My first day as a .....

I had just returned from India the previous evening after a 3 week vacation. I was a week late in school and had lots to catch up. I rushed towards Rm 101 in Science Hall. It was already 9:30am. I opened the door and entered a full class, 120 students to be precise. My prof, Dr.M was standing and talking to the students. He gave me a quick smile and turned towards the students and introduced me as the instructor for the class. Many were surprised/shocked/amused. They were not expecting Ms.Subramaniam to be so young. Dr.M left the room.

I stood rooted at that spot. Stunned. Nervous ( was I showing it ?)

120 pairs of eyes looking at me with curiosity. Judging me. Listening to me. Writing down what I was saying.

What was I thinking when I accepted the job ? Oh crap...Where is my voice ! Focus Shilpa..Focus ! Say something.

I was suddenly very conscious of what I wore (thankfully dressed properly). I can only imagine all the comments that would be passed by the students ( what goes around, comes around eh). I looked for any familiar face in the crowd. None. Good. No one would ever know that I was so nervous. I saw one desi in the class. The rest were Americans. Oh Gosh, I better do something about my accent or no one would understand what I was saying.

I don't remember what I said. I did get my voice back. I think I introduced myself. Generally started rambling. I was a little calm after a few minutes. I managed to teach Astronomy for the undergraduate class for an hour that day. By the end of it, I was exhausted. Teaching was NOT easy at all !

More stories....next post !

Still surviving...

Last week I thought things would cool down in school after a week. It did not. Looks like the chaos will continue for not only next week...but even the week after that !!
:-((

More exams...more homeworks to turn in...and more equations in my research work !

I am going to need a big break after this semester !

Da Vinci Quest is still going strong - the level of complexity is rising in it too ( just like school) !!

What Ho !

Well, its Tuesday and I am still surviving Grad School.

On Friday, I went to the mall in the afternoon and did some guilt-free shopping. We then watched 2 movies - taxi no 9-2-11 ( It was good) and Hawas ( crap). Will review in detail after exams. For dinner, K suggested a Mexican appetizer. She got the recipe from a Hispanic lady and we were very excited to try it. Take a plate of round nachos; top it with fresh salsa; add some guacamole if you have it; top that with melted cheese dip ( the one you get with nachos in Mexican restaurants - queso dip); then you top that with some shredded cheese. Now you microwave the whole thing till the shredded cheese just melts. Very fattening. Very tasty. Yum.

K, B and I dived into the nachos without any guilt. As we were watching a movie, we did not realise how much we had over-eaten. My stomach finally sent a distress signal and I could not eat any more. I reached the stage where the mere sight of food would make me puke. After a couple of hours we had the vanilla cake that I made with a secret ingredient to make it really soft.

Then on Saturday afternoon, we watched 15th Park Avenue - a brilliant movie. Very arty and abstract. I was very fascinated with the end. More details next time. Then after all the fun, it was back to slogging. The rest of the weekend was spent with books. Have a take home exam tomorrow and a in-class exam on Friday.

The Da Vinci google quest started yesterday. Yeah I am playing it ( how could I miss it ?). It seems far more interesting than my course work :-P

Happy Vishu

Happy New Year ! Today is Tamil New Year and also Vishu for keralites. I miss home and all the goodies for New Year. Most of all, I miss the Vishu kani.

Vishu is always my favorite festival simply because it is so beautiful. I would always look forward to it each year. It is believed that the first day of the new year is auspicious and so the first thing that is seen on the new year should be good. Then, the rest of the year would be good too. My dad would set up the 'kani' the previous night. It is a decoration of flowers, fruits, rice, lamps and many other things. The kani is always beautiful to look at, the oil lamps would be the only light and the puja room would be decorated.

My father would wake me up early in the morning and lead me to the Puja room. My eyes are supposed to be closed all the while and I would open them to look at the ' kani'. It somehow always looked magical to me in the wee hours of the morning.Then after praying for a good year ahead, I would be rewarded with some money (the fun part). Then, my mom would cook yummy food.

Today morning, instead of the kani, the first thing I saw was the alarm. I over-slept again. I had to rush to class. Heheheh. Maybe a trend for the coming year....!

Boo Hoo Hoo

This is just a post to crib about work overload at school. Oh God how am I going to survive the next three weeks ? Both my courses are filled with homeworks. I turned in one homework on monday and prompty got 2 more.

14 (this friday) - plasma hw due
19 (wed) - math hw due(24 problems - got it today). take hw exam will be given.
21 (next fri) - plasma hw due; plamsa exam
26 (wed) - plamsa hw due ; take home exam due.
may 1 (mon) - plasma hw due.
that week - math hw due again and some old hws to be turned in as well.
following week - plasma exam and math exam.

