Canada - my impressions so far

After my freaky encounter @ the airport, my uncle gave me a tour of the Pearson Intl Airport (huh), actually we got lost and had to walk a bit to find the car. My uncle has a poor sense of direction and it was funny to be guided by my cousin. I've two girl cousins, one aged 12 and the other aged 8. Lets call the older one C-12 and the younger one C -8 ( no they are not carbon isotopes). I was very excited to see my uncle and his family. I was meeting my cousins after three years. Both are so cute and adorable.

The highways looked very similar to the ones in US. The only difference - everything was in 'km' as opposed to 'miles'. The directions were in both English and French. For example, a freeway will be ' 403 South /Sud'. The shops looked more similar to the shops in India strangely. I liked the buildings and architecture in this city. Most communities in suburban USA have houses that look very similar. Here on the other hand, the houses are very different. The buildings are also more creative and different. I also found many high-rise condos in the suburbs. This confused me a little bit and I mistook them to be some sort of 'downtown'.

The traffic is quite terrible like any other big city. But, I found very few traffic cops on the road. Coming from texas, I am used to strict driving and it was strange to see hardly any cop cars. People drive recklessly here. Not many observe the traffic rules ! Pedestrians don't really get any importance ! More than once , I thought I would be run over !!

The public transport quality is very good. The buses and trains are very comfortable and nice. But I found that there is not too much information/help. Having got used to free maps and time-tables available in US, I was surprised to find that they were a little hard to find here. As a tourist, I would surely appreciate more information and maps !!

There are lots of restaurants here. All types of cuisines are found. Coffee shops like starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup are common. But somehow, food stores are not as common as US. I mean, you will have to really hunt to find these stores. There are fewer restrooms too !! For example, while waiting in CN Towers for hours, we had to struggle just to get coffee !! My cousin C-8 was hungry and the poor kid got nothing to eat ! Nothing was open for her to eat ! In Niagara, only certain places had restrooms !

Toronto is a beautiful city. I love the downtown. Its so refreshing to see water everywhere.

Like any other city, it has many pros and cons. I was surprised to find so many differences in both the countries despite the proximity and similarity.

And I did come across many Canadians who ended all their sentences with an 'aye'.
:-)

Passage to Canada

I decided to take a 2 week break and visit my uncle's family in Toronto after my semester ended. I flew to Canada last week on Wednesday. It was rather eventful. This is what happened.

The 3 hour flight to Toronto was rather uneventful, partly because I just slept. The flight was early in the morning. Air Canada has comfortable seats; the plane was rather empty. I was hungry and was waiting for the pretzels - but these cheepos din't even give that. All that was offered was a beverage ! Sheesh !!

I reached Toronto around 10:30 am. I could see CN Towers while the plane was landing. The city looked very green and pretty. I got off and walked towards the immigration. The lady at the counter asked me the routine questions - purpose of visit, duration of stay, details of relatives etc. Here is where things goofed up. While applying for the visa, I did not write the address of my uncle. So, I thought if I mention an 'uncle' now, it would look fishy. So, I decided to just say that I had a 'family friend' who was hosting me.

The first lady directed me to another immigration line. Oh o. I see trouble.

The next immigration officer was a middle-aged lady. Let me call her X. She looked like a typical strict school headmistress.

X: How long is your stay ?
Me: 2 weeks. I showed her the ticket reservation.

X: Do you have any relatives in Canada ?
Me: No. I am staying with a family friend. He is coming to pick me up.

X: When did you see this friend ?
Me: Last year. We are very close.

I give my uncle's name and other details. She asks me some more questions about school.

X: Who pays for your school ?
Me: I do. I've funding from school.

She asks me more weird questions like ' do you have a credit card', ' who pays your bills' , ' what will you do when you go back to USA' . I was getting extremely annoyed now.
Her questions seemed silly and stupid. Her questions seemed to imply that she feared I was going to stay in Canada ( so what even if i did ? I had a 1 year visa afterall !! ). I think because I was hungry, I was in a bad mood and gave her snappy answers.
Anyway, she wrote down all the info I gave her.

