weekly update

Although I didnt want this diary to be a weekly one, my last 3 posts have been on Tuesdays. So here' whats been happening in the last one week.

Wednesday was registration followed by classes. Registration isnt just signing on a few sheets here. A number of student clubs have their stalls set up just outside the registration area, and they try to attract students to join them. Its like a fair. There was also this guy dressed like a lion (like the ones in Disneyland) moving around. The number of brochure, handout, information sheets, handbooks etc. Harvard floods you with , is mindboggling. I actually spent 1 hour on Sunday, just separating the irrelevant ones from the useful stuff!

Thursday was spent doing homework. There was plenty of it and I was bust throughout the day. On Friday I cooked some Sambhar. I was going to be alone for the weekend with plenty of homework, so I cooked enough for 2-3 meals. I am no longer critical of any food. I actually enjoyed all the 3 sambhar-rice-pickle meals.

Saturday again was spent with a problem set, interspersed with many phone calls. I got calls from home, Sangeeta mausi and Ritu Mamiji. I called up Dilip Mama and some friends in Boston. It was raining throughout the day, so it got chilly and wet and I could not go out anywhere in the evening. I had plans to visit Harvard Square with friends but had to cancel it. Harvard square is really lively on Saturdays. There are people playing good music on the pavements just for the fun of it and students all over.

On Sunday, my room-mate who had gone holidaying in Europe returned. He had taken more than 500 pictures, and I saw all of them! Europe indeed is a beautiful holiday destination. I also visited an Indian store and bought some frozen "mixed veg. curry" and methi parathas. I really liked the taste. Yesterday, my laptop arrived and I have been checking mail every 5 minutes since! Manku bhaiya gave me a call and informed me about a desk lying in his office that I could pick up for free. I went to see it today. I liked it. He offered to transport it to my apartment. Indeed, he is a very helpful person. I had to take the local train to get to his office, since his office is in the suburbs. The train journey was just 20 minutes but I enjoyed it. The suburbs of Boston are really beautiful with picture-postcard houses all around. The trains were very comfortable too. They reminded me of the trains in DDLJ.

I also attended a laboratory safety training programme for all students intending to work in the chip fabrication laboratory. These American laws are really strict. We are prohibited from throwing any chemical down the drain, because all sewage goes into the Charles river and there are strict regulations about the permissable chemical content in the sewage. There are many such rules and regulations. For instance we are supposed to put dates on the containers of chemicals we open. In one incident a few months back, someone found a can of ether which did not have a date on it. Now if an opened can of ether is more than 1 yr old, there is a possibility that it might explode on experiencing jerk (mechanical shock). So they called in the bomb disposal squad, who evacuated the building and then wearing all those fancy protective gear removed the can from the building! It costed Harvard $1200!

Thats all for now. I'll write more later. Hopefully before next Tuesday !!