I am posting after a looong time, I am posting from the land of opportunities...Though my 24.5 hours flight from Singapore to Houston has dropped me on time, I landed like a wrecked ship...my body pain added with the jet lag kept me point blank for nearly a week...
My first impression with US, hmm, rather I would say with College Station (aka Aggie Land) is not so encouraging...may be, my expectation should have been slightly less and I should have been better prepared to face this...I knew that US runs by virtual money (Credit) and badly lacks public transport, but never thought it would be this worse...since it is summer holidays here, the university's transport system also runs less frequently...under Texan hot sun (temperatures go upto 41-42), I had to walk miles between various buildings of the university...and you imagine how it would be with a fatigued body and mind...
Without a car life is miserable here...even to buy a toilet issue you have to drive 4 miles out of the city...Fortunately, we got some Americans who had cars and who gave us rides to various places which kept us going...but, not everyone is fortunate like us...I had seen students carrying loads of walmart bags and walking for miles...its so pathetic not having a minimum public transport here...not even taxis...anyways, car is the lifeline here...and as a student, one is not affordable to buy and maintain here...as time passes by, we all will get used to like our seniors did...
the university is one of the oldest (1876) and one of the most reputed...there's a big difference between how universities run in India and in US...may be, I can write a separate, detailed post on that...here they value their brand a lot and invest a lot in maintaining the image...there's a healthy competition between the universities and things are done purely based on merit...I had a series of orientations for 2 weeks explaining various things about the university and the rules...its all over and my classes are starting from tomorrow...with 12 hours of class room sessions and 20 hours of part time work at the university, I might become really busy from tomorrow...
As I said already, this place is called Aggie land and all the students are Aggies...we have a code of conduct and rules for Aggies...and there are lot of traditions and culture which I need to learn and be a part of...so as of now, I am on a transformation becoming an Aggie...
Thats what all I have now...may be I will fix a schedule for blogging and try to be more frequent...keep checking this space as lot of interesting things are lined up to be shared...
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Transforming into an Aggie...
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2 comments:
Whats that Aggie? More of a Mexican slang?!
Anyways, you will have great time there for sure. Lots of stuff to learn ... and learn the right way - without the cramming that we do from LKG to final year at college. All the best dude.
Smiles,
Vinayak
Wiki says 'Aggie may be a diminutive form of Agricultural, which forms part of the name or historical name of many schools, particularly in the United States.' and Texas A&M University is Texas Agriculture & Mechanical university. So 'Aggie' makes sense.
And of course, I cannot learn the things in the way which we learned in India. Whether I like it or not, I will have to learn the US way of doing things :)
Finally, thanks for your wishes :)
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