I'm Back

Actually I've been back for almost a week now, but between jetlag and being sick I've been pretty out of it. It's become routine that when you leave India you leave with an illness. Don't worry, I did not come into contact with any birds; I just have a horrible cold that's been with me since New Year's Day.

The flight to India wasn't bad; the flight back however was pretty horrible. It seems the jet stream helps you when you go towards Europe but when you come back you're going against it. An eight and a half hour flight to Frankfurt takes eleven hours the other way. So after a ten hour flight from Bombay to Frankfurt the flight to Houston was pretty rough. Well, I guess there's one good thing about Global Warming : it's killing the jet stream.

By the way the Frankfurt airport really needs to upgrade some of its gates. When we landed on the way to India, we were told we were gonna have to get off the plane using the stairs and then get on a bus which would then take us to the central airport. This would be fine if it wasn't freezing. They had to give us a "watch out the ground is frozen so don't fall on your ass" warning.

The trip itself was more fun than expected. Met all my relatives in India and spent a lot of time with my U.S. cousins, got one married off. It's amazing how fast India is changing. My last visit was 2 years ago yet the place was very different. Before all of the vehicles on the road were either taxis or rickshaws; now there's all these cars like Toyota Qualis, Honda Citi... And there are huge malls that really impressed me. One of em had a very Galleria-like feel and it really brings to mind the amount of disposable income the people there have gotten overnight.

Anyway that's just some of the things that stuck in my head. Sorry I haven't said hey since coming back (last tuesday). I didn't really feel jet lag but I had a biological clock all of my own (independent of India and Houston). The first night back i slept at 6 pm and woke up at midnight. This weekend for the first time in years I woke up at 9 am on saturday (that's before noon!). Then I outdid myself by waking up at 6 am on sunday. I don't know what's wrong with me but needless to say, I'm afraid.

Of course UH did not fail to disappoint. The physics class I signed up for has been cancelled. I got a letter a couple of days ago. This is the third time UH has done this to me so I'm not surprised. For now I'm pushing it to next semester since the other sections don't fit into my schedule. I'm worried that since I'm going to be graduating next sememster maybe UH will outdo itself and say something like they are just cancelling the CS major. Wouldn't put it past them.