X asked for my uncle's cell number. I promptly told her that I had only the land line number and gave it to her. When I switched on my phone to get the number, I seemed to be 'in roaming' and had full signal. I did not even have my uncle's address. Damn ! I wish I knew they were going to ask me all these questions, I would have discussed it with my uncle atleast. Somehow, going to Canada always seemed like going to some place in US and hence my complacency.

Then X tells me she is going to page my uncle in the airport. I could hear the announcement. Oops. She asked me take a seat. I decided to call my uncle and warn him about the situation. When my uncle picked up the phone, I quickly spoke in Tamil and told him to tell that we're 'family friends' and are very close. By then X tells me ' sorry no cell phones here'. I gave her an innocent look and hung up. Sometimes its good to know non-english languages !!

I could see her talking to my uncle. She called me after a few minutes. I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. She gives me an annoyed look and said ' your uncle says he is your biological uncle and you said you were family friends'. Oh o. I said ' ofcourse he is my biological uncle'. X looked confused. I then began to explain ' you see in India, after we get married, we belong to another family. So my maternal uncle is no longer my relative. That is why I said he was a family friend.' ( what the heck was i blabbering). I don't know if X bought the story; she said ' but you have been living in the United States for so long, you must know what we mean by relatives ! '. I give her a puzzled look. She gives up. And gives me the stamp needed to stay for 2 weeks. Yaay !

I get my baggage and meet my uncle and cousin outside. Turns out we gave her two different stories. My uncle told her that he has never seen me in years; he is not close and has no idea about what I am studying. Some more details were also complete opposites. I don't know how X bought the story ! Anyway we had a good laugh over it.

I mailed A and told her the set of questions to expect. I told her to stick to the family story and gave her some other details. I hoped X would not be there for her too cos then she may conclude that my uncle may be smuggling many nieces.

Guess where we are !

Can you guess where Archana and I are in these pictures ?

ROTFL !!

Just another weekend...

Had just another busy weekend.

On Friday, I did a little shopping. Then went to the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Plano, which was simply superb. Although it was very small, the vibrations were very good and it felt good just to be there. We stayed till the last aarthi for the day. After that, we headed to Chettinad Palace for a late dinner. Food was good but the salt was very less for some reason. This was followed by a bad rush back home and more importantly to the AMC theater to watch Da Vinci Code. As Murphy's law would have it, we were delayed and reached the place at 11:10pm ( the show was at 11). A few more friends were waiting for me as I had the tickets. I quickly exchanged the tickets for the next show. We got good seats and settled in for a long night.

I liked the movie. It was good. Not superb. I felt is slowed down in the middle as they were trying to explain the story to those who have not read the book. I was thrilled to finally look at the places mentioned in the book.

On Saturday, I woke up late and was just lazing. My friend V came with the cryptex ( its identical to the one they hold in the movie - heavy for its size and superb). Then while V sat and solved the final quest, R, K and I did some time pass. The final round was just like the earlier puzzles; more complicated and no other questions were asked. Just complicated puzzles. For example, the sudoku had 9 symbols ! There was no observation round. The final jigsaw was most intriguing - the pictures changed every second ! So, it was very distractive ! After he solved it, we decided to go for dinner. As it was late, we had limited options - finally chose chilies.

I decided to experiment and got a quesidilla explosion modified for a vegetarian. I din't quite expect what I got. There were 4 slices of quessidilas in the side ( very small). In the center, was a big heap. It looked more like a nest. I was trying to figure out what it was when the waiter asked me, ' how is your salad'. End of mystery. The nest like heap had mostly tortilla chips shredded in various colours; had a few corn pieces; some beans; some lettuce. Sigh ! What a sad dinner. After a hour, the nest still looked the same as I was just picking off the corn pieces. Then I gave up and left it.

On Sunday, we went to the mall and did loads of shopping. After that we went to Taj Chaat house in Irving. The chaat was ok, not too great. But I had the most amazing masala dosa. It was the best I had ever eaten in the US ! The guy made is with a little ghee and gave sambar, chutney, molagapodi etc. It was simply superb.

