Avani Avittam

It was a ritual spree this weekend I believe... Friday was that varalakshmi pandigai stuff.. Saturday was Onam .. Sunday - Avani Avittam and monday would be Rakshabandhan..

One of the most important ritual for the TamBrams, (Tamil Brahmins) as we are called by other state makkal.. is Avani Avittam..

Quite surprisingly there were more than many who had brought the same kit that Amma had given to me from Giri Trading Agency.. However, thanx to the script being in Tamil I could make no sense from it...

But ofcourse, there seems to be no need of it.. We were totally 8 of us , 3 seniors who had enough experience.. They read from their own english script and gave us enough time to repeat them as we took almost an hour to do the whole of the stuff .. which included the kamo karishya japam, that ellu and arisi stuff.. and the changing of poonal..
We will be again meeting for gayatri japam tommorrow morning at 7 30..

The seniors had also made payasam which we had after changing our poonal...

Ganesh mama had gone to some Temple to change his poonal.. Giri was on voice message.. I'm sure he hadn't even got up.. :P Seenu was in a state of daze and just woke up as I called him.. Ofcourse they are 2 hrs behind.. Babu chithappa had however finished with the poonal change when I called each of them..

Then we had an excellent voice conference.. Me, Anu, Raju Mama (Mami and shyam) and Ganesh Mama. (Jothi mami and akshara). I was the only one without the Mic and had to type as they spoke.. felt quite dumb...

The coming week we would be shifting to a new apartment and would be busy with setting it up.. Shall take snaps of the new house and also give you frequent updates about them..

IFGP

Friday morning.. Started at about 10 to go to the Social Security Administration Office to get the processing started... I have not yet got a confirmation about receiving the social security number though most of my friends have... I should wait for another 30 days before which if I don't receive I have to contact them again.

We have applied for a new Telephone for the new house. The number would be 612-331-5446.. This however is not sure yet... Shall let you know when it is confirmed...

I had a International Friendship Group Program Picnic on Friday afternoon.. There were many students from many parts of the world.. We had some sandwiches and pop .. we then had good fun playing a bunch of stupid games.. I introduced some 15 others spanning from different countries to the world of Frisbee football.. one popular game played at bessie.... Had nice fun..

On saturday.. we staretd making a list of things to buy for the new house.. went to one big shopping mall in the evening and saw others who have moved into their new houses shopped.. should go there again once we move in...

Orientation

Yawn... Burp.. Yawn... That was what happened in the orientation today..

The International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) conducted a orientation for the international student today. I've never seen a more diverse group. 130 people from 43 different countries..

Coffee/Juice at entry.... A mixer round where you talk to everybody else to get to know about them... One hour of ... hmm.. i really don't remember I slept off I believe..

And then we had lunch.. unlimited pizza.. coke.. cookies.. burp....... And then they talked about health insurance.. and then they talked about culture differences... it was a nice interactive session..

Shall be doing my social security number processing tommorrow...

There is a International Friendship Group Picnic tommorrow.. I'll be going there for that..
The U is doing lotsa stuff to get people take the culture shock..

The department orientation would be on the 1st of September..

So much for getting used to the U. S of A....

Photos

Finally... for all those who want to know what I have been doing here.. Here are the PHOTOS..
just follow the link on your left that says "Photos" and the look for the albums -

House (Manoj - senior) - This is Manoj's apartment and a few snaps from the apartment next door. These have been our houses for the past 10 days and would be for the week ahead too.. All credits to our seniors who have let us really feel at home.

Campus - This is on the campus and on the way from University Avenue to Campus.. It is a 20 minutes walk and I have to pass a highway, a hanging bridge a set of beautiful buildings to go there everyday..

Around Minneapolis - These were on one of our night trips around the campus.. We went to play pool at the Coffman Union (supposed to be one of the happening places at campus) . Its me , prahlad, Manoj and Abhishek...