Boo Hoo Hoo...I am just living in homeworks. Adding to my woes are research work.

School Reunion

It has been a real busy week for me; so busy that I did not even check any blog updates over the last 2-3 days ( real unusual eh ;-)). I had a lot of work in school, lots of errands to complete and general things to take care of.

Amidst all this, the strangest thing happened yesterday. I got an email from my long-lost friend, Sheethal.

I saw her last just after we got the 10th std results; I was moving to Bangalore and told her good-bye. I had written a post about friends when I started blogging last year and mentioned her name. S happened to put her name in google and lo - my post appears. She then found my email id through my website and sent me an email yesterday. I jumped with joy when I saw her email. Three cheers to blogging and the Internet ! So, we chatted today and swapped info about various classmates and she gave me the number of another friend, P who is now in California.

I called P a few minutes back. It was quite hilarious to introduce myself.

Me: Hello P, this is S
P: Huh..
Me: I am from AV...remember me?
P: Ur name is ringing bells...
Me: I was in the skit with u in 5th std.
P: Oh ... which character were u
Me: I was -- and you were--. We also went to see the movie ' magalir mattam' in high school.
P: I can almost place you ! But I am busy with guests right now; can I call you back in the evening ?
Me: Sure...sure...

A few months back, Archana and I came across a girl who seemed just like one of our school friends. After a lot of contemplation, we tried to get in touch with her and it was indeed her. We were all so excited for having found each other.

Last month, another friend contacted me after coming across my website. I had lost touch with her after Engg. Those days, e-mails were not so popular and so people just tend to drift away.

Internet is indeed gr8 ! There are many others I would like to find too...but since I am bad with names, its not easy to find them. Maybe I should just make a post with all my lost friends and hope they would use google to search for their names just like S...

Hilton as Mother Teresa ?

I was shocked when I saw this headline a few minutes ago. Indian Director Rajeevnath wants to cast Paris Hilton as Mother Teresa !!!

What was the director thinking ?

To read more click here.

Weekend

My friend P had his thesis defense on friday. It was in the same room where I had my EE defense two years earlier. Two of the committee members were the same as mine. His defense was in the same room where I had mine. So, it brought back memories. And made me realise that I need to hasten with my present research work.

We went to coffee haus in the evening. This is a cosy coffee place near school and features live bands in the evenings. As soon as we entered, I saw that the person at the counter was my ex-student. He was surprised to see me and even remembered my name ( whats the big deal in remembering names ? Well Shilpa is a difficult name for Americans). While chit-chatting I asked him what grade I had given him ( I din't want anyone spitting in my coffee ;-) ); after confirming that I had given him a good grade, I got my haus coffee ( his recommendation -turned out to be real good too). P got the same coffee and K did not get anything. We sat on the comfy couches and started talking. After a few hours, it was time to leave. P left to his relative's house. K and I decided to go restuarant-hopping. We went to Corner House bakery and had a cup of soup. Then, we went to Thai house and ordered appetizers. The plan was to go to a third restaurant for either entree or snack. But, I was full after eating the spring rolls. So, we ditched the idea. K ate something else in the same restaurant. We left to AMC after that to watch Ice Age. We did not get the tickets and ended up watching BI 2. It was boring, confusing and a drag.

Then on Saturday, we decided to try a new restaurant called Temptations in Irving. This is a Indo-Chinese cusine. The style was lunch buffet. So, the four of us went around 2pm and ate to our heart's content. The food was good. The service was excellent too. But, since this is a new restaurant, I will not be hasty in giving my review. Most places detoriate in standard within weeks. After a heavy lunch, we went to watch Ice Age. This time we got the tickets. The theatre was filled with kids. The movie was superb. It was so cute to watch the kids get excited about the movie. They even started clapping after the movie ended.

We then went to the mall; the guys got bored and sat down. K and I happily looked at most stores. I bought 2 pairs of flip-flops. I need to start my summer collection. We then dropped S to his apt and got back. End of fun-time.

I had tons of school-work that had piled up. Spent saturday night and the whole of sunday with my research work and homework. I even woke up early today to finish the homework. Then when I turned it in, the prof gives me a surprised look and says, 'Shilpa this was not due today, I did not complete the relevant materials and so announced an extension in class!' I was stunned. I had bunked the class last week. Damn !

Anyway this week is also filled with homeworks and exams. Actually its the same every week now as the semester would end in a month. Yawn. I've to head back to Gamma functions.

Here is a link with the Spring Break Austin pictures.