People say Hi!!!

 Time: The day of my arrival in the US

 Place: Providence, RI

I was walking down the Brown street from the Kenowers' to J Walter Wilson Suit. I was trying to look inconspicuous and attract no attention what so ever..but I was also curious to see how people were reacting to my presence. Had my presence warped the American space continuum? Was it apparent that I was from another country and that it was my first day here? Was I already breaking a law by the way I was walking or by the way I was dressed?

"Hello"

 I stopped in my tracks. The women who had briskly walked by me had addressed me! She said "hello". Did she know me? I turned back to look at her but she had already walked past inundating me in a perfume flood left in her wake.

I had at least three "hello"s and two "good mornings" that day. Now I score at least ten each day. Let me tell you this straight away.. this doesn't happen in India. I mean, Gandhi would have been proud to live in Rhode Island. A piece of urban United States still retained the charm to exchange common courtesy's to total strangers?!!

That's not what I had heard in India. All the time watching Sex and the City, Friends or the Simpson's hadn't prepared me for this.

 I thank you Rhode Island, for this one small gesture of kindness made me feel more welcome in America than all the days of my Grad school orientation (and free food) put together. (^_^)