Beyond the boundaries: My first travel abroad

Hi all...back after a short pause. Was busy preparing for my travel. Now that I'm here in my warm office, I'm going to pen down my experiences during my first travel abroad [I've got some comments about me being very verbose and so will try to make this post crisp :-)]. Read on...
After the initial hassles in my visa interview, I finally got my visa approved. I want to take a moment here to thank whole heartedly the good samaritan (I dont even know her name) who helped me outside the consulate when none came forward. I had a empty bag and the security outside wanted me to hand it to someone else before stepping in. They even didnt allow me to drop it in the litter outside. I was looking for someone who could hold it for me till I came out [I did not have even 5 minutes for my scheduled time] and none offered to help me. This good samaritan appeared from somewhere and took the bag from me and told me not to worry and to go in. When I came out I did not even thank her properly due to issues I had in my visa processing. Hey, if at all you come across this post, thanks a lot!!
Things were being done at full speed - booking tickets, arranging for my accomodation, packing - and Amma and Appa also arrived at Hyderabad to give me a send-off. Frankly, I was feeling really nervous...so many different things - immigration, customs blah blah. How was I going to go through all this?
My flight from Hyderabad was on December 3rd at 3 AM. After bidding goodbye to my parents, Yams and Shika I proceeded to get the formalities done. I was relieved to find someone else from my office also there. The KLM flight to Amsterdam was the most tedious part of the journey. First, the timing was very odd and second itwas really cramped. I was just more than happy to alight at Amsterdam. The view of Amsterdam from above was just awesome, the waterfront and the greenery looked so neatly arranged just like out of a building set :-). I did not have time to go around the Schipol airport as my first flight was delayed :-( At the Amsterdam airport I realised there were 5 people who were taking the flight to Seattle that day from my office. The connecting NWA flight was much better. It seemed more comfortable or maybe just because it had a personal entertaiment system it appeared so ;-) I finally landed at Seattle at 3 PM on 3rd. [My watch was still tuned to IST and the time was 4.30 - I couldn't believe that I had travelled for 24 hours continuously]. Only when my head hit the bed in my apartment did I realise how tired I was but I was told to resist sleeping till 9 to overcome the jetlag.
So its been a week now and all jet lag gone. It gets pretty cold in the nights but my apartment is so cosy and so I don't know about it much :-)

[I guess I didnt keep up my word of making this short ;-)]