When you're having fun, right? Or perhaps when you're studying like crazy on databases and queries =P. I honestly don't remember what happened the entire week after the "safari". There must have been some project finishing...and some RDBMS starting...as far as work went. We had our last couple games of ultimate with the fast trackers and various other seeing-off celebrations involving food and dancing. We finally got a chance to eat at the Lemon Tree restaurant which has BOMB chicken rolls and half-chicken/whole-chicken dishes. YUMMY. So now we're set in this one area of Mysore that has the Lemon Tree, MezzaLuna (currently our favorite restaurant due to cheapness, deliciousness, and Chinese food-ness) and or club of choice, High Octane. On Saturday we vowed to play our last game of ultimate and shortly thereafter we headed out to a place called Planet X where the main highlight is their go-karts. They are suprisingly fun and potentially very addicting. I am going to try my best to master the art of drifting, bwahaha (Tokyo Drift! LOL)
Unfortunately, the day we had to see our friends off to Hyderabad. Of course, the cab didn't come until two hours after it was scheduled to come. But we were able to entertain ourselves in our few precious last moments with all of my favorite games (pika pika tonga tonga! That's right, I've taught a new crowd =P). Later that day me and the girls went on a shopping trip into the city and I bought a kurta! And various other items, hehe... Little did I know that shopping crazyness would ensue later in the week...
This past week has been full of studying. No joke. We had a 7 day module this round and it seemed pretty intense, especially since I have a tendency to zone out during class...haha. But don't worry about me, I got an A (of course!) on the RDMBS exam =D. However, this next instructor of ours is pretty...annoying...in the sense that he is quite attentive to all of the shenanigans that occur in class, haha. So my friend Barry sits in front of me in our classroom. Barry ALWAYS plays games. Hangaroo, in particular, is my favorite game that Barry plays because when our brains work together, we can solve the puzzle. Apparently I didn't realize how blaringly obvious it is that I play this game with Barry because our new instructor definitely called me out for it. DON'T WORRY, I didn't get in trouble, he just asked if there was something interesting on Barry's screen and I just played dumb =P. AND ALSO JUST FOR THE RECORD, I have not downloaded any games onto my own computer until this past Thursday. And also everyone else in class plays games. That is all.
However, my personal favorite highlight of the past couple weeks is playing ULTIMATE EVERYDAY. Yes, me and my friend Alex have made a pact to play ultimate everyday possible. I have to admit, I am completely obsessed with ultimate frisbee. You know how I surf in San Diego and taiko in Berkeley? Well apparently in India I play ultimate. And it is GREAT. Except for the fact that I have a tendency to injure myself a lot. Or collide with people because I can't stop running. STILL AWESOME. We successfully played ultimate everyday for four days in a row and it was so so fun every single time. We're crazy =P
So this Saturday was a working. The reason being? They had given us too many holidays during this quarter so the entire company was coming in on this Saturday. However, nothing was scheduled for us to do on this so-called working Saturday. So during lunch, me and the girls left for the city and shopped till we dropped. I bought a LOT of stuff. And Juni, our Indian friend, was able to come out and help us. She is so sweet and I'm so glad we were able to hang out with her. She helped us pick out saris, salwaars, and kurtas so now I'm stocked. I had fun but I'm pretty shopped out.
And finally todaaaaaaaaaaaay! We took a day trip to Coorg. Woke up at 5:15 AM and piled into a big van. Our first stop was a Tibetan monastery...it was beautiful! Because we got there so early, hardly anybody else was there. The monks were in the process of doing their morning chants and it was so interesting just to watch. This is by far my favorite place that we've visited so far. Afterward we went to a "bird sanctuary" that didn't actually have any birds. The only notable parts of this place was the bridge we had to cross and the river that some of my friends accidently fell into when they tried to cross it to reach some rocks, haha. After this we headed for Abbey Falls which we thought would require a long hike but really only took 5 minutes of walking to reach. They were pretty enough (honestly, not as cool as some of the stuff I saw in China). Our last stop was a garden with an amazing view (we were able to spot the perfect ultimate feel amongst the huge expanse of green fields =D).
Anyway, I can't believe I only got one day off between last week and this week. Siiiigh...off to work I go!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Safari
Hellooo everyone! So it's been quite a busy weekend. We got our first project assigned to us last week and we've been literally work on it nonstop ever since. My particular group seems very determined/hard-working (3 of the 4 of us are small Asian girls...dunno if that has anything to do with it...haha). We worked all of Saturday and the girls finished all of our code that day. Which was a good thing because we all had to wake up at 3:45AM the next morning. Why you ask??? Because of our "safari" trip to Bandipur National Park.