India stores + Temple : There is this place called India stores and a temple behind it. Its actually not a temple.. its a church converted to a temple.. There is a photo outside the "Hindu Mandir" and one of the photos is inside a bus.. :O :O :O

Lake Trip : This is one of the latest outings to Lake Calhoun that is a little away from here.. We had a real good time.. We went for an hour long on the boat and even swapped seats to row..

Let me know how it is guys.. Please do post in your comments..

Weekend

Weekend arrived and its already over.....

Lazy saturday.. did nothing until afternoon and then went to sign the lease for our apartment. So its finally decided. We will be moving into the apartment on 616, 10th Avenue SE, #302, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Then it was already evening and started with cooking and then some chatting..

Sunday.. we went to a lake a little away from our residence and rented a boat and had superrrr fun.. that was in the afternoon.. nothing eventful at all in the evening.. watched ShawShank Redemption.. :) :) awesome movie...

I would be going to the research meeting of Prof. Loren Terveen tommorrow at 11 and at 4 PM I have my speak test.

And did I mention earlier , my Mantoux Test showed a negative.. it was quite a surprise to everyone around because many of them from India had tested positive eventhough they had less of a reaction in the hand than me... God knows how it happened..

Shall keep you posted..

Weather

One of the most important things about Minneapolis is the weather.. For a person who knows nothing but Chennai weather Minneapolis IS really COOOOOOL... Actually it wasn't as bad as i expected it to be when I arrived. But the place has its own nature of even having different types of weather everyday...

The Sun is the most coolest thing here.. Its 12 o clock in the afternoon and you look out of the window you would never want to step out on a day like this in Madras.. Its MUCH brighter than how it is in Chennai.. But the minute you step into the street you will immediately take your jacket out of the bag and put it.. It goes to less the 20 degree celcius with a sun like that..
It generally gets really cold early in the mornings... You never feel like getting out of bed..

This ofcourse is in the summer now... The fall it gets even more brighter itseems with the snow reflecting all the light.. The freezer and the window sill are generally similar...

Shall keep the weather update on as it gets COOOOOOOOLERRR...

Moving on..

Things are moving on and becoming routine..
I got my bus pass today, but sad that I've been told I can use it only after classes commence...

I am applying for a Social Security Number.. I have started with the processing..

The beauty of the system is the whole campus is integrated with just one U Card.. Everywhere I go and everything I do I have to show or swipe this U Card and its all integrated...
(Well.. such an important card and you should see the way I've posed for the photo in it.. phew... )

There is also a friendship program that should be commencing from today (I don't know why I am not attending the first meet only) It is part of the Internations Student and Scholar Services.. They help the international students interact and know each other better..

I shall mostlybe going to the most happening part of the city (downtown minneapolis) tommorrow.. Yesterday we started at about 8 30 in the night and went for a Campus Walk and went to this place called Goldey's Gameroom.. My senior Manoj sponsored us all for a game of pool and some Coke.. We had a good time and we came back at 11 and then cooked and ate at 12 30.. :O :O

House Hunt

Now the latest fever is house hunting.. Me and prahlad have been goin around every street in the evenings noting down all the apartment telephone numbers.

I can't just barge into one apartment and look at the houses. I have to note down the numbers put up on the sign board next to the apartment and call them and get an appointment to see the houses.

We have seen a lot of apartments and have almost zeroed on the one that is on 10th Avenue, 6th St. On the way back from teh campus to this place that we currently on.. there is a point from which 3 blocks straight is this apartment and 3 blocks to the right is the new apartment that we might move into..

The house which we will be moving into has two rooms.. a refridgerator.. a dish washer.. and the gas.. the water.. the heating/cooling system.. we have to get the utilities and set up a house from sep 1st..

We are mostly picking things from the apartment of my senior Arvind menon who is also living in the same block of the house that we might move into..

Thats it for house hunting...

Aid and Professors

Things with regarding Financial Aid doesn't look all that good here.. The number of undergraduate students who are enrolling has come down drastically owing to which the number of teaching assistantships (TA) offered has come down drastically.. There are absolutely no TA position available with my department..
I also have to take the speak test for the TA which I would be doing on the 23rd of August...

