They are over - FINALLY

Mid Sems are finally over and now there is no need to worry about them ever again! Whether or not I passed is something I no longer have control over, so I'm done dealing with them. Come what may, I tried my best and if that isn't enough I suppose there is always Purdue next semester!!

Now with the exams finished I'm hoping to be able to use my afternoons and weekends for more traveling around Mumbai area, maybe do a few more weekends away and explore a bit. I really would prefer to go with a local person or at least a Hindi speaker. I'm also thinking about and should start planning my few week adventure around India after the end of the semester. Again, I'm trying to find someone who wants to go with me, but so far internships are getting in the way of all my friends!! It's really fun to think about all the things to see and do, but the planning just hasn't happened yet. I'll figure it out - maybe I'll just join a tour group and see India that way!

Oh and the cake has been fully frosted, gobs of icing dripping off the edges. She arrives on March 25th, and I'm counting down the days. It's going to be grand!!!!

I'm going to work on pictures, with exams not many have been taken recently, but I'll get on that.

*Smiling so much - so happy*

Mid Sems

Mid Sem week is upon us! This is muck like finals week back at Purdue where there aren't any classes, just exams. Two hour exams for each class each weighing 30% of the final course. It is a lot of pressure to do well, it is a lot of cramming a lot of seemingly useless material into my head simply to regurgitate it later. I'm trying to impress upon myself the need to not only do well (which is a harder task than I'd like to admit) but more importantly the need to actually learn the material. In the end it doesn't matter if I pass but rather if I learned something. If I learn it after the exam that is simply bad timing on my part, however the ultimate goal is achieved.

As I sit and study, or try to study my mind is caught wondering. Everything in my world has all of a sudden become infinitely more interesting than my kinetics textbook, including the wood grain on my table. Not to mention I've been mildly distracted as of late anyway. When you are in an entirely new place all the emotions feel new too. Understanding those emotions takes time, longer than normal to reflect, decide and act. Time is a luxury, one that I have when it comes to making sense of my feelings, but not when it comes to my exams. If only my heart would speak a little louder, or be a little clearer all lot more would come into focus.

I'm incredibly happy right now. Honestly the thought of exams is daunting but I haven't stopped smiling for the past four days or so. Life is grand. India is beyond words. My friends both here and at home are inconceivably wonderful. I've never felt so lucky to have so many positive people and experiences in my life.

To put countless gobs of icing on this multi-tiered cake... my mom might be coming to visit me!! Seeing her would feel amazing.

How CHE 320 Saved My Sanity

As I sit in class attempting to learn I find myself confused about material which is not at all uncommon even back at Purdue. Yet I also find myself highly intimidated. The professor is up at the board writing all types of equations, some of which I understand, most of which I don't. All the while the students around me are following (seemingly) along without a hitch. I struggle for hours before tutorial classes with assignments and make zero progress while they walk into class never having looked at the assignment and solve it in 30 minutes. I know I'm not nearly as smart as the students here, I know I'm not nearly as well prepared to take the courses that I'm enrolled in. Before my departure for India I spent countless hours sending countless emails back and forth to IIT and Purdue faculty to get my courses approved. All the while the Purdue professors were coming back to me telling me what material wasn't covered in the IIT courses that I would still be expected to know and how the overlap isn't strong enough so I may have to take an independent study etc. Now after finally getting here I realize it isn't Purdue that should have a problem, rather IIT should have looked at my previous course work and said, here is what she is eligible to take because a lot of the time I don't feel like I have the prerequisites to be sitting in those classrooms. Let me tell you for four hours a day getting hammer with material that doesn't make since, you start to feel a little bit... how do you say... dumb. All of my friends in class tell me time and time again that everyone is in the same situation, that no one understands, but I find it very hard to believe. With one student I got to talking about how I don't feel prepared for the courses and how I really should be in Mass Transfer I not II (honestly I had never heard of a mass transfer coefficient before... Purdue what are you thinking!?!). I mentioned how Purdue is much more application driven and IIT seems more theory and math driven. He agreed and stated that the theory is important so you can design systems and programs and such. I smiled and agreed that theory is important, but at Purdue we learn how to use the programs to solve problems, not necessarily how to make the program. He then asked, well anyone can use the program if you just have the user manual, so what exactly are you learning?? I can't even tell you how deflated I felt after that comment because I couldn't tell him. I all of a sudden felt as though two and a half years at Purdue was almost worthless in comparison. I mulled a lot of this over for a while and got myself back in higher spirits about my knowledge and trudge to class everyday hoping that maybe the symbols will click together this time. They still haven't but I'm still trying. Then another conversation with another classmate brought up the courses we take at Purdue and I mentioned CHE 320, the statistics course ChemE's take. He said they've never taken, nor do they take a statistics course. My face lit up!! I quickly asked, "so you don't know how to do a DOE or perform a t-test on data??" He looked at me confused and said, "no idea." This was followed by a series of questions from me regarding, Chi squared function, normal distributions, and optimization techniques none of which he had ever heard of. I felt like I was walking on clouds!!! I finally knew something an IITian didn't!!! Sounds small but let me tell you how wonderful it was to know that Purdue isn't worthless (it really isn't and I know that) but it was so refreshing to be able to trust my own knowledge again. I am smart... sort of... sometimes... okay maybe just in statistics... and that's only in comparison to IITians because lets face it, I'm not good at statistics either. lol
Study Study Study - Mid Sems start in 4 days (yikes!)_