It looks like pretty much all I did was eat in different places during the weekend.

And finally, here is a quiz question ( sorry no prizes )

Can you identify the two bollywood stars in this picture ?

For more info, click here

Ride sharing - desi style

I was reminded of this while watching a hindi movie yesterday. The concept of ride-sharing in India is not only for cars but also 2 wheelers. And sometimes there are more than 2 people riding a 2 wheeler. We used to call it 'tribs'; don't know if it has any other name.

My friend T taught me to ride a 2 wheeler way back in engg first year. She had a Scooty. We had a lot of fun with her scooty. My friend S had a luna that would never work half the time. That is when it started, most times it would never start.

Once the same thing happened. We were all at S's house in RT Nagar. As usual, her luna did not start. I think we had a lab or something in the afternoon for which the 3 of us had to go back to college. There were 3 of us and 1 vehicle. Only one solution - 'tribs' !!! LOL. It was quite an experience.

So, we started journey. We were scared of being 'caught' by cops. The route to college was through many main roads and even a small stretch of a NH. So, we took a risk and went ahead. We stopped a couple of times because all of us would be laughing uncontrollably. One of the times, we stooped and made S walk a little as there was a cop standing a few feet away. We reached college safely. The trip was a lot of fun and we repeated it quite a few times after that ' just for kicks'.

Aftermath of the semester

After endless cribbing about how long and hectic spring semester was; it finally ended. I finished my last exam on Thursday afternoon. Had some other things to turn in by Friday and then I was free. Free finally ! ! Phew.

So, on Friday night, I met up R and K, we went to a Mediterranean restaurant called Fadi's, for dinner. Strangely I found a lot of food to eat inspite of being a vegetarian. The food was good. We then decided to go clubbing and finally decided upon Lizard Lounge simply because we wanted to listen to Trance/Techno. LL was having a special treat that day. A group called Above and Beyond were performing live. The DJ was spinning his superb music. The music was simply out of the world for trance lovers. There was some performance by dancers too. The 3 of us danced ( or rather jumped) a lot till our legs pleaded mercy. We headed back home in a happy note. I liked the music so much, that I bought one of their albums on i-tunes the next day and listen to it religiously.

I could not wake up early on Saturday. My friend P was graduating in the morning. The poor guy tried calling me but I seemed to be in a 'trance', hehehe. But I woke up in time for lunch. Went to Madras Pavilion for their delicious lunch buffet. Hogged. Then went to drop S in his house. It was so hot outside that we decided to stay in his house and watch a movie. We saw ' Harold and Kumar go to new castle'. LOL. Found it very funny.

After that, everything just falls into the category of time pass - wake up late, have tea, start watching movies, chit-chat, kill time.

Finished the Da Vinci quest. No I was not a finalist. :-( But my friend V is. Yaay ! I will get to see the cryptex. And yeah I cut my hair to a 'short' style to suit the Texas summer. Ahhh. Blissful break.

I've forgotten all about research, which I've to continue again tomorrow. But I am recharged and refreshed.

p.s I din't have any blogging ideas and so din't put any new post. Got an ear-full from Archu and so decided to write :-P

Sivananda Camp

I was up late last night studying for a test today; but the test was cancelled and will be on Monday instead. Sigh. Time to blog. hehehhe.

This post is a trip down memory lane. My parents visited my in-laws last week and one of the topics was about my childhood. My dad told them stories of a camp that I had attended when I was a little over 5 years old. I simply loved the place. Here is my recollection of the same.

This was the first time I was going to a Summer Camp. It was a month-long program held in Neyyar Dam, near Trivandrum, Kerala. It was organized by Sivananda Yoga Kendra ( HO Canada). My cousins V and K ( a year older than me) were also sent to the camp. I should speak to them and see what they remember about this trip.

