31st May, 2011
Hello,
Hope this finds all of you in good health and happiness.
Today I had the first day of a MATLAB workshop which will last all week except Thursday which is a holiday for us. It started off easy but as we got tired towards the end, it became harder. The lessons are only going to get harder and I’m mighty glad that the class is full of girls who have had not prior programming experience. The last thing I need there is a guy who learns faster than me and makes me look bad 😛
I finished programming last to last Thursday and that was a happy day indeed but since then things have been slow again. I have received a fresh batch of papers to read in case my paradigm can benefit from their designs…
My obsession with the 60s has come to an end for now. Today I watched Valhalla Rising and Salt (the documentary) with my downstairs neighbours at the University. The first was beautiful landscapes, amazing cinematography and some extremely gory scenes that shouldn’t be watched at any age simply because it is such bad mental input. It had a very very slow story line and if the scenery wasn’t so beautiful, it would’ve been boring. The second was a half hour documentary which also has amazing scenery…breathtaking land and colours. I strongly recommend the latter for everyone who likes looking at beautiful things and especially for school children. It also has a deeper narrative element which adds to the mood of it.
The weekend was filled with activity. I picked up Tina, a friend from Edinburgh (but now has moved to Belgium for her PhD) at the train station on Saturday morning and after a tour of the city and a relaxed lunch, I showed her the campus and we relaxed until the party which began at 9pm. The house was filled with people and many of us fought over what music to play. Tina introduced me to some make up which I had never used before and found the end result very strange at first. I became more comfortable after appearing that way in front of others and not receiving a drastic reaction 🙂 The party went on till 4:30 or so but we were asleep much much earlier despite the loud music.
We woke the next day and finished breakfast with my flatmates just as it was time to leave for BBQ in my colleague’s back yard. The garden was beautiful and I noticed there were more vegetarian options than I expected. They had even arranged for a separate vegetarian grill for mushrooms, potatoes, goats cheese, and a stick with brinjal, smaller mushrooms and capsicum pierced onto it. They had also brought pasta salad, potato salad and a vegetable foil bag. I didn’t even notice the meat or the smell, if any. The garden was also very large and beautiful with a windchime. I never realised how much I liked windchimes until then. The conifer had blue cones (new ones) which I examined closely. We discussed the importance of trees when the baby arrived. My head of lab’s second son. He was cute and drew a lot of attention once he began to dawdle around after the house cat. Child-cat interactions are more intriguing. Conversations strayed from political history, children, age, to Gandhi, Buddha, and how those who travel around are more open minded and accepting of differences.
We returned at 9:30 after a detour through a park (with beautifully tall leaf-filled trees) and cooked a chinese style meal with rice for dinner. Also got a lot of talking done through out the two days and I re-realised that the Chinese culture is not too different to the Indian in terms of social expectations etc.
I wish I could go for German class this week. I’m recently so excited about understanding my flatmates and those I pass on the street better and better. Today was a warm day but the weather fluctuates too much that it is untrustworthy. I tend to keep my light gloves with me just in case.
Write back sometime.
Stay well 🙂