Yes, I know, it's been ages since I last wrote (blogged?). It's been a trifle hectic, what with my long-awaited graduation from grad school, and my parents and my sister paying me a visit here in Austin, and sheer laziness following that, I somehow never sat down to write. But a few days ago I discovered that the writing juices in me were intact, and so here I am.
Yes, I've graduated from the hallowed halls of the University of Texas at Austin. And it's still taking time to sink in. I haven't left UT cold turkey -- I enrolled for French classes over the summer, so I could keep myself busy, and also get smaller doses of UT, like a smoker winds down from a million cigarettes a day to maybe ten. The classes are only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for 90 minutes, but I thought, hey! As long as I get to see UT, it'll be all right. Right?
Wrong. I hate UT the way it is now. It wasn't just UT that made it so precious to me -- it was my friends inhabiting it alongside me that made it what it was. I used to love sitting in TAY 5.142, technically Ruchica's office, but pretty much well-claimed by me. I think toward the end I spent more time there than she did. I used to love walking into the GRACS lounge, and checking my mail in the mailbox, and watching boys play foosball at the table, and people taking printouts, people checking mail, and people sleeping even through the din. I used to love sitting my myself in the reading room in TAY 5.110.
No more. I come now to GRACS lounge, and it looks like a ghost town. It's silent and deserted. the computer terminals are cool, the printers are in the sleep mode. The foosball table is still, with one ball lying forlornly on the table. I can almost see ghosts from the past -- people laughing, joking, playing, talking....and then the image is gone, and I'm all alone in the large room. I went to Ruchica's office today, and it seemed to be just a shell. I could almost see her and me, sitting opposite each other, watching videos on YouTube, or playing around on Facebook, and telling each other what we were doing. I could almost see the tension in the last few days as we both scrambled to complete our pending assignments, and get done with the Network Security project which we worked on together along with Vaibhav. And then I looked again, and there was nothing in the room, except for tables and chairs, and some loose papers lying around, and the chalkboard filled with Japanese, where I had practiced it after each class.
I don't like returning to these rooms when they are so empty. It feels desolate. I know it's just an illusion, and they'll be filled with life once the Fall semester starts again in August; but right now, it just feels like a ghost town, and I'm more than eager to leave. Right now, I'm sitting in the reading room, and only it feels the same, because I would often sit here alone. I've left this institution. I guess it's still taking time to sink in. And soon, there will be no trace of me having ever been here. For some reason, that disturbs me. I mean, what could I expect to do, right? But still, it hurts me that the next batch won't even have an idea that I was here. The last remaining sign of my presence is the Japanese written on the whiteboard in the reading room, and soon, at the start of the new term, that will be gone as well.
Maybe I should just say goodbye.
Showing posts with label UT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UT. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Back to school.....for the last time!
It's almost strange to know that this is the last time I'll be writing the words "back to school." Of course, if I do follow up on a whim on a PhD or an MBA (one of my two career choices), or if I do what my heart wants deep inside, and get a BFA/MFA in Drawing and Painting, then this ain't the last time I'm writing those words. But that remains to be seen, and for the foreseeable future, it's back to school for the last time.
I thought Spring 2008 was shaping up to be the most hectic semester for me, for I'd taken a CS grad course on a credit/no-credit basis, and that's a big no-no in grad school. It won't count toward the Program of Work I'll need to produce in May this year to graduate. But through a lucky string of incidents, this semester has suddenly become the lightest ever, with me having to take only two courses! Well, there's a third one -- CS 398T, Supervised Teaching -- but, as everyone knows, it's a register-and-you-get-the-credits course. For, ladies and gentlemen, meet the latest TA at UT -- moi!
Yes, I've been appointed as a Teaching Assistant this Spring. I'll be TAing the course CS 349, Contemporary Issues in Computer Science -- one of the coolest courses offered by the CS department this Spring, one that, had I not been TAing for it (and had it not been an undergrad course), I might have well registered for it. It deals with the legal issues, ethics and moralities related to computer science today. Enticing! I've always been very interested in all that. I sat for two of the classes, and they were both interesting enough to keep me captivated, in spite of being the last class at the end of a very long day! I even know some of the students -- some of them are members of the UT chapter of ACM, and hang out in Taylor basement most of the time. They're a brilliant bunch, these kids.
