Foreign

It's been a long, long time since I wrote directly about my life here. This, along with other material, is long overdue, but here we go.

Most of you know that I've spent the last three weeks in Austin, Texas. I've never been to Texas before, much less lived here, so it's been a bit of an experience. I guess the best way to go about this is to describe a typical day.

I wake up around 9 or so on weekdays. My roommate, who works in the same program but on a different project, is already gone. He usually gets up around 7. How he does this, I have no clue.

My roommate's name is Sammy. That's actually his full name. I didn't really believe him at first, but I saw his passport. He goes to school here but is originally from Zimbabwae, meaning he has a vague British accent and follows Rugby. I actually haven't the faintest clue what he's working on; he spends a ton of time in the 'Mechtronics' lab across the street from where I work. Maybe he's secretly sleeping there or something, because I never see this guy in his bed. Well, except for now, but that's because it's 4:30 AM.

Anyway, after I get up I try to quickly shower. The showers here are superb. Not only do they shoot water out really fast, but there is an 'antechamber' (Luke's word, not mine) where you can change! Finally, my days of running through the hall with only a towel and my shower stuff are over. Also, the fact that only 8 people live on my floor helps. I mean, last year I could get up to go to the bathroom at 3 in the morning and have to wait in line at the urinal ... there was something unsettling about that.

After a shower I'll grab my stuff and walk to Jester, the complex that's right next to my dorm. It also has its own dorm, but has a dining hall and a convenience store and a Wendy's. UTexas runs new student orientations 6 times over the summer, and whenever those start the place is packed with about 1.5k little freshmen trying to find where to check in. On more than one occasion I have been told that I'm going the wrong way. Seriously, it's times like these that make me lose my motivation for shaving...

The food here is great. CMU food was absolutely atrocious, so it's refreshing to eat actual acceptable food at a college. There's just one problem. The dining halls are never open. Their hours are something like: 6-7:30 AM, 11 AM-1PM, 5-7PM. I am definitely not getting up at 7 to go eat, usually it isn't worth the walk back from work to eat lunch, so the only time I actually eat in the dining hall is for dinner. And even then it's only Monday-Thursday, since they aren't open on Friday or the weekend. It's all the fault of Texas.

So I grab some kind of wrap from the convenience store and eat it on the way to work. I leave Jester and turn onto the street that gets me to my lab. It's called "Speedway," which is probably the most inaccurate name they could come up with. It's a street for cars where the speed limit is 5 mph, and people regularly walk in the middle of the road for no apparent reason; there are sidewalks on both sides. Cars must feel so frustrated.

Along the way I will pass by more than a few squirrels. I had heard before that squirrels on college campuses aren't afraid of humans, but I had never observed it to be true at CMU. However, it does seem to be the case here. Maybe people in Pittsburgh are just really mean to squirrels or something. I kind of prefer it that way to be honest. When I walk 2 feet to the right of a squirrel, it freaks me out that the squirrel doesn't run up the nearest tree. Maybe that's my job now.

I get to the ENS building, where most of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department is situated. I work in ENS 419, a lab with really heavy and serious-looking doors. I only recently got access to the place; before I had to look like an idiot and knock on the doors. The lock on the doors also has a mind of its own. Yesterday I went out to take a 15 minute frisbee break, and when we got back, the door had locked itself to everyone inside, which included my mentor. No one could get out, but we opened it from the outside, making us the heroes of the day. I knew that break was a great idea.

The people here, most unfortunately, do not talk with heavy southern accents. At best they say "yall" a lot, but they do not use "howdy partner" or any other stereotypical phrases that are most likely derived from movies and TV shows. What I do find kind of interesting is how large Texas is. We often refer to 'Northern Virginia' and 'Southern Virginia' (or just 'Virginia'). However, Texas is so giant that there's North Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, East Texas, Southwestern Texas (also known as 'along the border'). And each of these regions has it's own subculture which they take pride in. It's okay though. I offend them all equally by applying the Southern stereotypes to my conversations with them.

I might detail my research in another post, it's a bit lengthy to get into here. They actually make us maintain research blogs, so assuming I'm ever assigned to post something useful there I'll either link or copy/paste the text to this blog. All you need to know is that there is absolutely no bio in my work. That alone makes it excellent. Also, the project I'm working on is so absurdly long-term; my mentor basically pointed out that he has no idea what he's doing. Awesome.

You all know that I follow the world cup really closely, and being on a college campus means we can stream from espn3.com. We make an effort to have someone watching the game at all times so that we don't miss and crucial moments or close calls. This very often turns from checking periodically to continuous watching, but hey, it's only once every four years, right?

I am actually forced to leave the lab at 6 to get back to the dining hall before it closes. The problem is that I usually get hungry late at night too. I mentioned that there's a Wendy's in Jester. That happens to be open from 7 AM to 4 AM, every day. This is absolutely horrendous for my health; my first week here I ate there at least 15 times. I stopped that because I plan on losing some weight ... but that's probably a story for another entry.

I only recently got internet access in my room. For the first two weeks I couldn't really do much. So how did I spend my time? Well, there was the productive aspect: I borrowed an Analysis book from my mentor and went through that. I now have this algebraic number theory book which I haven't looked at. And then, well, there was the not-so-productive aspect:

That 42 game losing streak was painful

Yes, this was all in the last 3 weeks. On the bright side, I haven't touched that game since I got internet access.

My sleeping habits have remained relatively normal, although as I'm writing this at 5:30 in the morning, which probably does not fall under the definition of 'normal' waking hours for most people. Trust me though, usually I'm pretty good about not staying up this late.

There's a lot more to talk about here; I play foosball at a bar 3 times per week and I'm trying to start a running program ... as I said I'll talk about my research a bit as well. But for now, this is the story of and the stories behind my foreign life.

Cheers

Ved