What follows is my impression of the United States as a newly wed who has recently relocated from India

It is going to be three weeks since I moved to Minneapolis. Let me take you through my journey so far, in a real-time narrative, just to tell you how my emotions changed with each passing weekend:

My journey from Bombay to Minneapolis is quite uneventful. As the flight lands at the Twin Cities Airport, I eagerly wait to step ashore a land considered by many to be the Mecca of opportunities, money and lifestyle. My husband is at the airport lounge to receive me, and am I glad to see a familiar face after those 36 hours, which seemed to last for ever. Huh!!!, how many more elevators do we have to take before we get to the parking lot? My eyes are straining to see the car he drives with such pride and passion. Oh, at last!, the Passat is there. Which side do I enter, right or left?. This is just the beginning Ma'am!, more confusion lies ahead. As we drive home across Downtown, I'm amazed by the freeways, the cars, the skyline, the Mississippi and not the least, the sense of order to the traffic! How, I wish for a moment, drivers in India would follow traffic rules to even half the extent I'm witnessing!

My first week. I have been eagerly waiting for this day in my life, to see the home I'm going to live in with my husband. It has been a month since we were married (it was a long elaborate wedding and very strenuous), and I'm eventually at "our" home with my husband. Isn't that all that a girl wants in her life? All those dreams of setting up a sweet home according to "our" own likes and dislikes? It takes me a couple of days to leave my jet lag behind, and I'm all set to explore Minneapolis. Oh well!, no guesses where I begin my journey!! The good old WalMart™. Wow! an amazingly big store with literally everything that one might want. Just keep walking until your legs begin to hurt. The other stores I love visiting this week are Best Buy (amazing America!), Target, Cub Foods and, hmmm...the Yummy! Indian stores. My first week here just whizzes past seeing them all, marveling at the technology here and I just can't help but mention the people who live here. So polite, so helpful, ever so pleasing!. Thank you!, residents of Minneapolis, for making me one among you.

My second week. Slowly I'm starting to hate the weather, the culture, and everything around me (Oops! I hope my husband isn't reading this). I have a few scary experiences in the kitchen, and in the car – and that is it, I say to myself. To hell with all this, I am going back to India! There I'm independent, I know the people, I understand the place, and I can be at ease. Here, I don't seem to be able come to terms with shortcut lives (imagine eating day old food in India!, imagine making coffee or, even worse, a papadam or idli in the microwave!). I can't leave my home until my husband comes and drives me to the groceries! I am alone, staring at the weatherman on TV, or those big cars plying on the road next to my apartment. I miss my home, my family, my friends and my entire neighborhood. Wasn't that a carefree life? To top all this, my husband works on the weekend too, and that leaves me alone. I spend these solitary moments talking on the phone to my more-than-angelic friends and cousins. Another thing about the US that intrigues me in my second week is, why don't people walk on the roads? I barely see a human being using their feet! I long to see people, and my week passes by, wondering when will I get to see a livelier scene around me.

My third week starts off on a better note (or is it that my perspective is changing for the better?) with my husband's friend offering to take me out for lunch and shopping. At last, I have a visitor at home. That's one more thing I don't understand, why don't people visit us at home? . My husband tells me it’s rude to drop by other people’s homes without notice. C'mon, in India it’s not so! Everyone is welcome to my place, I think aloud. I gradually seem to Americanize myself, with shortcut cooking and enjoying outside food I am beginning to enjoy the spring weather too. Weekends seem to be lot more fun than in India, with wonderful road drives to nearby places.

As I find avenues to make each day of my stay here a richer experience, I seem to get better with my road directions and I'm all set to leave home without my husband's handholding! My husband and I are exploring opportunities for me to work. I am eagerly waiting to make a few friends here. Well, its time, I get going with my resume’ and job applications (did I hear someone say, "not a good time to be in the US, the economy is not doing well"?). Wish me all the best, friends!

Neelima Panuganti recently relocated to Minneapolis from Hyderabad