Monday, 24 August 2015

My first day of college in USA!!

Hello everybody,
Its been a loong time since I last posted here. I'm finally in the USA!!! I have so much that I want to share; but I've been so busy trying to get adjusted to all the new things that I haven't had time to write a proper post. Technically speaking, today wasn't my first day at college. Its actually my 5th day. but today was the first day of class, so I'll call it my first day of college. I'll write all about my experience the first time I visited the campus in a later post.
I have classes on just 2 days of the week; but they are back to back with just fifteen minutes between two classes. I have 3 classes this semester. Today morning, I woke up at 7:30 am. I was ready by 8:30 and left home at around 9. (My sister lives in the same city where I attend University and I stay with her) I reached college at 9:20 am. I had already seen my classroom the last time I had been there, so I was able to find it easily. Another class was going on and I sat waiting. I saw two girls from my own country standing near the door. I went and introduced myself to them. They  seemed really nice. As soon as the first class ended, we got in and sat in the first row. The class was Algorithms. The professor was a short soft spoken person. I thought he was really well-organized. He started off with the actual coursework.
My next class (Object Oriented Design)  was in the same room as my first class. I stepped out as I had a fifteen minute break in between. By the time I came back, the first two rows were full! Another person whom I had met at an orientation earlier had taken up this class too. We sat together. (We need to submit a project for this course and it forms a major part of the grade. The professor would be putting us into groups of five for the project work. (I hope I get good team mates!) ) We were asked to introduce ourselves and talk about our expectations from the course. The course would be slightly tailored to our expectations. I found that very interesting!
The next class was Database Design. For this I had to go to another classroom (which was on the same floor). Another friend of mine had taken up this class. I met her and befriended another person in that class. The professor was an energetic cheerful lady. I had heard that she was really strict with grading. From what I saw today, I think scoring well in this subject would be slightly hard. Although happy and cheerful, she seemed like a strict person who wouldn't be lenient with grading assignments.
I had taken most of these subjects at my undergrad level too; so hopefully, this semester  would be easy in terms of study load. I have so many other things that I need to get used to.
After class, we went to the library to get some textbooks. From what I've heard/seen, text books in USA are very expensive. Of the three books, I have brought one of them, the other one, I had referred to during my undergrad course; however, I haven't brought it. But I was able to find an online copy of it. The third book I was able to find a soft copy at the library. By about 4:00 pm I was back home!
I relaxed for a while and tried to look at the online material posted for each of my courses. I'm really impressed with the promptness of the professors in posting material online. I was able to find a lot of useful info.
I love that I have classes on just 2 days a week!
Welcome Week is going on at the university. I still need to plan on what events I want to attend this week. I'll post anything interesting that I experience. I still have lots that I want to tell you all. So stay tuned!!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Thursday, 6 August 2015

Up, Up and Away: few HOURS to go!!

Hello everybody,
Today is the day! Today night, in a few hours I'll leave the country to go to USA for my studies. I'm really sad, excited and a little tense at the moment. All my bags are packed and ready. I just need to have my dinner, change my clothes and leave. All my bags are just within the allowed weight limit. Hopefully the scale I used co-insides with the scale at the airport. I've been home all of this week and I feel really sad to be leaving for such a long time. I'm not too sad about leaving the house (that I've lived in ever since I was born!) or the city etc. I will miss all that, but not as much as I'm going to miss my parents and Tee. My mom was almost in tears today morning. Day before I couldn't sleep till around 2 am and kept sobbing in bed. I feel really sad to be leaving behind my parents especially at this stage when they are getting old. I see that they have lesser energy than they used to a few years back and I fear they may become weaker by the time I see them next. The thought that they may struggle all by themselves when I'm away enjoying my life haunts me. Technology is a boon; I will be able to see them and talk to them online everyday; but, I won't be able to understand the little struggles they may face on a day-to-day basis or help them out in any little way I can. But I guess I'll have to bear with it for now. Hopefully after 2 years, I'll get a job that will allow me to stay close to my parents and take care of them. I am teary eyed as I write this as I think about all that they have done for me and my sister. They've done the best that anyone could possibly do for their children. They've worked hard all their lives ignoring their health to do the best for us. And now, after all that I'm leaving them here and going away so far. This post is also a reminder to the future me. I hope I never forget all that my parents have done for me and never hurt them ever! I'm scared that I may change as a person and get too engrossed with my own new life and forget all about my parents. I HOPE and PRAY that never happens. If such a day comes, I hope at least this post may remind me. Me and my mom had a little squabble with my sister a few days back. The amount it hurt my mom deeply hurt me. The way they look forward to my sister's call every evening and if  she doesn't ask about them one day, the expression on my mom's face after I end the call is heart breaking. I hope I never ever do such a thing! Although I scream at them, I fight with them, at the end of the day they always forgive me; they could never do anything to hurt me so much that I would not forgive them.
I just hope these few years away in a new country won't change me. I hope my parents and Tee are happy and healthy here and I hope very soon we'll all be united again.
So, those are my thoughts right now. I don't want to cry before I leave, but I'm so on the verge off it right now! Ugh! a  really bad time. God! why do things have to be so difficult! Why hasn't teleportation been invented still!? I hope the journey is smooth! See you on the other side! (Hopefully I'll be in a saner state of mind in a few days time!) I still had a lot more to write about about this past week (happy stuff). I'll put it in another post after I reach USA.
Until next time,
Bye! :D