I'm also registered for CS 388L Intro to Math Logic (boring!) and CS 386S Network Protocol Security (security! Yay!) I love security, and don't even need to strain to understand what's being taught in class. IML, on the other hand, is one of those courses I'll probably end up straining through. Sigh! Thank goodness I have only two courses to concentrate on.
And, that's the round-up for the first week of school. Let's see how the rest of the semester progresses! With IML studies to keep up with, and assignments for the undergrads to be graded, it definitely ain't gonna be a walk in the clouds. It's going to be an interesting last semester all right!
I thought Spring 2008 was shaping up to be the most hectic semester for me, for I'd taken a CS grad course on a credit/no-credit basis, and that's a big no-no in grad school. It won't count toward the Program of Work I'll need to produce in May this year to graduate. But through a lucky string of incidents, this semester has suddenly become the lightest ever, with me having to take only two courses! Well, there's a third one -- CS 398T, Supervised Teaching -- but, as everyone knows, it's a register-and-you-get-the-credits course. For, ladies and gentlemen, meet the latest TA at UT -- moi!
Yes, I've been appointed as a Teaching Assistant this Spring. I'll be TAing the course CS 349, Contemporary Issues in Computer Science -- one of the coolest courses offered by the CS department this Spring, one that, had I not been TAing for it (and had it not been an undergrad course), I might have well registered for it. It deals with the legal issues, ethics and moralities related to computer science today. Enticing! I've always been very interested in all that. I sat for two of the classes, and they were both interesting enough to keep me captivated, in spite of being the last class at the end of a very long day! I even know some of the students -- some of them are members of the UT chapter of ACM, and hang out in Taylor basement most of the time. They're a brilliant bunch, these kids.
I'm also registered for CS 388L Intro to Math Logic (boring!) and CS 386S Network Protocol Security (security! Yay!) I love security, and don't even need to strain to understand what's being taught in class. IML, on the other hand, is one of those courses I'll probably end up straining through. Sigh! Thank goodness I have only two courses to concentrate on.
And, that's the round-up for the first week of school. Let's see how the rest of the semester progresses! With IML studies to keep up with, and assignments for the undergrads to be graded, it definitely ain't gonna be a walk in the clouds. It's going to be an interesting last semester all right!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
An all-nighter
An all-nighter is something every grad student goes through. It's an essential part of the grad school experience. I firmly believe that you haven't really graduated from grad school unless you've pulled an all-nighter. And that's what I'm doing right now.
So what is an all-nighter? As the name suggests, it's spending the entire night in school, working in some way. You might be coding (which is what I do during my all-nighters); you could be studying; you could be working for your professor if you're an RA or a TA. You could be doing a bunch of things, but essentially, you need to spend an entire night doing that. And some of the things essential for a night-out include:
(a) A friend. It's absolutely unbearable doing a night-out alone. In fact, you probably can't. Attempting to do one is exactly what the name suggest: an attempt. It's highly unlikely it will be done.
(b) Food. When your stomach growls at 3 in the morning, and you realize that Wendy's closed by now, and the only option is Kerbey Lane Café well over 15 minutes away, you get a newfound appreciation for food. At this point, even Doritos seem appetizing.
(c) Coffee....lots and lots of coffee. When I do a night-out, I need about a gallon of coffee to survive. Unless I need to turn in the code the next day, and I've got maybe 5 lines of code written on the screen and nothing working, in which case the fear of getting an F is enough of a caffeine shot to keep me awake till the deadline (I do not recommend this though, because the next day in class you look like a zombie, and the professor and the TA both catch you napping in class).
(d) Music. I find music does wonders to stop you from tearing your hair or hurling your hapless laptop to the ground. I need to have my trusty iPod by my side to feel even half-complete. Then again, there are bad moments. When your code suddenly fails after all the blood and sweat you've spent on it, and you hear Muse howling "This is the end...." in your ears, it doesn't really do wonders to your morale.
(e) Your blog. Yes. Your blog -- writing into a blog can do wonders to help maintain your sanity. If you don't have a blog, then hope to have some friends online in some remote corner of the globe with whom you can chat to stay in touch with the outside world.
(f) YouTube. After you've coded for ages, and your code is stubbornly refusing to compile, you can relax a lot by watching ridiculous videos on YouTube, like this one. God bless YouTube.
