AVANI AVITTAM
Its quite amazing that i changed my thread yesterday during avani avittam more sincerely than ever before when i'm more than 20000 miles from chennai. 7 of us iyers and iyengars performed the ceremony religiously. we followed it up with 1008 gayathri mantram chant today. Sridhar mama(the man who taught me every sloka i know) would be pleased to know this. anyway, it was both a satisfying as well as calming experience.
anyway, it was a crazy weekend. saturday was slow and lazy to say the least. our walmart shopping plans gave way to our lethargy. the only activity for the day was an exciting game of tennis. i really hope i can get to play tennis more regularly. we ended saturday watching a movie. sunday morning passed doing the religious ceremony. u know we even cooked and ate paayasam! i just couldn't believe it. this was really the icing on the cake. this was followed by an exhausting game of football. lunch was at home as i had already cooked before i left for football.
The international student association had planned a welcome night in the den of the undergrads also known as Melrose. The place is something else. It houses more than 500 undergrads. It includes a games room, library, internet access facility, gym etc. Its almost like a multistar hotel. Well there was also a mini-theatre room where we got to see a movie followed by pizza for dinner. Whats with orientations and pizza? hope i get to eat something else during my department orientation on wednesday. we ended the day playing table tennis or ping pong as these guys call it.
More craziness on the horizon as I move into my apartment this week. Lot of moving and shopping to do. Hopefully we will settle in by the weekend before classes start next week.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Orientation
Well, we woke up early today to attend the international student orientation. No student, especially indian, ever misses an event which provides free food and refreshments. So there we were promptly at 8:45 in the morning only to find out that we were late and had already missed this fun thing that was meant to help us get to know each other better. basically it was this form in which we had to find people fitting certain descriptions. it was a cool idea! unfortunately i couldn't be a part of it for long. This was followed by a series of boring lectures and do's and don'ts for international students.
The most awaited part of the meeting-lunch- came to the rescue. We stuffed ourselves with pizza and cookies. It was great. This was followed by a hilarious lecture by a Zambian native named Duncan about health insurance. Anybody who can talk about sickness and death and still keep the audience alive and excited is pretty cool!! his sense of humour was the highlight though it was a bit morbid at times. That was the bright spot of the day.
This was followed by a session on culture shock which was sillier than i thought it would be. People started complaining about how unhealthy it is to serve pizza for lunch at the orientation. Come on...........ease up a little!! a few slices of pizza wont kill you!!
anyway, it was more of an advice session for the students than an orientation. i didn't get to interact too much with the other students as we were forced to listen to the lectures most of the time. i guess i will have plenty of opportunities later. they said there were atleast about 40 countries represented in the room. anyway, not a bad way to spend the day i guess.
Well, we woke up early today to attend the international student orientation. No student, especially indian, ever misses an event which provides free food and refreshments. So there we were promptly at 8:45 in the morning only to find out that we were late and had already missed this fun thing that was meant to help us get to know each other better. basically it was this form in which we had to find people fitting certain descriptions. it was a cool idea! unfortunately i couldn't be a part of it for long. This was followed by a series of boring lectures and do's and don'ts for international students.
The most awaited part of the meeting-lunch- came to the rescue. We stuffed ourselves with pizza and cookies. It was great. This was followed by a hilarious lecture by a Zambian native named Duncan about health insurance. Anybody who can talk about sickness and death and still keep the audience alive and excited is pretty cool!! his sense of humour was the highlight though it was a bit morbid at times. That was the bright spot of the day.
This was followed by a session on culture shock which was sillier than i thought it would be. People started complaining about how unhealthy it is to serve pizza for lunch at the orientation. Come on...........ease up a little!! a few slices of pizza wont kill you!!
anyway, it was more of an advice session for the students than an orientation. i didn't get to interact too much with the other students as we were forced to listen to the lectures most of the time. i guess i will have plenty of opportunities later. they said there were atleast about 40 countries represented in the room. anyway, not a bad way to spend the day i guess.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
From MT to Blogger
I've temporarily shifted to blogger coz movabletype suddenly got a mind of its own and stopped working. i wonder why coz its not like MT to be unreliable.oh well i'll just have to figure out what happened. until then, i'll be posting here.
So, time flies here like nowhere else. My day begins at about 9am. I cook lunch, have breakfast and am ready to be at the lab by 10:30. the whole day is usually spent in the grad lab. wonder how much time i spend browsing, printing, proffing, meeting profs. oh, did i mention there is a grad lounge right next to the lab which has a fridge that is always stocked with coke. lucky me i guess. wonder who would be silly enough to leave all that stuff behind. definitely not PIGS(poor indian grad students).
anyway, evenings are spent either at the park or on the phone. and the day winds up cooking and eating dinner and watching TV. besides the cooking, its not very different from a day in chennai. i guess things will be a lot different once classes start(sept. 7th).
I've temporarily shifted to blogger coz movabletype suddenly got a mind of its own and stopped working. i wonder why coz its not like MT to be unreliable.oh well i'll just have to figure out what happened. until then, i'll be posting here.
So, time flies here like nowhere else. My day begins at about 9am. I cook lunch, have breakfast and am ready to be at the lab by 10:30. the whole day is usually spent in the grad lab. wonder how much time i spend browsing, printing, proffing, meeting profs. oh, did i mention there is a grad lounge right next to the lab which has a fridge that is always stocked with coke. lucky me i guess. wonder who would be silly enough to leave all that stuff behind. definitely not PIGS(poor indian grad students).
anyway, evenings are spent either at the park or on the phone. and the day winds up cooking and eating dinner and watching TV. besides the cooking, its not very different from a day in chennai. i guess things will be a lot different once classes start(sept. 7th).
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