Looking back....An Adieu to 2007
The year started with an inspiring experience of New years at the Times Square, with a friend of mine, Tushar. The 10 hour of standing out there in the cold that night was well worth it. Mom was still recuperating from her foot fracture that she had in DC, which eventually delayed mom and dad's return journey by a month and I bet munni (sis) wasn't complaining for the additional time she got to spend with them!
The winter and spring quarters were filled with the usual academic stuff with me trying to find my niche in research and an advisor to work with. On the extracurricular front, I took up guitar classes which turned out to be a dud and I had to drop out. I followed this up with beginners tennis classes the next quarter which was relatively ok but still useless as it was too basic. Spring break saw me going to a trip with ISA to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon which was fun. I met a lot of international students and it was a good socializing.
Spent the summer interning at Citrix Online, a local company, working on peer to peer connections and the stint was both fun and interesting. Fun included an overnight camping trip at nearby woods and building a functioning boat to row in the ocean! Also, met some cool people working at Citrix and was able to practice my ping pong there. God, I'm not sure how many hours I wasted playing ping pong during that whole 3 months ;)
Summer was great not only because of the weather but I got to meet a lot of my undergrad friends (Jaini,MC,Gopi,Tushar,Nikhil,Nune) and bro doing their interns in CA. We went around bay area and then came down to LA to Universal Studios. Gopi came down to stay with me for a week and me and Vicky went to Sandiego for sightseeing. Middle of summer took me to a beautiful city, Vancouver in Canada for my 1st conference talk after coming to US. Had a great time there (no not the conference...sight seeing) esp. with a new found friend, Anya (thanx for the sushi...but u still have to pay my bills and i didn't forget about the jacket..lol).
Fall quarter was nothing unusual...except for the dance performance for diwali celebrations. The 2 weeks practice paid off in the end, I think. Went to NJ to celebrate Ragni's (my niece) 1st birthday. Also research wise, I found my advisor and I kinda know what/where my research is going. Vicky (bro) graduated recently and I came home to spend the winter break with my folks, visiting Singapore on the way with Lee.
All in all, this year seemed similar yet it was so different. There were many firsts but I guess its bound to be. Personally, I think my perspectives have changed a lot regarding how I want my life to be. On a materialistic note, I visited lot of places, met some really cool folks and had some wonderful memories. There were neither major setbacks nor impressive successes. 2007 didn't suck but I hope 2008 would be better, as always..the optimist.
The winter and spring quarters were filled with the usual academic stuff with me trying to find my niche in research and an advisor to work with. On the extracurricular front, I took up guitar classes which turned out to be a dud and I had to drop out. I followed this up with beginners tennis classes the next quarter which was relatively ok but still useless as it was too basic. Spring break saw me going to a trip with ISA to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon which was fun. I met a lot of international students and it was a good socializing.
Spent the summer interning at Citrix Online, a local company, working on peer to peer connections and the stint was both fun and interesting. Fun included an overnight camping trip at nearby woods and building a functioning boat to row in the ocean! Also, met some cool people working at Citrix and was able to practice my ping pong there. God, I'm not sure how many hours I wasted playing ping pong during that whole 3 months ;)
Summer was great not only because of the weather but I got to meet a lot of my undergrad friends (Jaini,MC,Gopi,Tushar,Nikhil,Nune) and bro doing their interns in CA. We went around bay area and then came down to LA to Universal Studios. Gopi came down to stay with me for a week and me and Vicky went to Sandiego for sightseeing. Middle of summer took me to a beautiful city, Vancouver in Canada for my 1st conference talk after coming to US. Had a great time there (no not the conference...sight seeing) esp. with a new found friend, Anya (thanx for the sushi...but u still have to pay my bills and i didn't forget about the jacket..lol).
Fall quarter was nothing unusual...except for the dance performance for diwali celebrations. The 2 weeks practice paid off in the end, I think. Went to NJ to celebrate Ragni's (my niece) 1st birthday. Also research wise, I found my advisor and I kinda know what/where my research is going. Vicky (bro) graduated recently and I came home to spend the winter break with my folks, visiting Singapore on the way with Lee.
All in all, this year seemed similar yet it was so different. There were many firsts but I guess its bound to be. Personally, I think my perspectives have changed a lot regarding how I want my life to be. On a materialistic note, I visited lot of places, met some really cool folks and had some wonderful memories. There were neither major setbacks nor impressive successes. 2007 didn't suck but I hope 2008 would be better, as always..the optimist.