And those are my pointers to spending a successful night out in Taylor (though, of course, this can be applied anywhere else). I have to start playing around with some Graphics code, which needs to be shown on Monday to the TA and the professor. I just saw another of my Graphics classmates, a boy called Stephen, coding away furiously in one corner of Taylor lab.
I'm not actually in Taylor lab right now. I'm in Sandhya's office, Sandhya being my roommate and one of my best friends. Ruchica, another of my friends, is talking to me right now (and probably getting annoyed because I'm responding to her answers with grunts, concentrating instead of getting this entry out tonight). We just returned from dinner at Kerbey Lane, and I think the waitress gave a small sigh when she saw us. We really must be infamous among the late-night restaurants here in Austin!
Anyway, I shall return to my code, and hope to get something more than a white blob of cloth render on the screen. Till then, adios!
So what is an all-nighter? As the name suggests, it's spending the entire night in school, working in some way. You might be coding (which is what I do during my all-nighters); you could be studying; you could be working for your professor if you're an RA or a TA. You could be doing a bunch of things, but essentially, you need to spend an entire night doing that. And some of the things essential for a night-out include:
(a) A friend. It's absolutely unbearable doing a night-out alone. In fact, you probably can't. Attempting to do one is exactly what the name suggest: an attempt. It's highly unlikely it will be done.
(b) Food. When your stomach growls at 3 in the morning, and you realize that Wendy's closed by now, and the only option is Kerbey Lane Café well over 15 minutes away, you get a newfound appreciation for food. At this point, even Doritos seem appetizing.
(c) Coffee....lots and lots of coffee. When I do a night-out, I need about a gallon of coffee to survive. Unless I need to turn in the code the next day, and I've got maybe 5 lines of code written on the screen and nothing working, in which case the fear of getting an F is enough of a caffeine shot to keep me awake till the deadline (I do not recommend this though, because the next day in class you look like a zombie, and the professor and the TA both catch you napping in class).
(d) Music. I find music does wonders to stop you from tearing your hair or hurling your hapless laptop to the ground. I need to have my trusty iPod by my side to feel even half-complete. Then again, there are bad moments. When your code suddenly fails after all the blood and sweat you've spent on it, and you hear Muse howling "This is the end...." in your ears, it doesn't really do wonders to your morale.
(e) Your blog. Yes. Your blog -- writing into a blog can do wonders to help maintain your sanity. If you don't have a blog, then hope to have some friends online in some remote corner of the globe with whom you can chat to stay in touch with the outside world.
(f) YouTube. After you've coded for ages, and your code is stubbornly refusing to compile, you can relax a lot by watching ridiculous videos on YouTube, like this one. God bless YouTube.
And those are my pointers to spending a successful night out in Taylor (though, of course, this can be applied anywhere else). I have to start playing around with some Graphics code, which needs to be shown on Monday to the TA and the professor. I just saw another of my Graphics classmates, a boy called Stephen, coding away furiously in one corner of Taylor lab.
I'm not actually in Taylor lab right now. I'm in Sandhya's office, Sandhya being my roommate and one of my best friends. Ruchica, another of my friends, is talking to me right now (and probably getting annoyed because I'm responding to her answers with grunts, concentrating instead of getting this entry out tonight). We just returned from dinner at Kerbey Lane, and I think the waitress gave a small sigh when she saw us. We really must be infamous among the late-night restaurants here in Austin!
Anyway, I shall return to my code, and hope to get something more than a white blob of cloth render on the screen. Till then, adios!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Waiting for home!
It's that time of the year, when every grad student is gearing up for the craziest time in the semester...and freedom! It's just a few weeks now till the end of the Fall semester, and a crazy one it's been, too! I can't deny I'm one of the said grad students, eagerly waiting to be released from this madness. The pressure's all building up. It will head to a peak during Thanksgiving weekend, then might abate slightly as Thanksgiving begins. It will build up again quickly once school starts again, and hit boiling point, until we're all crying out for release, at which point it will suddenly relent with the end of the semester, and we all can go home.
