This last week has been power packed and has screamed through. Friday was exciting in that I had my weekly discussion that went off to satisfaction. I also finalised my weekend in Chicago, which was planned over 30 minutes. From another ditch of a plan to an awesome weekend, it couldn't have been better.
Anupam called up on Friday evening telling me that he would be in Chicago the following morning, indirectly telling me to get there asap. The early morning ride from Madison was smooth and I dozed off as soon as I got on the bus. Something shook me up from my nap as we reached downtown and a monster of a buiding zoomed past me. I was stunned for the first few seconds, this was the first time I was seeing so many skyscrapers in one place. I hurriedly called up Ashish to tell him about what crazy place i thought it was only to discover that his home was a couple of blocks away. He came down and we spent a good three-four hours together. I am hoping he comes over to Madison sometime before the winter kicks in.
Next, I moved to Niladri Da's place and alongwith Anupam, walked to the nearest Puja pandal to catch what was but a glimpse of the festivities shaking up India. I randomly ran into Ruban, an old friend from Noida, having last met him about ten years ago. Now, how often does that happen? It was great to catch up with him and recount our childhood days of him being scolded by his mom, our college days and all the other gossip about common friends.
We moved on to Chicago downtown and took a nice walk along the lake side. Not for nothing is Lake Michigan one of the Great Lakes. I am waiting to check out the ocean on the East coast now. We decided to visit Sears Tower, the second tallest building in the world. A short wait later, we found ourselves on the 103rd floor, overlooking an expanse of 50 miles, four states and a clear view of the Windy city. I also stood on the Skydeck, which is a glass box jutting out of the building... really scary but worth every step laid on it. Its not everyday that you look down and see cars zooming by a 100 floors below! Moving on, I walked down to South Michigan Avenue where I met Nishant, my brother from Chennai. One should have an elder brother in every city :). Mexican food, chocolate and sometime in his wonderful apartment later, I took a cab back home. The cabbie was joking about never every stepping onto the Skydeck, not even for his life.
We moved out early next morning and took a train to what Niladri calls the O Hare airport (making it sound like the most sacred place in the Un
ited States!). The idea of renting a car was Anupam's, and it turned out to be great. We drove to a place called Indiana dunes, that has some natural sand dunes and a long beach by Lake Michigan (I thought only oceans formed beaches). We spent the better part of the day walking around the place and got back by evening. A cuppa coffee later, we headed to Devon street, the India town of Chicago, for dinner. It felt different to be in what looked like any market area in south Delhi, but the very idea of huddling together in a foreign country is one that I cannot come to terms with.
I knew that I would stick around in the city for too long and Nishant's suggestion of taking the 6:30 pm bus went unheard. I guess it turned out to be lucky for me and I sidestepped a hailstorm by twenty minutes. Walking through the University at two in the morning was a different feeling and just the sight of the Chemistry building was great. The already quiet town was even more so, except for the lone teenage hung over the weekend party.
What looked like a great weekend was turning out to be less so as the week started. The homework submissions became more daunting and somehow I managed a face saving Wednesday. We have chemistry seminars on Thursday mornings and my chemical instrumentation professor, Prof. John Wright, spoke about his work. I have attended two of his research talks earlier and fared slightly better on this one, having been able to go beyond the first couple of slides, for once! I hope to progress slide-by-slide and I guess I might get something inside my head by the 100th talk.
The Friday lab in chemical instrumentation was great fun as we experimentally verified what we has read in class and worked out on Mathcad (a mathematics software like Mathematica).
I spent most of Saturday shopping for food and clothes. It has been raining lightly over the last week or so and Madison seems to be getting ready to welcome the winter. The farmers market is rather well organised. I was expecting something like our subzi mandi but I guess I will have to wait for some more time to experience the addictive chaos and the spontaneity of the Indian vegetable market.
News from home - Shankar is enjoying his Bose headphones, Vinod has to read five papers over the weekend and Sriram finally managed to get back the money he owed to his wierd friend by accompanying him for weekend shopping.
