California so far...

I intended to blog everyday about what I do here in CA, but never get around to it somehow. So here's how my days have been like so far...

Saturday was a bright sunny day and we decided to visit Monterey Beach. "We" is read as my extended family of 11 adults and 3 children. And it was probably one of the craziest days to go there. It was really cold at the beach and we could not even get the kids out of the car. There was a lot of fog at first. When the fog lifted it was like curtains being raised to reveal hazy mountains in the distance. It was such a beautiful sight, too beautiful to capture on a photograph. So I did not click any :D. In other attractions, my uncle and I repeatedly ran up and down a sand dune simply on a whim and totally whetted our appetites for the yummy Mexican dinner that followed :-).

I met a bunch of my undergrad friends on Sunday for lunch. 3 of us decided to go to San Francisco. We stopped for a lovely view of the bay, bridge and city at Golden Gate Bridge Vista point. The lights were just coming on at downtown San Francisco and I had to tear myself away from there just because we went too late and had other places to see. We had a blast driving down crooked street (twice that too!). Then we drove around downtown SFO for a while before returning. It is a really charming city and I hardly saw the place. I'm definitely going there again and again and again... Hopefully I can drive there myself the next time.

Other than the tourist routine, I have also been making social calls, for I have a lot of family living in the Bay Area. Yesterday I visited Stanford with an uncle. The campus (at least the parts I visited) has an old world charm because of its stately stone architecture. The main library was awesome! I loved the silence and roamed for a long time among the rows and rows of leather bound volumes. I didn't have enough time to wander over to the B-School though.






And I just loved that fountain...
















Will write more from LA this weekend...

Typographical'l'y chal'l'enged :-(

Please replace l' with l throughout this post. And 6' as 6, 0' as 0 and so on. Thank you in advance.

Currentl'y my typing l'ooks 'like this:

abcdefghij
kl'm
nopq
rstuvwxyz 123456'7890'

The above lines were the letters of the alphabet and then the numbers typed continously without spaces/enter.

The keys
j
m
q
type enter on their own. Quite obvious from above I guess.

Del'ete was typing enter for a whil'e. Now it's al'right. Now it's suddenl'y not again.

"""""""""""""""""""''- That was the l'eft shift key hel'd on for a few moments. The right shift key decided to be a little saner and does nothing.

And the enter key worked every fifth, sixth or tenth time I hit it. And now it doesn't work anymore.

If you have not guessed by now... I shared some of my morning coffee with my keyboard :D. Everything that makes sense in this post (and logging in to blogger etc. ) was typed using the on-screen keyboard.

Oh! Do I love it!

Thanks again for putting up with the crap. Hope you enjoyed my misery!

Moved, physically this time

I reached California a few hours ago! The roads are awesome :D.

My flight was uneventful and boring. The persons seated next to me were old people visiting their son/daughter in the United States and all I exchanged with them was a few smiles and nods to all their ravings and rantings about their previous visits to the states. The immigration official was not even bothered as to why I was entering the US at California instead of Philly. So my chronic obsession about immigration was also totally wasted :-).

Right now I'm barely awake. I'm desperately trying to beat jet lag by sleeping only at night. Two more hours to go before I sail away to the land of nods. Will write more after I return...

PS: If you don't get the title of this post, refer to this

Uncles galore!

My paternal uncle who has come on vacation to my place bought me a brand new Nokia N95 phone! And he also bought me a financial calculator for B-School :D. My maternal uncle who I am visiting in California before I reach Philly is going to buy me all my winter clothes and other stuff that are better in the US than India. How cool is that?! I don't know if an admit to Wharton warrants all this, they seem to think so anyway. Do I see green???

I know I sound like a kid. But that is how they pamper me and I am not really complaining at the moment. You will agree with me when you see my HUGE shopping bill :-)...

On the moving front- I still have to buy $$$ and I'm procrastinating it forever for no apparent reason.

Moved, Virtually

You might have hunted for this blog on Hella's list. Maybe you also found it, considering you are already here. I just moved from the applicants section to the students section. But not without a pang of emotion. My entire application journey flashed before my eyes as I watched my blog disappear from the list of applicant blogs. I hope my student life is as fulfilling and eventful as the past one year...

So now you can find me here and here :-)

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog all this while and do come back for more!

Last minute lists

I'm out of India in 10 days. People keep calling to wish me or meet me once before I go. My departure keeps coming up in every conversation. But strangely, I don't feel I'm going anywhere at all. I definitely don't feel I'm going "back to school" because right now I'm just going on a 2-week holiday. This inertia is something I've never felt before and I'm sure it's not going to help me get acclimatized to school quickly. I keep telling myself this is because I don't know what to expect in the next few months and I'm just a little reluctant to let go of all the familiarity. But I'm not really convinced with my own excuses.

Moving on to less uncertain things... Now I think I know what are the things I need to pack and what are the other miscellaneous things I need to wrap up before I go. I will put down the list here for people who might find some use for it over the next 2 months or so...

Packing List:
I'm listing out just the categories of items. The specific things in each catergory varies from person to person and may be very different depending on where you are traveling from. A little googling can find you many really extensive packing lists.

• Documents (Education, B-school related, work related, medical prescriptions and health history, travel related, financial documents, insurance, driving license with international permit. Ensure that documents needed during travel are easily accessible )
• Photographs (in standard sizes and the negative/soft copy for later use)
• Money (Cash, Travelers' checks, credit cards)
• Important phone numbers and addresses
• Medicines (with prescription)
• Clothes
• Prescription Spectacles/contact lenses (carry a spare)
• Toiletry (just for a month till you know your way around the new place)
• Footwear
• Accessories (bags, watches, belts, jewelery, goggles etc.)
• Books
• CDs, DVDs (that you absolutely must carry)
• Gifts (if any)
• Food items (this is specific to Indians)
• Utensils (mainly cooker and tawa, this again is specific to Indians)
• Backpacks/briefcases etc.
  

Things to wrap up before leaving:

• Change of address wherever applicable
• Car driving license with international permit
  
• Eye, dental and general health check up, immunization shots
  
• Closing of back accounts/credit cards/other subscriptions
• Leave signed checks, signed empty sheets of paper etc. at home for emergencies (this might be specific to Indians)
  
• Leave copies of all documents at home
  
• Buy travel insurance if needed
• Change money
• Reconfirm flight(s)/seats/on-board meal selection
• Weigh luggage to ensure you are within the limit or make plans to pay for additional baggage
• If someone is receiving you call the person and reconfirm flight timing. If not make plans for transit from airport to apartment/hotel/wherever

I might have forgotten some things. So I will add to these lists as and when I come across something I've missed.