If, however, last year's any indication, this is how Thanksgiving will go: on Wednesday evening, I will relax, thinking that there's 4 whole days to work. On Thursday morning, I will relax, thinking there's 3 more days to work. On Friday, I'll probably head off for Black Friday sales, and when I get back, I'll be too tired to do anything. On Saturday, I'll feel guilty, but groan the moment I open up a textbook, or an SSH session to the CS account. On Sunday, I'll feel incredibly guilty that I didn't do anything constructive over the entire weekend, but still slacken off, saying that how many times will I get to enjoy Thanksgiving, anyway? And thus will end my Thanksgiving weekend, with nothing done except sleep, relax, and enjoy life to the max. Shame on me.
After that, school's there for only 3 weeks or so. After that, I'll be off for home! I'm looking forward to that so eagerly, it's painful. Sigh!! So therefore, to distract myself, I shall plunge back into the (rather distasteful) world of Bezier curves and tensor patches, and hope to complete my Graphics homework by tonight!
If, however, last year's any indication, this is how Thanksgiving will go: on Wednesday evening, I will relax, thinking that there's 4 whole days to work. On Thursday morning, I will relax, thinking there's 3 more days to work. On Friday, I'll probably head off for Black Friday sales, and when I get back, I'll be too tired to do anything. On Saturday, I'll feel guilty, but groan the moment I open up a textbook, or an SSH session to the CS account. On Sunday, I'll feel incredibly guilty that I didn't do anything constructive over the entire weekend, but still slacken off, saying that how many times will I get to enjoy Thanksgiving, anyway? And thus will end my Thanksgiving weekend, with nothing done except sleep, relax, and enjoy life to the max. Shame on me.
After that, school's there for only 3 weeks or so. After that, I'll be off for home! I'm looking forward to that so eagerly, it's painful. Sigh!! So therefore, to distract myself, I shall plunge back into the (rather distasteful) world of Bezier curves and tensor patches, and hope to complete my Graphics homework by tonight!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Studying at the PCL
Here I am, sitting tucked away in a tiny corner of the Perry Castaneda Library (PCL). It's the massive library of the University of Texas at Austin, and one of my favorite haunts. It's located on 21st and Speedway, right across the street from Jester (the residence hall) one one side, the McCombs School of Business on another, the University Teaching Center on a third, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the back. I love PCL. I used to come here earlier just for the books, but it also provides a very quiet, peaceful study area. I'm sitting right now on one of the couches at the southern end of the sixth floor. My legs are pushed up against another couch, my laptop balanced on my knees. I can see the reflection of a pair of denim-clad legs and white-and-blue Reeboks in the mirrored window opposite me. Outside the window is a stunning view of downtown. It's quite dark now -- it's 7:15pm -- and the only thing I can see outside is the lights of the city, and shadowy shapes of the buildings opposite. There is a huge tree right outside, although I cannot see it in the dark right now. Underneath its shade, I can often see people sitting, studying, or just lazing around. I'd like to do that, but (a) it's too dark now, and (b) it's too cold, and I only have a thin jacket with me tonight. Opposite, I can see the shadowy outline of Blanton (where I'd been for a Fine Arts Web Team meeting earlier in the day -- it's beautiful), and some vague lights behind it. Nightlights, maybe? I know the Blanton is closed on Mondays. Behind that are large, tall buildings. One of those is Brackenridge Hospital, though I can't see it right now. Beyond that, the buildings are too far away to make out even the shapes -- all I can see are bright oblongs of light pouring out of the windows. Far, far away, I can see some cars on the distant roads -- it's a beautiful sight. And lastly, I can see the large dome of the Capitol -- it looks beautiful! I can make out the shape of the dome, and the white pillars supporting it. The rest of it is obscured by a building -- probably one of the numerous parking garages dotting downtown. It's a beautiful sight, and I feel blessed that I live so close to the beautiful downtown.....
Monday, October 22, 2007
Fickle Texan weather
Man! Talk about fickle! Texan weather beats 'em all hands down. I have given up trying to predict what it will be like tomorrow. Yesterday, it was a hot, humid day. The sun beat down on everyone, and it was muggy in the night. Tomorrow morning when I woke up, it was freezing! Well, not really freezing...more like bracing cold. But brrrrr! I had read something about today being a cold day on the internet, and had thankfully dressed for the day in jeans and two layers of clothing. Many of my friends weren't so fortunate. They were caught in the cold wearing short-sleeved shirts and T-shirts, and, even worse, shorts. The wind howled about all day, and the windchill was probably in the lower 40s. It was a very cold day today. I had cleverly worn a turtleneck, but the wind crept in even through that, making me shiver all the way to my workplace in the Fine Arts library. Now, normally the library is one of the coldest places on campus -- it may be steaming hot outside, but it's cold enough to give me goosepimples inside the library. Not so today. I actually breathed a sigh of relief on entering it, it was a respite from the cold!