I say "safari" in quotes because no, I unfortunately did not get to spot any lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Let's just say it's a good thing I went in with low expectations because even though we didn't see tigers, I still had a good time! (By the way, tigers is what this national park is supposedly known for. There are supposed to be around 70 tigers in the park itself). Part of the problem was that we were expecting to be able to take jeep tours through the more interesting parts of the park. However, we arrived at the reception area only to discover that there was only ONE jeep and 21 of us. Oops. We had to settle instead for a van tour which wasn't terribly interesting. We saw a few monkeys and some jungle squirrels (LOL). But the fun stuff happened after we finished the van tour. Near the reception/ village area, there were even more monkeys just roaming about the area. Of course, we started feeding them. And then they started expecting more. And then they started jumping for our bags of food. Meep.
But after we ran away from the monkeys, we explored the area as we waited to see if we could do elephant rides (which we didn't end up doing that day, poo). Some of us played with/ observed more monkeys and ran with the deer. But then we found the elephants and started feeding/ petting them instead. THEN, when we tried to get our driver to take us away, he got freaked out because a small family of elephants started walking down the road. After we finally got out of the park, a smaller group of us went to a temple on a hill that was on the way home. The temple itself was neat and all, but what was really nice was the view. We took a small hike over some hills and got to see everything around us. It was awesome.
And with that, I finally uploaded pictures for you all to see!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizlam.ca/
The first album is really tiny and are just random pictures I took at random times. Some of them are from Mysore Temple and some others are from riding rickshaws into town. The second album is all from Sunday's safari adventure. Check 'em out!
In other news, the fast track people who got assigned to ES are leaving this week. Wow, that was quick! It kind of boggles my mind that these people that I just met and became friends with are already leaving. We're hoping to make every last moment count so hopefully this week will be fun. At least they should be there to greet us when I head to Hyderabad myself! This weekends plans consist of going-away events, Chamundi Hills, and shopping, hopefully! I want a sari! My plan is to drag along my new Indian friend from Chennai to help me out. =)
P.S. I miss playing taiko dearly. It's so exciting hearing about performances and practices and newbies...I'm jealous!!! TAIKOOOOO!!!
I say "safari" in quotes because no, I unfortunately did not get to spot any lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Let's just say it's a good thing I went in with low expectations because even though we didn't see tigers, I still had a good time! (By the way, tigers is what this national park is supposedly known for. There are supposed to be around 70 tigers in the park itself). Part of the problem was that we were expecting to be able to take jeep tours through the more interesting parts of the park. However, we arrived at the reception area only to discover that there was only ONE jeep and 21 of us. Oops. We had to settle instead for a van tour which wasn't terribly interesting. We saw a few monkeys and some jungle squirrels (LOL). But the fun stuff happened after we finished the van tour. Near the reception/ village area, there were even more monkeys just roaming about the area. Of course, we started feeding them. And then they started expecting more. And then they started jumping for our bags of food. Meep.
But after we ran away from the monkeys, we explored the area as we waited to see if we could do elephant rides (which we didn't end up doing that day, poo). Some of us played with/ observed more monkeys and ran with the deer. But then we found the elephants and started feeding/ petting them instead. THEN, when we tried to get our driver to take us away, he got freaked out because a small family of elephants started walking down the road. After we finally got out of the park, a smaller group of us went to a temple on a hill that was on the way home. The temple itself was neat and all, but what was really nice was the view. We took a small hike over some hills and got to see everything around us. It was awesome.
And with that, I finally uploaded pictures for you all to see!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizlam.ca/
The first album is really tiny and are just random pictures I took at random times. Some of them are from Mysore Temple and some others are from riding rickshaws into town. The second album is all from Sunday's safari adventure. Check 'em out!
In other news, the fast track people who got assigned to ES are leaving this week. Wow, that was quick! It kind of boggles my mind that these people that I just met and became friends with are already leaving. We're hoping to make every last moment count so hopefully this week will be fun. At least they should be there to greet us when I head to Hyderabad myself! This weekends plans consist of going-away events, Chamundi Hills, and shopping, hopefully! I want a sari! My plan is to drag along my new Indian friend from Chennai to help me out. =)
P.S. I miss playing taiko dearly. It's so exciting hearing about performances and practices and newbies...I'm jealous!!! TAIKOOOOO!!!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Mysore
Just to reassure those that may have had any doubts or concerns, I have taken two module tests so far and have received "A's" on both. So yes, I'm still a good student! Right now we're finishing up C programming with a project upcoming in the next few days. However, yesterday's exam was actually quite stressful - and then class was even worse due to the slow pace of the new professor.