More Pics!

The four of us ChemE's! We were jamming out at Club 190 which happened to be the most amazing club ever!! The DJ's were awesome, the crowd was stellar, and there was a dance instructor who was phenomenal!!
Our favorite donuts!! It is a lot like Krispy Kremes, served hot off the conveyor belt!
The foreign exchange students! USA, Israel, Singapore, Morocco, and France - REPRESENT!!

Fun times!

This is Jeannie (my roomie) and I before she headed out for a night on the town! She managed to get free passes to a really nice club here in Mumbai which resulted in getting even more free passes for us to use later! Three of us, Jeannie, Mei, and I, went out clubbing last night at a club we'd been to before and met up with some friends. We didn't know it at the time but we were in for quite a night! The club was slow at the beginning which is pretty typical around here. The crowd doesn't show until about 12:30-1:00am. But because we knew people and could get in free we had to be there a bit earlier. So we met our friend who knew the DJ, who then took us to the "VIP" room. It really was just a nice room where all the DJs hang out. It was sorta cool to be in there just because you feel posh and a bit privileged, but really there isn't much to do there. The club had three DJs that night (why you need so many I don't know). But we met them all and then several songs were dedicated to us throughout the night which was fun. When the first club closed we club hoped over to another disc which turned out to be nicer than the first. The DJs we met at the first club go us into the second one free and even scored us some beverages! We were having a grand time dancing and just being silly. At one song (a typical Hindi/Indian song) a group formed around one guy dancing in the middle of the circle. Jeannie and I went to check it out and he danced up to us grabbed my hand and took me into the center of the circle with him! Another man came and got Jeannie and we danced in the center together with a crowd of people just clapping and shouting things. It was an experience!! Lots of fun. On our way out we were given free passes to come back another night. Actually we were given 11 free passes... valid for two couples... so if you are interested in clubbing at Amnesia in Mumbai hollar at me and I'll hook you up!! We got back at around 4:30am and crashed.

Oh boy mid sems are in a weeks time... I think I best hang up my dancing shoes and crack open a book!!

The Ups and the Downs

When does one start missing home? Is it when they miss the people, the familiarity, the actual buildings and houses that give structure to the memories? Or is it simply a fear of further adjustment and change? I can't say I miss home, I wouldn't consider myself homesick. I miss people of course, I miss little things about the US such as Target (yup I said it), Den Pops, and tank tops. I think about the people, my family, my friends, my sisters, and classmates all of whom have made little niches for themselves in my heart and mind. It's sad not to share things with them anymore, and all the while I'm carving new niches for new friends who will be equally hard to leave in a few months. And when does a friendship grow to be strong enough to support something of this great magnitude, the distance and the pain because of the distance? Who do you keep in touch with, who do you choose to remain a part of your life. How far can an email go to maintaining a friendship? How deep is deep enough and how long is long enough? When is the trust built strong enough to share these feelings with people around you? When all you really need is a hug and a pat on the back, who do you turn to when your entire world is new and you're simply trying to remember what brought you to this place in life?

It's times like these you look inside to memories to keep you happy, you look to new friends for renewing laughter and you look at yourself for the strength to keep it together when everything may simply fall apart. It takes a different kind of strength, a different kind of trust, a different kind patience, to do what, I'm not sure, but all I can tell you is that it is different. It just feels different.

No one said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it. They were right, they are right, it is beyond worth it. I wouldn't change it for the world - because right now, I already have the world. And the fact that it isn't easy rarely crosses my mind, I'm too busy making it all worth it.

Pictures

I've had a request (okay several) for more photos. So here are some from Goa and I'll try to do better about posting up snaps! Enjoy!! This is the Seagull Resort in Betul south Goa. Such a quiet and beautiful place.

Mei and I at a fun little beach shack called Sandstorm. It was very nice and quite tasty.

Trying out my bargaining skills in Anjuna, Goa.

Hanging on the beach - looking so stylin' in our shades.