After work, I shivered all the way from the FA library to Taylor Hall, which is where the Computer Sciences department is based. The cold crept up my nose, hurting my sinuses (I've had a sinus problem for ages). Even the squirrels seemed subdued today -- one little chap sadly gnawed on his acorn with apathy, and even the sight of me passing by didn't motivate him enough to spring away unlike his compatriots on normal days. I guess they are preparing for hibernation, and the unusually cold day caught them by surprise.
Taylor lab is a dark, gloomy basement with stacks of Linux and Sun machines lining the walls. It's usually freezing cold in there, and I need to often bring along a jacket even on the hottest days if I know that I'll be spending any amount of time in the lab. Not so today. I actually felt warm in the lab! I was stunned.
Yeah, it was a cold day all right! The tip of my nose froze on the way back home. I think it's going to be 88 degrees again tomorrow....that's Texan weather for you!
After work, I shivered all the way from the FA library to Taylor Hall, which is where the Computer Sciences department is based. The cold crept up my nose, hurting my sinuses (I've had a sinus problem for ages). Even the squirrels seemed subdued today -- one little chap sadly gnawed on his acorn with apathy, and even the sight of me passing by didn't motivate him enough to spring away unlike his compatriots on normal days. I guess they are preparing for hibernation, and the unusually cold day caught them by surprise.
Taylor lab is a dark, gloomy basement with stacks of Linux and Sun machines lining the walls. It's usually freezing cold in there, and I need to often bring along a jacket even on the hottest days if I know that I'll be spending any amount of time in the lab. Not so today. I actually felt warm in the lab! I was stunned.
Yeah, it was a cold day all right! The tip of my nose froze on the way back home. I think it's going to be 88 degrees again tomorrow....that's Texan weather for you!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A crazy month
It's been a very crazy month. In fact, ever since the semester started, it's been crazy. The sheer amount of studying I've had to do has been mind-numbingly immense, and I cam close to a nervous breakdown a few days back -- all thanks to Graphics (as I write this, I'm casting a baleful look at the textbook, 3-D Graphics by Alan Watt, lying next to me). No course has ever caused me as many problems as this one has. And, what frustrates me, we study only math, physics, and other abstruse concepts in the course, and nothing of creativity whatsoever. I've come close to yanking my hair out this past month.
We've had projects, and my word, were they awful! Well, the first one wasn't...but the second one most certainly was, and though I haven't had a look at the code yet, the third one also seems to uphold the tradition. I finally took the monumental decision today of converting the grading of the course to a credit / non-credit. I might have to take four courses next semester, but that sure beats getting a nervous breakdown, and only a C or worse to show for it.
But I didn't want to crib. I'm actually feeling pretty good right now. I've been working part-time at the Fine Arts Department at the University of Texas at Austin, as the assistant webmaster. For some time, I just had to make HTML or basic Coldfusion updates, which weren't bad at all -- I love visuals, and was more than happy to work on it, and arrange elements of the pages as I wished. But now, I'm doing my dream job -- security!
My boss, Jeremy, has asked me to help out with the security concerns of the Fine Arts website -- and has given me full permission to poke around, and try as many exploits as I can to try to hack into the FA system! How cool is that??! Right now I'm trying to implement a CAPTCHA for the Art and Art History website. CAPTCHAs are the strange twisted words that show up when you try to send potentially spamming material. They cannot be deciphered by machines, but can be read easily by humans, so they prove very helpful deterring spambots.
What I'm actually using is the reCAPTCHA -- which is a nifty little concept. It has two words, like the CAPTCHA, with a line running through them, like a strikeout (it prevents bots from using edge-detection mechanisms to deduce the word), and, the cutest concept of it all, the words come from scanned historical texts, so everytime someone uses a reCAPTCHA, they are helping translate a word that wasn't scanned in well and not recognized by the OCR readers at wherever they do the scanning. I had read about the idea sometime back in an issue of Wired magazine, and actually got to implement it! It's wonderful.
