The Thanksgiving Special

So I was all excited about my first Thanksgiving here in the US and it lived up to all of its hype. Well, not in the traditional way but in other ways for sure. It started with the trip to Boston. To give you a background, the plan was to spend Thanksgiving with family in Boston. Not willing to spend a bomb on Amtrak, I thought MegaBus would be a good way to go. I could not be more wrong! I was to take the 11 pm bus on Wednesday from Philly to Boston but due to reasons still unclear, the 11 pm became the 2 am (Thursday). So a bunch of us ended up bringing Thanksgiving in together. We even wished each other and all. However, the problem wasn't that we brought Thanksgiving in on the side of a road in Philly - well it wasn't the big problem anyway. The real problem was the cold! It was super cold that night. We were actually scared that we'd get hypothermia or something. In order to avoid the cold, a whole lot of us actually sat inside the Amtrak station, right in front of the door facing the bus stop, so that we could keep an eye out for the bus while not freezing our backsides off. Anyhow, all's well that ends well. The bus (finally) came and took us to Boston. It was no where close to our scheduled time of arrival but we got there. Since most of us had actually given up hope, nobody complained. It helped that the driver was funny and willing to poke fun at himself. And I believe I overheard that the bus had actually broken down in Baltimore.

After I got to Boston, I had pretty much had all the excitement I could handle for the weekend already. So I was looking forward to a relaxed weekend ahead. And relaxed is what it was, because I fell ill. Now I have heard many theories about this. Some people are of the opinion that I was already ill when I got to Boston (overworked, they say) and I only just realised it when I had a moment to breath. I can't say I disagree with this, but we will never know for sure. All I do know is that I fell ill and popped two Advils every few hours for the fever and the body ache. Another popular theory I have heard is that my MegaBus adventure took a toll on me. In this case, I have been advised to sue, but its just too much work. I have plenty of things on my to-do list without adding this! I finally begun to recover right before it was time to leave though. Fun weekend.

When I got back to Philly, I was all set to start school - the final frontier. Papers, papers and more papers. In many ways I'm glad I got the illness out of the way - all set for work now. How exciting. Not. 

Getting back after a bad week

This week hasn't been that great for me. It was because of a combination of personal and professional reasons, but the end result was just a tremendous amount of heartache. Living alone in a foreign country, with no friends or family around for support can be very challenging at times like this. You don't really know what to do or whom to talk to. You don't want to bother your family in your home country because they'd just get worried and obviously won't be able to help you out given the distance. Yes sure, skyping to tell them your problems might be an effective way to vent, but its not really enough for either party involved. It might just end leaving you a little frustrated.

I felt a little lonely and miserable for some time but realised that the only way to get over this would be to just talk to someone. And thats what I did. I spoke to people. People (like me) usually underestimate the power that talking to strangers has. Strangers don't judge, they don't question, they just look at the facts you present and give you an outsider's view - something very useful. When you are attached to something or someone, more often than not, you do not really see it/them for what it/they really is/are. You see things the way you want to see them. And people who have invested time and emotion in you and your life, see things from their point of view. In such cases, the objectiveness that strangers bring to your life is like a breath of fresh air.

So in the end, things worked out (or will work out, I hope). But the thing is, I'm hopeful. For the future and my life. Probably, some day I'll look back at this time in my life and laugh, but till then, its full steam ahead!

Till a happier next time! :)

Among other things...

So when I started this blog, I thought I would post as much about my upcoming wedding as I would about my life here. Clearly, that hasn't happened so far. To say that I didn't expect school would keep me this busy is a lie. Okay, maybe not this busy, but I expected it to be intense! So far, ever since I've been here, I've had no time to devote to my wedding. Considering its only two and a half months away, I'm starting to get anxious now! Not because things aren't going to plan, but simply because it would be so much more easier for me to be around while things were actually happening. Since that can't happen, three-way conferences with my Mom and my fiancé, Prasant, have been essential to my existence.

However, this weekend-start of the week was extremely difficult for me. Sandy made sure of that. For the uninitiated, Sandy refers to the hurricane that wrecked the North-East. So Sandy basically ensured that I had no/limited connectivity to the net, making me fall behind not only in homework but also my wedding prep. Its exceedingly difficult to plan a wedding from across continents as it is, but once your only mode of connection to the people who are actually executing your plan is cut off, it becomes downright impossible. I did, however, use this time to catch up on my reading and expanding my wedding decor photo album. Not that it did me a lot of good - if I was confused about what colour theme I wanted at the wedding before, I'm waaaaayyyy beyond confused now! Who knew there were like a million shades of purple and that they each looked 'different' when lighted up!? And flowers! Don't even get me started on them!

I did, though, as you can see, survive the storm (and quite well!) as did my wedding planning and my schoolwork. While we are behind a little, I hope to be able to catch up over this weekend. But wait! A school friend from India is coming over this weekend! There goes this weekend. Sounds really mean, but thats the life of an overworked grad student, planning her wedding. While I'm super excited and happy that my friend is visiting, at the very same time, that doesn't stop the thought at the extreme back of my head. The thought that basically says, 'you have homework to do' and 'your wedding menu is STILL undecided'. Ah well. Such is life. Even if I get my homework done and decide the menu, a ton of other work will crop up. So what's the point fretting? I think I'll take my own advise and end this rant now! Probably get some homework done.