Up, Up and Away: 30 days to go!

Hello everybody,
I hope each one of you is having a great day! I just have about a month left before I FLY! Next week I have my visa interview. I hope and pray it goes well. On the University WhatsApp groups I see only approvals and people saying that their interview was no longer than 2-3 minutes; so, I hope it won't be something that I need to worry about. I have most of my documents ready. One last document that I need to get from my Undergraduate University is pending (I'll get it on Friday).
My internship goes on till the first week of August. I barely have 2-3 days of holidays before I leave. This gives me no time to prepare. I need to finish my packing, organize my documents (separate the ones that I'll need to take from the ones that I'll leave behind, make copies, scan originals etc), decide on which courses I'll take etc. Since I haven't got my visa yet I keep feeling like I have time and the fact that I'm at work for the most part of the day isn't helping.
Packing wise, I've made a list of things that I'll need (I have most things; so, I don't need to go shop much). I've also decided on the clothes that I'll be carrying. All that's left is putting stuff into suitcases (I need to buy one still!) and making sure that the weight is within the limit. I don't think this will take more than a week's time; but since I get time only in the evenings I need to start early- probably next weekend (after my visa!). As I said in an earlier post, I'll be living with a very close relative; so, even if I forget a few things, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
The next important thing that  I need to do is organize my documents. This is such a boring job that I keep putting it off and I've not even started doing it. I need to plan for all the documents I may need for the next 2 years! I don't know when I'm going to do this.
That is the status of my preparation. Coming to mental preparation, I'm more excited about this whole thing than I've even been before. I've started to see more at the positives and less at the negatives. I hope to make new friends, become more independent, learn more about my subject and learn more about myself. All these many years, I've looked up to my parents to guide me about how I need to handle situations. Now, hopefully from all that I've learnt I'll be able to take proper decisions and handle situations that come my way. I know I'll always have them to guide me when I'm in a really sticky situation; but staying in different time zones would probably mean that I'll have to handle most situations on my own. I'm  curious to see how I'll manage.
Some of my concerns at the moment are 1) how I'll handle finances and 2) commute.
Till now, I've always just asked my parents for anything that  I wanted and they'd buy me that. Even now when I'm earning, I don't spend the money that I earn. I'll have to start managing my own account; maintaining a record of the money I have, I've spent etc. Hopefully I'll learn all that soon.
My other concern is regarding transportation. The city where I live in has amazing public transport. I completely rely on buses to get from one point to another (when traveling alone). However, in the USA, most cities (including the city I'm going to) have very minimal public transport facilities. I've also heard that it is quite unsafe to travel alone. Although the university is about 15 minutes by car from the place where I'll stay, it would take me close to 2 hours by bus! I know how to drive a car; but barely drive. Most people from my city/country who are going to the same university have taken up accommodation close to the campus. So, this will be one thing that I'll have to figure out on my own
That is it for now. The next time I write on this topic will probably be after I finish my visa interview. (Hope that goes well!)
If you have any suggestions for any of the problems I've mentioned above, please do let me know in the comments. Even otherwise, feel free to leave a comment; I love reading them! :D
Until next time,
Bye! :D

My first week at work - Part 2

Hi all,
Today I will write about my third and fourth day at work. Since I started work on Tuesday, my first week consisted of only 4 days. If you haven't read my first two days, you can do so here.

Day 3:
Today my dad said that he would drop me off at my office, so I didn't have to wake up as early as yesterday or day before. I left home at 8:30 am and reached my office at 9:30 am. My manager had already come. He gave me an overview of the exact project that I would be working on. He used a lot of jargon that I didn't understand exactly, but I got quite a good idea of the problem and the proposed solution. He gave me certain modules that were already ready and told me my part. It was around 11:00 am by then. I had to take my laptop to the IT division to get some initial setup done. It was a 15 minute process but I had to wait for a while as my friend was also getting it done at the same time. We all met at lunch at 1:30. On one floor there is one table that is a little secluded. We had lunch there and talked about our teams and work we had been assigned etc. I'm starting to get the hang of the project I've been assigned and I'm beginning to like it. I finished my work and left by 6:30 pm. The first bus was extremely crowded and I had to manage with two super heavy bags (my regular bag and my laptop bag). The second bus was comparatively less crowded... I got a seat. Reached home at 8:30 pm. That was my day.

Day 4:
Today is a Friday... last day of the week! My dad dropped me off in the morning. My manager had already looked at my work that I had mailed yesterday. There were a few updates and changes that I had to make. Finished them by 11 am. I was done with a major part of the work assigned to me for today by 1 pm. Since it was the weekend, most people were talking, taking long breaks. I met my friends for lunch at the same table as yesterday. We took a longer lunch break than usual. There was some network problem because of which some people could not continue with their work. My manager left at around 3 pm because of the network issue. I had very little work remaining and I completed it by about 4 pm. By then, one of my friends said that our badges were ready. We spent another hour there and finally got our badges. I thought I'd wait for my friend as I'm still not comfortable with the route. I just blogged a little and wasted sometime. I was home by about 7:30 pm. Tomorrow is a holiday! 