Well, that's enough rant for now. I'm dying of sleep (haven't slept more than 10 hours in the past 4 days), and still have a paper review to complete. So I shall get going, and return again some other day. Adios!
We've had projects, and my word, were they awful! Well, the first one wasn't...but the second one most certainly was, and though I haven't had a look at the code yet, the third one also seems to uphold the tradition. I finally took the monumental decision today of converting the grading of the course to a credit / non-credit. I might have to take four courses next semester, but that sure beats getting a nervous breakdown, and only a C or worse to show for it.
But I didn't want to crib. I'm actually feeling pretty good right now. I've been working part-time at the Fine Arts Department at the University of Texas at Austin, as the assistant webmaster. For some time, I just had to make HTML or basic Coldfusion updates, which weren't bad at all -- I love visuals, and was more than happy to work on it, and arrange elements of the pages as I wished. But now, I'm doing my dream job -- security!
My boss, Jeremy, has asked me to help out with the security concerns of the Fine Arts website -- and has given me full permission to poke around, and try as many exploits as I can to try to hack into the FA system! How cool is that??! Right now I'm trying to implement a CAPTCHA for the Art and Art History website. CAPTCHAs are the strange twisted words that show up when you try to send potentially spamming material. They cannot be deciphered by machines, but can be read easily by humans, so they prove very helpful deterring spambots.
What I'm actually using is the reCAPTCHA -- which is a nifty little concept. It has two words, like the CAPTCHA, with a line running through them, like a strikeout (it prevents bots from using edge-detection mechanisms to deduce the word), and, the cutest concept of it all, the words come from scanned historical texts, so everytime someone uses a reCAPTCHA, they are helping translate a word that wasn't scanned in well and not recognized by the OCR readers at wherever they do the scanning. I had read about the idea sometime back in an issue of Wired magazine, and actually got to implement it! It's wonderful.
Well, that's enough rant for now. I'm dying of sleep (haven't slept more than 10 hours in the past 4 days), and still have a paper review to complete. So I shall get going, and return again some other day. Adios!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Back to school!
Back to school! It seemed so far away and unlikely while I was doing my internship; but now that it's begun, it's very real. Oh, yes.....very real indeed!! A bit too much....it was rather overwhelming attending school for the first time in over three months yesterday. I hopped onto a UT shuttle, the bus itself making me feel that I was back in academia for the first time in a long time. The shuttle went through the streets of campus -- streets that had been deserted as little as two weeks ago, and now teeming with students. It finally halted at 23rd near the Littlefield fountain, and I got off.
I walked over to Taylor Hall, which is the administrative building for the Computer Sciences building, and into the graduate lounge. It was like coming home. The three terminals at the table opposite the door, the rows and rows of mailboxes, the couches and lounging chairs strewn about the room, the chipped and cracked foosball table, even the microwave and coffee maker in the corner -- all old and familiar. The internship was already starting to look like a distant (and pleasant) dream.
I walked out some time later for my first class, Artificial Intelligence. I'm not registered for it, but we can take classes -- "audit" -- at least till the 12th class day to make up our minds as to what courses to take finally. The outside world was a profusion of white teeth, shining hair and tanned limbs -- the undergrads were back. I was almost taken aback at the sheer volume of people on the streets -- though I was expecting it. They all laughed (hence the white teeth), talked, argued, or walked along silently, some even glowering, the tell-tale white wires of the iPod earphones trailing from their ears. The squirrels ferreted about for nuts, and scrambled nervously past the numerous thundering feet. School in all its full glory!
The first course was AI in Welch Hall, which is across the street of Speedway from Taylor. I walked in, dodging a bunch of giggling undergrad girls, and boisterous young men trying their hardest to land punches on each other -- interesting greeting ritual. The classroom was across the great hall of Welch, in a rather small room. I entered, and found a bunch of first-years looking around nervously -- first-year grads, that is. I love how important I feel around them! The class in itself wasn't bad. The professor cracked a lot of jokes, most of which were too sad to be laughed at, but I laughed hard, all the same, if nothing, then at the sheer absurdity of them.
