises and successfully completed them within time. I also got a course completion certificate from MariaDB Corporation. I was happy and excited at the same time.

On weekends, we planned to explore some new places. On the first weekend, we planned to visit New York, the city that never sleeps. Nitish helped us with the New York trip. We reached New York after a 5-hour bus drive from Boston. Nitish motivated us to make this trip a memorable one. We visited Staten Island Ferry, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, World Trade Center, Hudson Yards, Charging Bull, and Jackson Heights. The second weekend, Kishore planned ice skating. Ice skating in Kendall Square was a fresh experience for me. Also, we visited MIT, Boston downtown, and Harvard University. We had a splendid shopping experience in Burlington Mall, BestBuy, Macy’s, Wegmans, and Costco. Also, the movie show “Jumanji Next Level” at AMC was quite a time pass during the third weekend.

Apart from the sightseeing part, I had some excellent memories from the US Deerwalkers. The Yankee swap gift event was an unfamiliar experience for me. It was a fun time. Thanks to Dave for providing the TD garden tickets. The Christmas party was awesome. Thanks to Mukta Di, Smriti Di, and Awanish Dai for a special lunch outside the office. Momo party at Suresh Dai’s home, Christmas celebration at Awanish Dai with family and dinner at Sagar’s home were the best moments.

December 31st was the last day of my US visit. I was busy packing my stuff. It was all set. I would like to thank Ashay Dai and Ekta Bhauju for the love and care they provided during my stay. The get together at the Extended Stay with guys, tasting new varieties of beer with delicious items, Uber rides, new experiences, train rides, late-night funny stories with cool gossip with the roommate and friend, Andrew, made my overall US visit more memorable. I am thankful to the Deerwalk US family for their love and kindness. Also, special thanks to Awanish Dai for providing me an opportunity for MariaDB cluster training during my US visit.

Once again, thanks to Deerwalk for this opportunity.