Thursday, April 23, 2009

Hey How are you? and other observations

The last couple of weeks have been tremendous fun! I travelled via cold cold London, on a grey grey morning to a sunny, clear Boston which, ironically was even colder than London.

Amherst was awesome and i stayed at Chachi's place. Got introduced to all sorts of meat, pork, chicken and other vegetarian delicacies made entirely from soy. Have to admit though that even the meat-free meats dont taste so great any more....Got my basic setup and acclimatization done and learnt some driving here. There are so many strange things to driving in America, of which the cake goes to the 'Stop' signs. They seem to be be everywhere and the driver necessarily needs to stop at all of them. And the speed l;imit is very strongly adhered to. My cousins are big gamers, and we spent many hours playing titles on their XBOX 360. The younger one is an awesome rock guitarist at the tender age of 14. He made his satsang debut in the satsng concert held to honor the 'teacher from India'. The satsng concert was a blast, with 2 elec guitars and 5 drums. 

Sports and people's fascination here has been a revelation. Most conversations are peppered with the updated basketball/football/baseball scores. The gymnasiums here, and the national fascination with basketball are to be seen to be believed. At the UMASS campus at amherst, one 'gymanasium' had 5 gyms and 10 basketball courts under one roof. And college students spend a lot of time playing. 

I landed in Gainesville the day before, a big welcome change from the cold New England weather. he trees and vegetation seems very close to India. The University of Florida is an enormous, school with noble laureaes and olympians having graced its halls in their student years. The student community here is close to 60,000. UF is big into sports with many students who compete in the olympics from their countries.

I am comfortably settled into a major Indian enclave here, and have started watching streaming TV shows to acclimatise in the new culture. I loved the series"How i met you mom", of which i have seen5 episodes now.

Have not taken too many photos, but shall clcik some soon and upload them too.  

7 comments:

Random Reflections said...

ok...so you'll be in sunny Florida ! Great. Not sure that AOL has a big presence there. I am sure Guruji has BIG plans for the campus :) !

JGD

Anonymous said...

Wow!! Have fun!!!
Do post photos!

komal said...

wow nic eto hear that you are settling in well ....do load up some pics and all and study hard i think thats the biggest seva you can do for Guruji (apart from yes+ and other seva that keeps happening) and also do keep in touch with the aol community there nd have funnnnnn.... JGD..

Minnie said...

Wow...so nice to hear that you are settling in well. Have fun for your MBA and study hard. Expecting to see your pictures! JGD!

Faith Lasts said...

pictures, pictures, pictures, Jai Gurudev

Keep having fun

Janardhan said...

Wow Abhishek! It is fascinating that you are in Gainesville. My parents live there in Gainesville and mom has taken the course. The first course was held in Gaineville in 2007 and after that there has been another small course.

So there a few people there who would love to have you lead a weekly satsang and long kriya - these people have not got a chance to do the long kriya in years because there was no teacher in Gainesville. Please give me a call at 503-560-3521 so we can talk.

I am sure you will spread this amazing knowledge on the campus of UF.

Jai Gurudev, Janardhan

tanuja said...

woow...5 gymnasiums under 1 roof...mman i shd have been there...wld have settled down, built a house under the same roof...well..good news..ive finally got my self on the basket ball court 2day 2 play the game..its magic...haooy 2 knw ur enjoying...jgd:)

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