The next thing on the agenda was the "tea party" in Taylor's Faculty Lounge. This tradition, which began I don't know when, is highly cherished by us grad students. We get free coffee, donuts and samosas, which are a great favorite. Often, it is the Americans who polish off the samosas, while we're left looking! It's fun seeing the sight when the box of samosas is delivered. The moment the box is lifted, there is a sudden explosion of hands around the box, and in under five seconds, the box is completely empty. I once almost broke a nail grabbing a samosa. I've pioneered the term "strategic positioning" -- sitting at the table where the samosa box is kept, so you can block the others while you grab as many as you want, even thought the rule says you can take only one. It's great fun.
The next class was undergrad Programming Languages. It was, for some obscure reason, in the Pharmacy building, in a tiny, dingy classroom with no windows and narrow doors -- and too many students. It's a popular course -- there are 30 students on the waitlist for it, the professor offering the course informed us -- but I didn't enjoy it much. For one thing, it is way below my level -- the only reason I had to take it up was because UT didn't accept the programming languages courses taught at the University of Mumbai, my undergrad institution. I was almost gasping for air by the time the class came to an end.
And, that was how the first day back at school ended. It's nice to be back at school, and I'm enjoying the atmosphere; but there is tension simmering in the atmosphere, and I know in a few days I'll be gasping for breath, wondering why on earth I ever took such-and-such course!! But, while it lasts, I'm gonna enjoy it to the fullest!
I walked over to Taylor Hall, which is the administrative building for the Computer Sciences building, and into the graduate lounge. It was like coming home. The three terminals at the table opposite the door, the rows and rows of mailboxes, the couches and lounging chairs strewn about the room, the chipped and cracked foosball table, even the microwave and coffee maker in the corner -- all old and familiar. The internship was already starting to look like a distant (and pleasant) dream.
I walked out some time later for my first class, Artificial Intelligence. I'm not registered for it, but we can take classes -- "audit" -- at least till the 12th class day to make up our minds as to what courses to take finally. The outside world was a profusion of white teeth, shining hair and tanned limbs -- the undergrads were back. I was almost taken aback at the sheer volume of people on the streets -- though I was expecting it. They all laughed (hence the white teeth), talked, argued, or walked along silently, some even glowering, the tell-tale white wires of the iPod earphones trailing from their ears. The squirrels ferreted about for nuts, and scrambled nervously past the numerous thundering feet. School in all its full glory!
The first course was AI in Welch Hall, which is across the street of Speedway from Taylor. I walked in, dodging a bunch of giggling undergrad girls, and boisterous young men trying their hardest to land punches on each other -- interesting greeting ritual. The classroom was across the great hall of Welch, in a rather small room. I entered, and found a bunch of first-years looking around nervously -- first-year grads, that is. I love how important I feel around them! The class in itself wasn't bad. The professor cracked a lot of jokes, most of which were too sad to be laughed at, but I laughed hard, all the same, if nothing, then at the sheer absurdity of them.
The next thing on the agenda was the "tea party" in Taylor's Faculty Lounge. This tradition, which began I don't know when, is highly cherished by us grad students. We get free coffee, donuts and samosas, which are a great favorite. Often, it is the Americans who polish off the samosas, while we're left looking! It's fun seeing the sight when the box of samosas is delivered. The moment the box is lifted, there is a sudden explosion of hands around the box, and in under five seconds, the box is completely empty. I once almost broke a nail grabbing a samosa. I've pioneered the term "strategic positioning" -- sitting at the table where the samosa box is kept, so you can block the others while you grab as many as you want, even thought the rule says you can take only one. It's great fun.
The next class was undergrad Programming Languages. It was, for some obscure reason, in the Pharmacy building, in a tiny, dingy classroom with no windows and narrow doors -- and too many students. It's a popular course -- there are 30 students on the waitlist for it, the professor offering the course informed us -- but I didn't enjoy it much. For one thing, it is way below my level -- the only reason I had to take it up was because UT didn't accept the programming languages courses taught at the University of Mumbai, my undergrad institution. I was almost gasping for air by the time the class came to an end.
And, that was how the first day back at school ended. It's nice to be back at school, and I'm enjoying the atmosphere; but there is tension simmering in the atmosphere, and I know in a few days I'll be gasping for breath, wondering why on earth I ever took such-and-such course!! But, while it lasts, I'm gonna enjoy it to the fullest!
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