Physicist dudes

Physicists are a queer bunch. Having been in an engineering department mostly, I have never seen these species up close before. Imagine this. My very first lesson at TU/e. I enter a class of Laser Physics and am a little nervous. The class is already filled, I take a seat on the last row(typical!). I can see about 4-5 students with thick locks of blond, brown and black hair from behind. Phew! good that there are other girls. I generally feel comfortable to see other girls in a class. Not understanding much of the quantum physics mambo jumbo the professor was talking about I spent most of my class trying to get a better look at other students from behind. Imagine my shock as I discover one by one that all these long maned beauties are guys!! All of them!

Ah! The love that these physicists have for their golden locks! Some have such dense thickets that I wouldn't be surprised if a bird flies out of it suddenly.The bespectacled wonders travel in packs and wear the weirdest color clothes. The picture I drew above is actually inspired by a physicist in my office. I always am on a look out for him in the mornings just to see what he wears.

Some of them are really nice though. It is always useful to have some of these walking-talking brains as your friends. You constantly need to remind them to have a touch down and speak as we normal earthlings do. :)

P.S - As you can imagine, I never completed the Laser Physics course! :D I somehow managed to get all my grades without that one.

Krishna Jayanthi in Eindhoven

Last Thursday was Janmashtami, the birth of Lord Krishna. I have so far never on my own celebrated the myriad of Indian festivals that come every year. Somehow after moving outside of India and having started living on my own, I just din't feel up to it. But this time I was inspired by my neighbor and thought that this was perhaps a good way to actually re-bond with my own culture.

My mother's decorations back home

Lord Krishna is particularly fond of sweets and butter.Tradition has it that baby Krishna comes to every house where he is celebrated to eat his favorite food. I made the traditional "appam" with banana in it and a dollop of butter on top (thankfully it came out okie) in the morning, drew out the baby foot steps which in my house had to come from the window with a complicated route as the rest of the house is carpeted (ya, Krishna is good at high jumps..:D), crooned to some songs in praise of him, ate my own creation of the "appam" and left to office. Felt pretty good.

The offering is always shared with family and neighbours and I gladly exchanged mine for some better "cheedai" (A round, crispy snack, another fav of Krishna). My mother had the biggest surprise when I told her about it, she thinks I have finally turned into a mature woman..heehee..:)

To Vancouver and back

The vacation to Vancouver, Canada was totally unplanned and completely sudden. But after having lived in one of the best cities in the world for 2 years, I had no qualms going back for 2 weeks. As it turned out Vancouver was at its warmest best, reaching high temperatures not seen for the past 40 years!

What did I do?

Beginning from the left most picture in the series above -

-> Enjoyed my beloved Starbucks coffee ( favorite though is Tim Horton's).

-> Watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with my sister after waiting outside the theatre for 45 mts, with two nephews dozing..:)

-> Biked along the Stanley Park Seawalk trail with my nephew seated on my bike, comfortably dozing off again, much to the amusement of other riders who kept smiling at the expression on his face.

-> Spent such enormous amount of time in the biggest shopping mall in British Columbia - Metropolis. Not just for shopping, but to cool off in the air-conditioned haven where half the city seemed to be headed (awesome summer sale of course! ;) )

-> Major indulgence with my cutie pie nephews; one who keeps saying "I am a naughty boy" when ever caught doing, well naughty stuff and the other who's 4 year old brain stumped me completely when he could solve Math problems faster than me! Blissful time.

-> I visited my dearest university of course, UBC.

-> Incidentally one of my Dutch colleagues from TU/e came to Vancouver for his internship right after I reached there. Went to the Lynn Valley Canyon Park suspension bridge with him. We were supposed to do a 5 hour hike, but with the severe heat we ended up gulping down a melting ice-cream and cooling off our feet in the water. He actually got some Dutch stroopwafels for the trip! :D

-> What better way to chillax than with Bubble Tea! The utterly divine Chinese/Taiwanese fruit smoothie with tapioca balls/jellies at the bottom. We need to import this nectar concoction to the Netherlands.

-> F.R.I.E.N.D.S...:)

Vancouver is an incerdible city to live in, multicultural and diverse, just about everybody fits in. There is simply so much to try and experience right from nature's various blessings to the fine dining and shopping. It was good to experience all that again for a few days.

And now back to Eindhoven! I was fearing how I would cope up after being amidst family, friends and goodness. Strangely though it doesn't feel so bad. For now, this is home. :)