The title of this blog suggests that something happened in the summer of 2010. Yes, I reached the US to pursue PhD at SUNY Buffalo. Although I had been to Italy in 2007 the US vibe was different. Also, because people primarily spoke English, it was easy to communicate and navigate.
In the first quarter of 2010, along with my friends, I made a travel plan to the jungles near Hyderabad. We reached there in a cab which dropped us off at the mouth of the forest. Not realizing how dense the forests might be, we made our way in and stayed close to the entrance. Having rented a tent, we set it up in an open area and waited for the day to end. It was a peak summertime, and one of us got really agitated which almost forced us to return then and there. But he waited and after a while, the cool wind started gushing in and it felt like we were in heaven. As the evening progressed, we lit a bonfire and cooked some food. In the night, no one could rest due to wild sounds from the jungle.
Fast forward to the summer, I traveled to the US. Being in Buffalo was a novel experience as like many of us, I had only heard about it but experienced it for the first time, there, myself. During the orientation, UB took us to Niagara Falls. All the views at Niagara Falls were breathtaking. The summer heat was canceled by the cool breeze in the fall giving just the right temperature. In spite of having spent my time in Toronto, I never visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
In Sep, there was a break and so my friend MG, who was in the US, planned a trip to New York City (NYC) and Washington DC. He came to Buffalo and we rented a car to drive to NYC. NYC had a charm that immediately attracted us. No wonder many Bollywood celebrities visit NYC more often than any other city in the world.
On this trip, I realized how being confident helps. So MG was working for a certain multinational company in India and he wanted to meet his team in NYC. When we reached NYC, he told me now you are on your own as I have to meet my colleagues. I thought for a while and something occurred to me, perhaps I should visit Times Square. Since it’s one of the most happening places in NYC, I might find someone familiar. To my astonishment, I didn’t find just one or two but three fellows from IIT Kanpur who were staying at Wall Street working for big firms. It was an evening worth remembering.
Next day we travelled to Washington DC from NYC spending a day there. That was fun too as we visited Lincoln Memorial Park and The White House and learned about the great American history from free museums.
Next week on my return, we had a Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) Welcome Party for all the newbies. Students and Faculties were part of the celebration and as usual, since I had my DSLR camera, I captured the event gracefully. The coursework in the CBE department was for mostly chemical engineers, being from a bioengineering background I had to spend hours to understand the details. The whole semester was busy with travel and studies!
Later, I visited Toronto and also paid a visit to NYC again when some other friends from my core department at IITK visited me. We spent a good quality time in NYC before the semester ended. Afterward, we even organized a party for some of our friends at Triads Apartment.
In early January, I had PhD qualifying exam which was a theoretical exam covering advanced concepts of Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena and Chemical Reaction Kinetics. The exam was tough but I passed with preparation.