The procedure for getting a TA is to fill an application with the department once I get the score from my speak test...

There are lotsa indians who are here in my own department who don't have aid and are all trying desperately for it.. so things are all the more difficult with so many people running behind the same stuff..

The other option is to get an Research Assistantship (RA) which is much more difficult to get as a Masters Student. The Ph.D. students are given more priority with regards to this..
The procedure for RA unlike the TA is not a simple one.. the RAs are given by the professors and we have to convince them that we are so good in the subject and have enough research experience.. They wouldn't give you any assistantships if you don't work for them for atleast few months..

Everyone is mailing the professors and getting appointments and going and talking witht hem.. I have currently met only one professor Loren Terveen , who is a Human-Computer Interaction specialist. He has asked me to visit one of his research meetings to see things before I even sign up for the course. I still have no idea if he has enough funding to give an RA. I might ask him on Monday which is when the meeting is.. Mostly he would say that he would consider it next semester and that too if I am goin' to go for a doctoral program.. or worst of all he might say that he has no money..

Things are pretty sober on this issue.. :( :(

Campus and Academics

The campus is HUGEEEE.. since it is spanned between the city it has lotsa buses passing through the campus.. My department is big and neat and has almost all facilities...

I had to get rid of three holds before I could start to register for classes..

I had to go and verify my I20 and stuff with the International Students and Scholar Services ..
I had to go to the department and show my provisional certificate
I had to go to the Boyonton Health department and submit the Immunization form and take the mantoux test

All these places they take the holds of temporarily so that we could register ourselves for the classes.. I have already registered for two courses

I have to take an overall of 31 credits. Each course is generally 3 credits.. For any semester I have to pay for 6 credits and with that I get to sign up for upto 14 credits. In my first semester I am thinking of taking up three courses. I shall decide about that once I talk to my Research Advisor

There is breadth requirement.. which means there is a list from which I have to take a certain set of courses..

I have got the UCard and this will enable me to access a lot of things..

I am yet to apply for a social security number..

I will be getting a U Bus Pass which will enable me to take all the buses around the city free of cost.

I have opened a bank account at TCF bank which is a local bank here at minneapolis and has a tie up with the University and have deposited most of my money there..

I have to apply for a computer science email id.. My current sunda020@umn.edu is the general minnesota id and am using this for the time being.. With the comptuer science email id I would also get login to the grad lab at the campus..

Food

Currently at my seniors apartment where I stay, he has all the resources.. I eat cereal in the morning and leave for the campus where I spend a lot of time doing nothing..

Then for a few days I have been visiting different places.. like Chipotle, Noodle Point and some chinese restaurant as well... Me and prahlad are having good fun going around these places..

Dinner time is usually super fun.. all of us get together and cook something... sometime it was vendaka morkozhambu, cabbage kootu, uralakazhangu poriyal, chapathi, dosa, sambar, rasam and what not.. Since it happens in mass quantities everyone gets to do some part of it..

And being one of the most inexperienced cooks of the lot i limit my visits to the kitchens just to serve myself the food they cooked..

Currently people have started to move to their own apartment and they have started to make their own food... So now in this apartment me, prahlad and manoj just manage for the three of us..

Today, we decided not to spend money on eating outside and made some noodles and took it to the department.. thanks to our own ingenious packing we forgot the forks and had to eat by hand :O :O

I get a lot of fruits and other items to eat between meals so I am doing very well with regards to food.. I guess the real test starts only after I move into a new apartment...

Living

As for as living goes.. I'm currently staying at one of my seniors' - Manoj - house.. he also happens to be from SVCE... there are other Indian Tamils named Deena and Harsha who also stay next door... 718 University Ave. S.E. , Minneapolis , MN 55414 is our current address.. Manoj is in apartment 11... The contact phone number is 612-331-5931

Basically when I landed here we were around 12 students for this year plus 3 to 4 seniors sharing a couple of two bedroom apartments.. All of them speak tamil and all of us cook and eat together..

Now things have softened a bit and everyone of them have found houses for themselves very close to the apartment we stay.. right next block..