Looking forward to yet another week of learning.
Anupam called up on Friday evening telling me that he would be in Chicago the following morning, indirectly telling me to get there asap. The early morning ride from Madison was smooth and I dozed off as soon as I got on the bus. Something shook me up from my nap as we reached downtown and a monster of a buiding zoomed past me. I was stunned for the first few seconds, this was the first time I was seeing so many skyscrapers in one place. I hurriedly called up Ashish to tell him about what crazy place i thought it was only to discover that his home was a couple of blocks away. He came down and we spent a good three-four hours together. I am hoping he comes over to Madison sometime before the winter kicks in.
Next, I moved to Niladri Da's place and alongwith Anupam, walked to the nearest Puja pandal to catch what was but a glimpse of the festivities shaking up India. I randomly ran into Ruban, an old friend from Noida, having last met him about ten years ago. Now, how often does that happen? It was great to catch up with him and recount our childhood days of him being scolded by his mom, our college days and all the other gossip about common friends.
We moved on to Chicago downtown and took a nice walk along the lake side. Not for nothing is Lake Michigan one of the Great Lakes. I am waiting to check out the ocean on the East coast now. We decided to visit Sears Tower, the second tallest building in the world. A short wait later, we found ourselves on the 103rd floor, overlooking an expanse of 50 miles, four states and a clear view of the Windy city. I also stood on the Skydeck, which is a glass box jutting out of the building... really scary but worth every step laid on it. Its not everyday that you look down and see cars zooming by a 100 floors below! Moving on, I walked down to South Michigan Avenue where I met Nishant, my brother from Chennai. One should have an elder brother in every city :). Mexican food, chocolate and sometime in his wonderful apartment later, I took a cab back home. The cabbie was joking about never every stepping onto the Skydeck, not even for his life.
We moved out early next morning and took a train to what Niladri calls the O Hare airport (making it sound like the most sacred place in the Un
ited States!). The idea of renting a car was Anupam's, and it turned out to be great. We drove to a place called Indiana dunes, that has some natural sand dunes and a long beach by Lake Michigan (I thought only oceans formed beaches). We spent the better part of the day walking around the place and got back by evening. A cuppa coffee later, we headed to Devon street, the India town of Chicago, for dinner. It felt different to be in what looked like any market area in south Delhi, but the very idea of huddling together in a foreign country is one that I cannot come to terms with.I knew that I would stick around in the city for too long and Nishant's suggestion of taking the 6:30 pm bus went unheard. I guess it turned out to be lucky for me and I sidestepped a hailstorm by twenty minutes. Walking through the University at two in the morning was a different feeling and just the sight of the Chemistry building was great. The already quiet town was even more so, except for the lone teenage hung over the weekend party.
What looked like a great weekend was turning out to be less so as the week started. The homework submissions became more daunting and somehow I managed a face saving Wednesday. We have chemistry seminars on Thursday mornings and my chemical instrumentation professor, Prof. John Wright, spoke about his work. I have attended two of his research talks earlier and fared slightly better on this one, having been able to go beyond the first couple of slides, for once! I hope to progress slide-by-slide and I guess I might get something inside my head by the 100th talk.
The Friday lab in chemical instrumentation was great fun as we experimentally verified what we has read in class and worked out on Mathcad (a mathematics software like Mathematica).
I spent most of Saturday shopping for food and clothes. It has been raining lightly over the last week or so and Madison seems to be getting ready to welcome the winter. The farmers market is rather well organised. I was expecting something like our subzi mandi but I guess I will have to wait for some more time to experience the addictive chaos and the spontaneity of the Indian vegetable market.
News from home - Shankar is enjoying his Bose headphones, Vinod has to read five papers over the weekend and Sriram finally managed to get back the money he owed to his wierd friend by accompanying him for weekend shopping.
Looking forward to yet another week of learning.
1 comment:
The great lakes are actually inland seas, so you shouldnt be surprised to find beaches on the shores of the lakes...
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