So that was my first week at work. I'd love to read about how your first day at work was! Do let me know in the comments.

Bye! :)

My first week at work- Part 1

Hello People!
So much has changed since I last blogged. I started to work from Tuesday at a major Tech firm. These past four days have been very hectic and tiring... but really exciting too! I am still an intern but I don't think it is very different from being an employee.

Day 1:
The first day we were asked to report to the head office which is at a different location from where we've been posted. I had to wake up really early as we were asked to report by 9 am and the place was far from where I live. I woke up around 6 am. I've never been a morning person and waking up at 6 seemed to me an impossible task. However, I woke up even before the alarm went off as hadn't been able to sleep well. We had been asked to complete multiple forms, print them, and carry multiple documents. I had arranged them, and had packed my bag the previous night. I left home at around 7 am. Four of us had decided go together and we had to take two buses to reach our destination. We reached the place just in time. There was a long queue of new joiners at the reception. Most people looked much older than us.We got out visitor badges and proceeded to the Training room allotted to us. There were 96 people starting that day! Since we were joining as interns, we had fewer formalities to be completed so we sat around doing nothing for most part of the day. Around noon they asked us to create a bank account and so we went to the bank and had to fill a series of forms. We were asked to sign a million different forms. I have no idea what all I signed  on! I think I signed on at least 50 pages! An hour later we all had our own accounts, cards etc. Then we had lunch at the cafeteria. It was quite expensive but they had given us coupons so it didn't matter. We went back to the Training room to finish the remaining formalities. We were done by 5pm. We hadn't been told the location of the office where we had been posted till then. They told us to call our respective managers and inquire about where and when to report the next day. All of us had been posted at the same location (Phew!). After that we came out and got a bus quite easily. Two hours later I was back home. I had to leave home by 7am next morning.

Day 2:
I woke up at 6:30am and left home by 7:30. I met my friends at the bus stop. Since we had to report to a new office, we had to look around a little to see which bus would go there. Our reporting time was 10 am and we reached by 9:45. We were given temporary badges but had to wait for our managers to escort us inside the office as we hadn't been given access yet. Our team starts early so, the office was practically empty. I was given my cubicle and laptop. My manager introduced me to the rest of the team. There were too many names and faces and I forgot most names. The person who had interviewed me used to sit behind me in the same cubicle! (I've been shifted to a different cubicle now... next to the person whom I work with). I had to get a lot of initial set up done so spent half the day doing that. I met my friends at lunch. After lunch my manger gave me an overview of the project and what my role would be. She said that most of my work for this month would be associated with one person in the team. He had to leave early that day so I couldn't get much information about what I actually had to do. He told me to install some software and read about certain topics. I did that till about 6:30 pm. All but two of my friends (who live close to my place) left at 6:30. I decided to wait for them as I wasn't comfortable with the route. Their work proceeded till 7:30! It was dark by the time we left. We walked a very long way and didn't notice a bus stop that was close by. I reached home by 9:30 pm and was very tired. I didn't do much after coming back... just had dinner and slept. 

My third and fourth days  (i.e yesterday and today) have been better than the first two days, but I'll post them in the next post as this post is getting too long. Today was my fourth day. Tomorrow is a Saturday so I'll post Day 3 and 4 tomorrow. Stay tuned! :) 

How was your first day at work? Do let me know in the comments!

Survived Exams!

Hello all!
I'm finally done with my month-long exams. They started on 24th of December and got over yesterday! Phew! Now I can devote all my time to my blog... at least for the next few days... and then I start off with my final semester. Trying to concentrate was SUCH a hard task! I kept thinking of how I could make my blog better, what kind of layout would look better etc. I actually created this blog in between my laboratory and theory exams. :P I don't take exams too seriously. I put in my effort, try my best and I think that is all that should matter. My tip to anyone who is stressed about exams:
If you find yourself nervous even after putting in your best effort, try and think about how insignificant your exam is when compared to the universe. Exams are mere human creations! Humans are just 1 species among 8.7 million species that exist on earth. And one exam isn't even the most important thing for humankind! You see how unimportant it is. So relax! :)

I spent the whole of yesterday evening creating new accounts for my blog. I finally have a new Twitter account a Facebook page and a new Google+ account. It feels like I had a virtual re-birth of sorts. It feels very unfamiliar and empty. I'll personalize it and customize it soon. I have added links to each of them and am trying to make them look better using CSS! CSS is a lot of fun. We spent days trying new styles for our projects and now I can use it for my own site! Excited!

I have holidays for the next week. Next semester I don't need to attend college much... only 1 day a week or so. I will start working as an intern from February! This will be my first actual work experience. Excited and a little scared. Will share my experience once I start. Do let me know if you have any tips for the first day of work!

Bye!

See you soon!