A week that was!!

So I survived my first week in US of A. Not that it was difficult. I mean I am from INDIA, we live there by chance(thousands of diseases, occasional peek-a-bo0 from neighbouring terrorists bhais all set to blow us up, natural calamities, yada yada). Hence we can survive anywhere! =)

My first week in Philly is "mixed-emotions". Its frustrating to get lost on my way to Drexel on a sunny morning, but its equally fun to discover a new place around the wrong corner. Whats more, people are really friendly. I know its hard to believe that they are the same Americans who can detain SRK 'coz of the KHAN in his name. I am sorry but he is my favorite and so I am still a bit shocked!

Anyways back to discovering Philly. There is so much happening here. Nothing big but small joys in life. My people at work are really great. Alex been really patient as I make mistakes while doing the Compression tests. And Aaron showed how a half a million dollar SEM works! Its brilliant. Lunchtime is really fun. Trying out from the various lunch trucks is quite handful. But my first experience with Cheese Steak wasn't that great. I just felt a bit weird 'coz I found beef taste weird! Speaking of food, American lunch proportions are quite huge. So agrees my Spanish and French friends. None of us could finish the whole lunch.

Also the food is kindda bland and always mayo laden. So then I had to try my hand in cooking, its more like my very own spicy retreat! My cooking skills were always quite questionable, but now I actually enjoy making my dinner. Nothing lavish, but I love this ritual. I knew I would inherit those genes from Papa :P And I am proud that I haven't burnt the place down with my newly discovered culinary skills!

Oh, and I am really excited to meet Prof. Barsoum tomorrow. Finally I get to meet the person who made this research possible for me. And I hope I get my Dragon card and a desk tomorrow. I better sign off now, coz I see my bowl of icecream is slowly turning into chocolate milkshake. See ya homies..soon!

Traveling riverside(rather, airway) blues!

My 22 hours of flight from Mumbai to Philadelphia couldn't have been more eventful. Lets start with who sits next to me. Well if last time it was old and farty men, this time it upgraded to babies.CRYING BABIES. Before I start off, lemme tell you I am not a baby hater. But this time, things have changed, atleast for now. Not only they( read, babies) cry throughout the whole flight, they even manage 2 puke on the person sitting beside. No matter how much I love those "cute little things", I just can't be happy about getting myself puked on! Lemme be more precise about my "journey". I know you may doze off in the middle of this post, but I NEED TO LET IT OUT. (Btw, you will notice many CAPS in this post. Go figure why!)

PART 1:Mumbai-Paris ~ Osama on board

Okay, my French sucks. All I can manage are the formal courtesies. So when this cute air host says I got a good French accent in replying to his customary "Bonjour!", I, for some reason(read, stupid reason) thought its gonna be a good journey. But the I was wrong. Comes a mother with her baby and two other kids. And right behind my seat, another family with noisy kids. And of the kid was called Osama. I did 180 turn just to see the kid with that name. I am not kidding, but that Osama did have fiery eyes and his expression was nothing, but anger. This is pure coincidence but it did creep me out. Anyways, the baby beside me started off wailing at the take off. And there I was thinking, well its just for now, maybe he will sleep off after some time. Wrong! It simply went on from loud to louder and finally to loudest. And the worst part, the mother was clueless. Everytime I was about to sleep or watch a movie, the wailing just gets louder. Even a bottle of red wine didn't help me to sleep(I wish I had my bottle of Grillinctus cough syrup with me!). But Led Zepp and Jimi Hendrix did help later on to shut out the noise.( Kudos to Air France's music collection). So by the time I landed Paris, I was a drunk and sleep-deprived zombie. If I had a camera, I would have posted my pic here.

PART 2:Paris 2 Philly~ The French stain

If last time it was one crying baby, this time it got doubled up. Some great sadist UP ABOVE was laughing His at his work. This cute little girl baby right beside me was all smiling during the take-off. I too was smiling, thinking that flight will be my personal "Stairway to Heaven". And I dozed off only to wake few minutes later to the sound of wailing. The baby beside the smilin baby starts crying. Smiling baby starts crying too and leans enough to puke something white n gooey on me! What happened next was a blurry of incidents: me fuming, the two babies having crying competition throughout the flight, the French guy on my other side tearing his hair apart with that noise.

So when the Customs officer asked me how I was doing...all I could answer " Tired". But then I was "Dazed and Confused" too. I still haven't slept and its been more than 30 hours. And my sweater smells of puke. I would continue further, but my head is doing a cha-cha-cha now. GTG!