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.