Engineering can reduce differences

Until the English Channel Tunnel British and French have always had a distance much wider than the water that separates them. The 50.45km (32 mile) long tunnel came as an engineering holy grail for England and France. The video and the extract made me keenly google about it. This tunnel was the most expensive project ever conceived till that time. The fully automated boring machines used to bore the channel were as long as two football fields! Wow! I feel that the engineering techniques used at that time were really amazing.




The same boring machines were designed for both the countries. It was estimated that good rock conditions were found on the British side and difficult rock conditions on the French side. In spite of the same machines being used, the British faced some hindrances. The soil that had to be dug was soft and so the tunnel of the English side started to flood. They had to fix the tunnel until it became dry again. I admire the fact that even after facing and going through such difficulties, the English reached the halfway of the tunnel first and never lost hope. They were fixated to their task.


There were many problems that disturbed the Channel. Also it was blurred by the centuries of distrust between the English and the French. Initially there were several arguments that whether The Channel was a good idea or not. Though the tunnel was thought to be an advancement for the economy, but the British were sceptical about it. They viewed the channel as their mode protecting them from invasion. Whereas on the other hand, the French viewed the tunnel with visions of growth and prosperity. Although both the teams mocked each other, but on the ground of engineering they were tuned to their goal and worked out everything efficiently. Engineering reduced the differences between both the teams.

Picnic and Frisbee

Last weekend I went to a picnic. It was arranged at Happy Hollow Park by the Kazakh Student Association of Purdue University. This picnic was the first meeting of Kazakh students in this academic year. I hope not the last. Organizers rented a shelter for a day, where we had a barbecue. There were about fifty students, the most of whom were boys. We had a chance to get acquainted with each other during a meal. Everyone stood up and introduced himself or herself, saying his or her name, major, and city in Kazakhstan he or she from). I wish I could recall all the names. Then a President of KSA, a junior at Purdue, assigned members of the Board like a vice-president, a treasurer, a secretary, event directors and so on.

After a meal, guys played volleyball, soccer and Frisbee. I decided to play the last one. In fact, I tried to play) It was my first experience of playing this game. It seemed very simple when watching others throwing and catching Frisbee. In my case, when I throw a Frisbee, it slowly stops halfway and falls. These fails repeated over and over again.

Anyway, it was a great picnic!

Physics

The feeling of sitting in a lecture hall and not understanding a thing your professor is saying is horrible. The next lecture, you try to concentrate even more to understand him or her. After a few lectures I gave up. I cannot understand my physics professor at all. He barely goes over the material that we need to complete the homework assignments. I was even considering going to the lecture before his so I can listen to an American professor who has no accent. Only bad thing about that is I have to show up to my orignal professor's class because he checks attendance through iClicker questions.





I've talked to a few sophomores and upperclassmen who are second or third year engineers in my hall about physics. They told me that the first year program is tough and chemistry and physics are the weed out classes. They also said that you basically have to teach yourself the material and if you can do that, you will succeed in the program. Hopefully we all can get through chem and physics....

Handling life at Purdue

 It’s been more than two weeks now since I arrived here at Purdue. The first day that was 19^th august, I was all pumped with anxiety. I was so eager to meet new people and make good friends. The same day I met plenty of people from India. I got in touch with thousands, remembered some but chose a few! Everything went well!  That day I had also checked in into my room at Shreve. Of course I was very much excited to meet my roomie.  By the way guys, my roommate is Roshini. The best part about us is that we both have same class schedules.

Anyways, coming back to the topic I must say that on my first day at Purdue I felt I could easily acclimatize with this new environment (which I still think I can). The next day and even further I started to feel home sick. I am still home sick though. I miss my home and my family. I’m pretty sure that even you guys might be yearning to be with your family. Don’t you?