However, there are four of us left - Me, prahlad, Dr. Venkat, vivek - and we are planning to move into a two bedroom apartment shortly.. We're yet to sign the lease.. The house is 616, 10th Avenue S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55414

The house is pretty good on the 2nd floor and we have all facilities over there.. one of our other senior Arvind Menon who also stays in the same apartment is vacating on the August 31st and has pr0mised to leave back all the utilities because he's moving into a furnished apartments..
So .. .we will be picking all of those and moving into our apartment on the september 1st..

Coming to Minneapolis

The trip to Minneapolis was pretty peaceful..

Ganesh mama saw me off at the Dallas Airport and I had a short trip to Atlanta.
I had to wait at Atlanta for around 3 hours before taking another flight to Minneapolis..

I had a senior by name prakash who had come there to pick me up.. He happens to be another fellow from my college who passed out three years before..

Came home in the evening around 6 o clock to what would be my home town for atleast two years now..

Stay at Texas

If I didn't feel home sick or out of place after I left India then all credits goes to 1235 Meadow Creek Dr., Irving, Texas.
The moment I landed in Dallas .. Ganesh mama, Giri and Aditya were there to pick me up.. Jothi Mami was already there when we arrived home... The rasam sadham and cabbage made me feel so much home and was so nice after the flight trip from frankfurt..

Me and patti got settled there.. Somehow kept ourselves awake until nite to get rid of the jet lag..

Giri took me to a lot of places and showed me around the city and helped me learn how things work there.. thanx to him i know how to go around doing things in my department in my college.. and ofcourse as always I inherited a lot of things from him.. this time the books..

Aditya is a tough competiton for shyam with his enthu... He just can't sit in one place.. before you even blink he can jump to your back.. climb your shoulder and sit on your head.. any piece of metal in his hand is a Prince of Persia sword.. He has a group of indian friends and has brilliant fun both indoors and outdoors..

Akshara is just the opposite.. she is the quiet, sensitive, adorable kid.. Her vocabulary - deeply influenced by her telugu baby sitter - is growing by the hour.. "murku kawali" , " abu undhi", "dhigu", "kindhapadI" are all part of the mixed mazhalai dialect.. The way she says "Arjun anna.. yeah.. " is just so sweet that it still echoes..

Ganesh mama and jothi mami took me out for shopping and we bought a lotsa things.. both of them are keeping themselves busy with their work and taking care of the twin podis.. We had an awesome time there..

Especially the VASOOL RAJA that the whole lot of us (except patti) went.. that was the day before we left and it was a real awesome time that we had there at dallas.. the bags were full and the packing was done and it was alfready time to leave..

I am getting to talk to them quite regularly...

Flight Journey

With a wonderful send off at Anna international airport my journey away from home started...
The sudden offer to take a waitlisted seat for the Frankfurt Dallas flight was the first issue that I ever faced once I left home... That I now tell myself was a wise decision to have taken up that flight... I got to wait only for 1 hr at Frankfurt and got to Dallas 6 hours more quickly than I had expected to be and that gave me ample time for Immigration at dallas..

The first leg of the journey was uneventful with them serving food at 3 past midnite.. apart from that the 9 hour journey went on smoothly with a lot of sleep..

The trip from Frankfurt to Dallas was the most irritating.. We didn't have Asian Vegetarian Meal ordered as it was a sudden decision to take this flight... We had to manage with milk, apple, bananas and bread.. If not for the inflight movies - Shrek 2 and Starsky & Hutch - I would have been bored beyond anything... Patti did feel really bored..

After we ended up in Dallas we were the first in immigration.. However with a little sodhappals on filling form we got delayed... and then we collected our suitcases and came out to find Ganesh Mama , Giri and Podiyan Aditya waiting to receive us...

That was a real sigh of relief to see them.......

Welcome Everybody

Hello ..
I welcome you to my blog. This blog would be my online diary posting my events at Minneapolis and University of Minnesota.

Enjoy your stay at my blog.
Arjun Sundararajan