Lucky for us, today was a holiday and pretty much the entire batch planned a night out on the town. Before the evening partying, I went back to Devaraja Urs Road to pick up the salwaar that I had dropped off to get altered. It looks much, much better now (I wanna show you guys!) So the other girls and I are planning on wearing that to work tomorrow.
To kick off the evening we ate a delicious, (and for the most part, non-Indian) meal at the hotel Pai Vista and then we hit up a club called High Octane for some dancing. It was especially cool bceause I was able to interact with other people in the batch that I don't normally hang out with. (Networking, networking! Hahaha)
But hanging out in the city during the day allowed me to make some observations. Here on campus, we truly live in a bubble. There may be some crazy rules (for instance, today I got scolded at because I was sitting on a chair next to the pool...) but the campus is really pretty and well kept. The "real" India is much different. For instance, this morning I walked passed a cow that was sifting through a pile of trash...right in the middle of a busy part of town. By the way, cows are extremeley common throughout India. They're always on the sides of the roads, walking down the roads, sitting in the middle of roads...everywhere! And they always get the right of way.
Another example is Devaraja Urs Road, which is one of the bigger shopping areas in Mysore. As I was driving down this road yesterday, it faintly reminded me of a normal bustling street in the U.S...except with crazy twists. Cows were of course part of the equation. Cars and rickshaws and even people weave in and out of each other in a way that doesn't make any common sense. There are people and dust everywhere. For some reason I was reminded of a busy American street but turned totally upside-down.
The other thing I noticed (from being both in Bangalore and Mysore) is that Indian women have the coolest clothes. They get to wear saris or salwaars wherever they go. And they're COLORFUL and it just brings so much life to the scene. The fabric used to make these clothes are typically bright, vibrant colors with patterns and BLING. Going into a salwaar shop is almost overwhelming because there are so, so, SO many different patterns to choose from. I don't think I've seen two that were exactly the same. Plus, they're super comfortable! Anyway, we should start a new trend in the states for wearing salwaars and saris. I definitely want to buy more now!
Lucky for us, today was a holiday and pretty much the entire batch planned a night out on the town. Before the evening partying, I went back to Devaraja Urs Road to pick up the salwaar that I had dropped off to get altered. It looks much, much better now (I wanna show you guys!) So the other girls and I are planning on wearing that to work tomorrow.
To kick off the evening we ate a delicious, (and for the most part, non-Indian) meal at the hotel Pai Vista and then we hit up a club called High Octane for some dancing. It was especially cool bceause I was able to interact with other people in the batch that I don't normally hang out with. (Networking, networking! Hahaha)
But hanging out in the city during the day allowed me to make some observations. Here on campus, we truly live in a bubble. There may be some crazy rules (for instance, today I got scolded at because I was sitting on a chair next to the pool...) but the campus is really pretty and well kept. The "real" India is much different. For instance, this morning I walked passed a cow that was sifting through a pile of trash...right in the middle of a busy part of town. By the way, cows are extremeley common throughout India. They're always on the sides of the roads, walking down the roads, sitting in the middle of roads...everywhere! And they always get the right of way.
Another example is Devaraja Urs Road, which is one of the bigger shopping areas in Mysore. As I was driving down this road yesterday, it faintly reminded me of a normal bustling street in the U.S...except with crazy twists. Cows were of course part of the equation. Cars and rickshaws and even people weave in and out of each other in a way that doesn't make any common sense. There are people and dust everywhere. For some reason I was reminded of a busy American street but turned totally upside-down.
The other thing I noticed (from being both in Bangalore and Mysore) is that Indian women have the coolest clothes. They get to wear saris or salwaars wherever they go. And they're COLORFUL and it just brings so much life to the scene. The fabric used to make these clothes are typically bright, vibrant colors with patterns and BLING. Going into a salwaar shop is almost overwhelming because there are so, so, SO many different patterns to choose from. I don't think I've seen two that were exactly the same. Plus, they're super comfortable! Anyway, we should start a new trend in the states for wearing salwaars and saris. I definitely want to buy more now!
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