Howdy

Second mail from the series described in previous post:

That is probably the first thing you would learn in Texas. People here say Howdy instead of Hi. It is a short form for "How you doing ?".

Resuming from Houston airport, in the morning I was waiting to catch my Groundshuttle at 9:30am. However around 8:30am I met a senior (an Indian) in airport who was also waiting for the bus. We both agreed to rent a car to college instead of waiting for bus. Here in US you can rent a car cheaply & return it at convenient points. He drove & I navigated (using a map). As it was registration day, so I knew that I would not find Apoorv or Amrinder in their homes. The senior then helped me find a room to keep my luggage & dropped me inside the college.

That day & next few days were VERY busy. I had to clear so many formalities & get so many things done & at the same time try to meet various professors & depts for financial aid. Gradually however things became smooth & by the next weekend I had handled home, grocery, mobile, bank, I card, fees, bicycle & other issues.

LIVING
The apartment has two rooms, one each for both of us. Each room has a big wardrobe (a first for me) & a window. The apartment has central AC, a kitchen & bathroom & has carpeted floors. For laundry we have to walk to nearby apartments. By now, we have also bought a vacuum cleaner, iron & toaster. Usually we go on weekends for grocery & on alternate weekends for laundry. For now Abhinav does most of the cooking while I do most of the cleaning. :-) We soon plan to have internet in our homes as well. College is just 5mins walk away & the area is quite safe so that it is not a problem even if we return very late. During free time we go to a nearby church here where we can play table tennis & foosball. The locality is mostly Indian & they also play cricket here during weekends. I am yet to calculate but I guess the cost of living per person should be under 350$/month incl home, mobile, utilities & grocery.

COLLEGE
College is VERY VERY huge. The core campus area is over 5000 acres !! We have free buses running inside & outside campus frequently. They also go to nearby stores & imp areas. Thanx to this, till now I have not had to pay even a single cent for travel. Texas A&M has the strongest traditions & they take it very seriously. They call themselves Aggies, are mad about American football (which is actually played with hands), have a bitch (she-dog) called Madam Reveille for their mascot & have different signs & calls for different student years. Favourite colour is maroon & they hate orange which is the colour of nearby rival college (Texas Austin). The campus is very well maintained & beautiful (although not as much as NSIT). All the buildings here are well-equipped be it the academic departments or the sports centre. The sports centre here is probably bigger than the size of two stadiums & besides the building there are around seven different stadiums for football, soccer, baseball, swimming & other games. There are lots of cafeteria, libraries & games centres all around the campus most of which are open till midnight. Also there is a flag room here which is called the living room of university. There is no other way to describe it, it is just like a living room where students can study, sleep, talk, play piano or just hang around.

STUDIES
It has been a week since studies have started & till now it appears ok. There are about 15-25 students in a class & professors here are very open. Some of them even allow students to bring in food in class. I have taken courses from Imaging & VLSI areas. For now I have not got any professor to do reasearch under. I have got dept scholarship of 1000$ & half tuition fees. I have also got a job in Dining Services for 7$/hour, 20hours/week. In between I had enrolled in an experiment in which I had earned 40$ but that was just one-time. Although I have to take just 9hours of classes in a week but the studies that we will have to do outside the class is going to take most of our time. I have enrolled in few student organisations to keep myself involved in campus activities as well.

APART FROM STUDIES
Before the classes had started there were lots of parties & free-eatouts for students from different clubs & organisations. For many days we didnt have to make food at home because of these events. They give away free stuff like anything. By now I must have got 6-7 T-shirts, cowboy hat, bag, a bundle of staionery & sports items, maps n what not - all for free ! As I said during our free time we either go to church for playing or stay at home listening to songs. Recently we have started to go to sports centre of our college as well. Akka, we have started getting lots of free shopping coupons in our postbox as well.

I have made few trips to tourist spots inside college & a short trip on my bicycle to a nearby town called Bryan. Probably in next few weeks we will do more travelling. Oh I forgot there is a VERY HUGE cinema hall here inside campus where they have free movie screenings.

Probably just like all around US, even strangers here greet each other if they come across. Sometime the greetings get a bit too painful as even if in a hurry you have to go through the "Hello how are you, I am fine, thank you" rituals. I had won a free ticket to women soccer match (here the normal football is called soccer & is more popular amongst women). As i was telling about Aggie traditions, here they have a ceremony called Midnight Yell which as the name tells you is a midnight yell. For this seeemingly crazy event, thousands of students assemble in the football stadium & yell in support of their team. They also have Yell leaders who co-ordinate this. I have took some photos which I will email you.

I hope I have covered as much as practically possible in two mails. Ofcourse in reality there is much more happening here, but I will try to keep you posted. It is possible that in next few weeks I may not be able to come online as frequently as now as studies will slowly pick up pace.