One month in Tallahassee

It’s been one month since I came to Tallahassee. During these 30 days I did a lot of things here, much much more than I ever imagined I could do! Here is a brief account of what, when and how I accomplished them!

Everyone knows about the fateful flight missing incident(not an accident by any means) because of which I reached Tallahassee a week later than I intended to! I arraived in tlh on 12^th - a day before my graduate orientation. Raviteja picked me up at the airport and dropped me at kavya’s place (temp accommodation). Later other new students and I were accompanied by a bunch of very very helpful seniors who helped me check-in and get my fsu card.

Orientations: I had to attend 5 orientations in total. Internationl students’ orientation, graduate students’ orientation, department orientation, TA orientations(2 sessions, 2 whole days!!) During these sessions they dump a lot of information at you. The problem lies in the fact that every bit of it is important. I had to come back home and read the books they gave to get a clearer comprehensive picture of what I had to do and what I shouldn’t. So practically the whole week starting 13^th to 21^st I spent reading and learning US and university practices.

TASKS!: Apart from these there was another big thing I had to do…open a bank account!! Thanks to nanna I have never been to a bank before! Now that I was on my own I had to go through the bank’s policies, its modes of operations and everything else before opening an account…if it wasn’t for sudha vadina… I would have been a dead duck!

As if this wasn’t enough I was faced with a very serious problem of looking for and finding a roommate. I am the “only” Indian girl who came over to FSU this fall. Those who were already here were pretty much settled and I didn’t know what to do..then somebody called ashavaree das contacted me through INSAT(Indian student association at tlh). She was phd student in the field of psychology and mass media communications who went to India to get married and was coming back to finish her phd.. She asked me if she could be my roommate and I said “YESS!!” Asha said she couldn’t come to tlh before 27^th so that left everything – leasing a house, subscribing for utilities (water, gas and electricity), getting the house cleaned etc., - entirely to me! By God…. Doing all that drove me crazy! Leasing and getting the house cleaned was the easier part, for the utilities I had to get to some “utility office” off campus and I didn’t have the slightest idea where that was! Meanwhile I came to know that if I had to get paid I have to have a SSN. Applying for one is such a big process. It starts with the department office – dept of graduate studies - university center – and ends at the Tallahassee social security department office, a days work. Luckily for me, I met a boy called Nikhil Gupta during the orientation sessions who took me to these two places (utility, ssn) and helped me get them done.

Just when I thought I did everything I have to, there came the issue of registering for classes – what I am actually here for. The classes I wanted to take didn’t have openings and the ones I was being forced to take were all highly time consuming according to my seniors. I talked a lot to seenanna, sudha vadina and my seniors…finally ended up taking the mix seenanna suggested!

FOI: In FSU, there is an organization called “Friends Of Internationals” who basically keep track of the needs of new students. People who graduate and leave tlh donate furniture to this society. Every year FOI conducts a “furniture giveaway” where new students can take home 6 furniture/other things home for free. This drive was conducted on 27^th, though it started at 8 am, I stood in the line from 5! I was one the 3^rd in line and so I got a mattress, a couch, a microwave, an electric cooker, a laundry basket and carpets!! :-) :-)

Kavya took me to walmart, Indian store and the shopping mall!

So finally I settled down!!

PUJA: Last Sunday ISCON, Tallahassee arranged a get together. We were invited to those Krishnashtami celebrations. There were bhajans and abhishekam of the idols followed by a talk about the “apprearance ok Krishna” on the earth by a guru and dances. I helped serve the prasadam later (and ofcourse helped myself to it too!!)

Today at home I did the vinayaka chaviti puja.. nanna downloaded the vrata kalpam and sent it to me… I collected leaves and flowers from trees in and around alumni village. I made payasam and panchamrutam and offered it to god.

Alumni Village: The place is so cool! There is no concept of "day and night" here. You can find people up and about at any time. 1'oclock , 3'0clock at night too! The people are very heplful and amiable... The weather is the only problem.. it's so unpredictable and highly humid. The sun is burning your neck one minute and you are drenched from head to toe the very next minute. We have a lot of sudden downpours...

Friends:
1. Abhishek Mukherjee, Aneesh Sharma, Abhiram Chintangal (A3) – these 3 arraived along with me this fall to fsu. Aneesh and abhiram are in the cs department and abhishek is in the eee dept. We did a lot of things together (attending orientations, fsu card, bank account, leasing a house etc.,) and became good friends. They live diagonally across my place.

2. Raviteja, chakradhar, rohit, anil – seniors who live in the flat just opposite mine and next to A3. Helped me in loads of things. Raviteja picked me up from the airport and arranged temp accommodation, chakradhar(chintu) and rohit – cs seniors – helped me with course registration. Chintu actually let go of his cryptography seat so that I could get into that class!! Anil – he is from vizag – helped me move the furniture, suitcases and other stuff and arranged it at my place.

3. Kavya – She is great! She made me feel so comfortable during my stay with her.. guided me on a lot of things like health insurance, India calling, shopping etc., A good cook! Introduced me to madhu and malathi, the other Indian girls in AV.We became very good friends in a very short time.. we went out shopping and to a movie together. She lives next door now. If she cooks anything special I always get my due!!! :-)

4. Asha – my roommate… she is amazing! We have a lot of things in common. She is a great great cook! Makes delicious curries and snacks! She has been living in the US for the past 10 years(did her undergrad and masters here) and knows great deal about what/where/when to shop! Extremely caring… from the time she has come, she has been cooking. Loves to read novels – her favourite pastime..delightfully! She brought along 50 novels with her(what more can I ask for) A fitness freak and makes it a point to take me on a 15 min walk after an early dinner everyday.. *(thank god she doesn’t have time for the gym!!)*

5.Frank Sposaro - My lab partner...one hell of a guy! A programming wizard! he recently developed android applications that got him and his professor 1.2M$ grant.. apart from this he is the ACM Predident for FSU. He also participates in social services... Jogs and swims daily and is extremely fit... i have a LOT to learn from him!

Apart from these people i have a few chinese-next door neighbours - friends. Few russian, jamaican and british friends.

Current Status: Now I have a 10hr TA(I have to grade Microsoft word, excel, spreadsheet assignments of about 100 undergrads and clear their highly confused brains) and a 10hr RA(under Sudhir Agarwal, he is working on email phishing and the project is funded by the National Institute of Justice NIJ). I have a bunch of homework assignments, journals and projects on hand too.

PS: *this is the format we use here to submit assignments* :P

WHEW! That was a long post :-)