 I am 24 Hours away from my place, my home country India. I’m overwhelmed with this nostalgic feeling now.  This reminds me of an interesting or funny or may be a serious incident which happened to me just recently. Just before our first weekend, I fell sick. Sick as in suffering with high fever, cold, cough and everything related to viral fever. I know viral fever isn’t a big deal, but trust me, the Firemen (sitting opposite Shreve Hall) were called upon to ride me to the hospital. I know this was something serious, but I really think it was funny too. I had never experienced this before.

Also other than the home sickness, I also long for my mom’s handmade food. I love spicy food and unfortunately that isn’t available at the dining courts here. I wanted to be an adventurous eater in my first week of college but unfortunately I couldn’t be one because I’m a vegetarian. For the last two weeks I’m living on a diet of salads and have also lost 4kgs lol.

Everything has been moving smoothly till now. I have always been a social freak and so didn’t face any difficulty in choosing some admirable, friendly and appropriate friends like Karlyn, Natlee, Yerke, karan, Roshini, Amon, Tina and many more.

 It will of course take me time to get used to the new food now.Somebody please improve the cuisine at the dining courts and help me overcome this home-sickness!!!

I want to say about…

Currently I am renting an apartment with three other Kazakh guys. It is about twenty minutes walk from a campus. We have a pool and a gym in our yard, but no furniture in the apartment. Every weekend we take a bus to Walmart, where we buy a cart full of foods and different stuff for home. Then we place all food in fridge, which is emptied in three days.

Besides eating at home, I usually have a meal at McDonald’s about five times a week. There are two of them I usually go. One is at State Street and another is near Armstrong Hall. Now I’m thinking I’m starting to be addicted to the food McDonald’s offer.

As I mentioned before it takes twenty minutes to get to the campus. Twenty minutes of arduous ascending through inclined pathway on State Street with a backpack full of thick books like Calculus and a laptop. I feel like an alpinist, climbing to the mountain. I always take my Sony Vaio, because last week I stood five minutes in a line for vacant ITAP computers. Also, those computers need another five minutes to “load my personal settings”.

Adjusting to life at Purdue

Ever since I have arrived here, a few have asked me if I missed my family and friends back in Asia. I usually, answered the usual way, by saying yes. But to be honest, I never knew what they referring to when they said "miss"; that feeling of absence has strangely eluded me ever since my arrival.
A person whom I just met told me that, she cried a lot when she left her family in Bloomington, Indiana; two hours away from here. At the time she said that, I found it hard to relate to what she went through. "Why would you miss someone when in the back of your mind you know you will see them again in like a month or two ?", I would  say to myself.

You might think I'm kind of dead inside but hold on. I think I've felt that feeling of "absence".
I don't know if you have noticed it or not, but in every single cafeteria, you never get to smell your food being cooked. Sure the food gives of an aroma but you don't get THAT SPECIFIC AROMA that makes you want to eat everything you possibly can. To me cafeteria food is lifeless that lack a special ingredient that makes every bite an experience to remember.
           I miss being able to smell my mom's cooking. I miss the pungent smell of a juicy Indian chicken curry. I miss the distinct fragrances of masalas and spices that gave life to the food I once ate. I miss the strong yet soothing whiff of chilliness, characteristic of Indian cuisine. And the list goes on and on.


I guess it's safe to say, I'm starting to miss home.

Funny Experience

I'm pretty sure probably everyone forgot something at home or wants something new shipped here to Purdue. My roommate fits in that category. He is constantly looking everywhere online to find new clothes or find something for our room. He stumbled upon Sears online and started to brag about getting three Ralph Lauren Polo's for about forty bucks. If you didn't know, one shirt from Ralph Lauren can cost up to one hundred dollars, so you know he was going to buy them. He pressed the submit order button and checked his mail everyday. He finally got an email saying that he has two packages downstairs. He runs down and comes back with a huge smile on his face. You would think that three shirts would come in one box. He opens the first box and a nice white polo was in it. He then opens the second box and just sits there. He pulls out a small purple tank top for girls and says what the hell? I busted out laughing. The wrong box was sent to him, so he decides to write a long complaint to Sears. He gets a call the next from a manager apologizing for the inconvenience. It might not be funny to everyone, but I thought it was hilarious.