Anyway, like most memories, I only remember certain details. The place was beautiful. It was beside a lake. There were cottages for different groups. There was a main prayer hall where yoga was taught. There was a fixed schedule daily. I think the day began early with prayers, yoga, breakfast, some classes, lunch, resting time, bath in the lake, reading time, etc. I started reading comics from here. I got pretty good at yoga asanas but sadly did not pursue it and forgot them soon. My first exposure to spirituality and related topics was also here.

The food...hmm...I don't really remember much about it. All I remember are the fat dosas. I have never seen such thick dosas in my life. Yuck. We were allowed to buy one item from the market every week. I don't recall having money to buy anything except chocolates. I remember asking V and K to buy me biscuits. The girls and boys did not interact much and so I did not really get a chance to speak a lot to them during the stay. I remember V hiding biscuit packets and smuggling them to me. As I was the kid sister, I think they took it as a responsibility to take care of me.

The girls slept in a big cottage. We all had one steel cot each with mattress. We could see the lake from the window. There was greenery everywhere. We could not use footwear. We had to walk on pebbles and it hurt a lot. But I got used to it after a while. The restroom was nothing but a hole dug in the ground with a hut around it !! Eeeks. Every evening, we would go down to the lake and swim. I din't know swimming, so I think, I just stayed close to the banks. It was fun to just be in the water.

We had classes everyday. We were taught by Canadian monks and Indian monks as well. I was one of the youngest in the camp and got pampered by the teachers. There was a dog who used to keep running around and I used to play with him. I think I even tried to feed him the dosas (hehehehe). There was an old lady who used to just sit and look at the children. She looked weird and used to keep muttering. I was terrified with her ears. She had one of those big ear lobes. Thinking back, its so funny.

We used to have a lot of fun and games. I remember playing treausre hunt. We also had camp-fires on the river bank. All the kids used to gather around the fire and sing. We had firecrackers one night. Also remember going on a hike to rubber plantations. I also took part in some dance on the last day. I had to dance with some doll for a malayalam song. The camp ended quickly and it was time to go back home.

I asked my parents to send me again next summer. But somehow that never happened.

I did a google search today and found the website for the Org. It turns out to be a real big organization. They have ashrams all over the world ! I felt so happy looking at it. Maybe I can finally visit Sivananda Camp again ( Maybe the one in the Himalayas this time - which is in a cave). Click the link for more info.

A few weeks as an instructor :-)

I heard many tips from other Professors before I began my teaching assignment.

' Be stern and strict.'

' Don't smile too much - they would not take you seriously.'

' Establish whos the boss.'

' Ask them to call you by last name.'

I tried to implement these tips but found it difficult. It is very hard for me to be strict. I cannot help smiling. I don't like to boss around. I don't even have a loud voice ! So how was I going to control a large class ? Teaching labs were so easy compared to this !

This was my toughest problem. Just when I turn to one side and talk, the other side would start talking. There were days when I would get angry (but that was rare). This was not like India where I can throw someone out of class. I cannot even scold anyone ! There were some students who would try to annoy me on purpose. But...I somehow managed to surive.

It was hard to prepare for the class; it took me approximately 4 hours to prepare for each class. I used a lot of ppt slides and pictures. I made notes in a book and would look into it as I taught.
Soon, I realised that I would run out of material to teach even before the class ended. And since I was not a pro in the subject, I could not even ramble my head off. So, the class always ended sooner (the students din't complain though).

My students were non-science majors - so teaching them science was quite a challenge.

Spring ended peacefully. I was offered the same position in fall again. This time the enrollment increased to 160 !!! ( Does it mean I was good, heheheh). I asked them to call me by first name. I could manage the class more easily. I loved this class. I was more confident. I already had my notes, all I had to do was glance through them before class. And I learnt the art of rambling...I would chit chat in most classes and complain to my students about my own exams and other topics like black holes, elections, clubs, movies, music, books etc. Most classes ended up in interesting discussions.

The only glitch in the whole experience was that teaching was very time consuming. It was hard to manage my own courses and research. This semester, I got a research position. But, I sure miss teaching !

I do bump into my ex-students in the city occasionally and I feel good when they tell me that they enjoyed my class.