Nice Animation of the Middle East

An elegant animation depicting the empires and nationalities that have ruled in the Middle East over millenia:

Middle East Animation

Sunday Times

Sunday is the day for New York Times editorial big-wigs to strut their stuff. Here's what Thomas Friedman (of The World is Flat in case you don't know who he is) has to say about how America's changed since September 11, 2001:


9/11 Is Over - New York Times

Hans Rosling gapminder 'gapcasts'

Public health data like you've never it before

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/09/gapminder_video_webcast_gapcasts.html

- Saket

Singing in the Streets

Have you ever felt like just bursting into song in public? Well,
here's a musical project with an eponymous title that went on in New
York City:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/theater/29sing.html

Enjoy!

Oncology, the Musical, in the Park

My day so far:

Woke up early (9:20!) to score a nice rolling office chair, three rugs, and a sweet UC bag all for $20 at a yard sale...

Ate some delicious tofu stir-fry for lunch...

Read my cancer book in a nearby (i.e. across the street) park while watching a father/son pair play baseball and listening to live jazz music from a block away...

It's been a good day so far.

Brief Recap

Instead of haranguing you with a series of short, presumably witty, posts spanning the last few weeks, I shall instead present you with a short and decidedly witty highlights in the time-honored list format:

1. Family fled Tuesday to arrive at home hours past planned trip time...See what I did there?
2. Went to a GAA (General Alumni Association of UNC) sponsored meet&greet in Linkin Park
3. Interviewed for a lab rotation with a pharmacogeneticist at UC. Meeting went well; I'm guaranteed a spot in her lab coterie
4. Visited Kevin in Evanston and met him for lunch a few times in town
5. Went seeking in Hyde Park (my new neighborhood).
6. Took lots of pictures (see Facebook for the best)
7. Baked cookies (chocolate chip with mini-M&M's!), cooked Indian dishes, made lasagna, and other tasty treats
8. Got oriented with UC's BSD, including going to the Field Museum to watch my group get drunk, dance, and sing karaoke
9. Picked apples in Wisconsin and celebrated Oktoberfest in September in Milwaukee...Prost!
10. Got paid and started classes.

For more details, see Facebook or do it the old-fashioned way. Talk to me. Write to me. Send me a letter.

A Busy First Day

2 Sep

A fairly early start got us into town and to my new place at 10:30 a.m. After a brief greeting (we’d all met before, fortunately) we wasted little time in unloading the van and hauling stuff up. Hindsight tells me that we should have spent a little bit more time just saying hello and such, but oh well. Thanks to the super athletic Bonnie and Jeff and my family, we managed to get everything, and I mean everything (except what I forgot in the hidden storage compartment) up two flights in fewer than twenty minutes! I had anticipated a bit longer…

If getting things up took no time at all, arranging things and setting up stuff (the bed, A/C) definitely took some time. Thanks to my “measuring” and my innate genius, I managed to bring the wrong size bed frame. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I made Saket and Dad unload almost the entire van once just to make room for them! Alas, I truly was not cut out to be an engineer. Or an architect. Or anything involving basic tape measure skills. Jeffrey was a HUGE help in setting up the A/C since none of us had ever done it before the and the directions given weren’t exactly the clearest. He knew exactly what he was doing and I shall give him all the credit for the ensuing coolness. As you can see from the pictures on my Facebook account, I still haven’t arranged or unpacked everything, but it’s a work in progress.

We left the condo around 1:30 to head into the city and Devon Street. Devon Street, which is actually Devon Avenue, is basically Chicago's Little India/Little Pakistan. The street has been given two additional names, depending on which part you’re on: Gandhi Marg (the India
side, translates as Gandhi Road) and Mohammed Ali Jinnah Way (the Pakistan side). The street is full of sweet shops, restaurants, clothing stores, saree stores, electronics shops, jewelry stores, and VHS/DVD/VCD/CD stores. The sights, smells, and sounds are just like Mumbai. Even the trashy sidewalks, unfortunately. We wandered along this tantalizing thoroughfare looking for a place to eat chaat, or fast food. We tried a place that was pretty good, and then went exploring for more. We ended up at a spot named, quite appropriately, “Swati” which is, of course, my mother’s name. The food there was delicious and we filled up on some excellent junk food. While we ate, I got in touch with Kevin to see about a visit soon since my folks decided that they could really just leave the next day instead of leaving on Tuesday. Kev was free, so we went to Evanston and Northwestern’s campus after leaving Devon Avenue.

It was great to see him again, and we drove over to downtown Evanston for some coffee and ice cream (the ice cream being, of course, Kev’s idea). After a lovely and amusing chat, we dropped him off on campus and headed south to Chandrika aunty’s house. She is a childhood friend of my mother’s who is visiting her two sons who live here in Chicago. They are right near the heart of downtown and a mere 20 minutes from my place. They made us a lovely South Indian dinner and we enjoyed talking with them and watching a sky diving video of one of the son’s. We ended up leaving around 11 and unfortunately got back after B&J had already gone to sleep. This was most unfortunate seeing as Jeffrey was leaving the next day for India where he will be for the next nine months. They are so sweet, though, that they made up the sofa sleeper outside so nicely and left the light and fans on. I’ve really lucked out this time.

Going to Chicago...all things know, all things grow...

1 Sep

Today we left for Chicago! Call it nerves or some coffee at an unfortunate time, for I didn’t sleep above 2 hours last night. As a result, I was mostly unconscious on and off through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and some of Ohio. I managed to wake up fully in Ohio and took over for most o the last several hours to Indiana. We stopped in Lafayette, home to Purdue University and, several years ago, to our beloved Henderson family, for the night at a pretty nice motel. We could have technically pushed it all the way to Chicago that night (just two hours more), but we felt it would be rude to intrude on Bonnie and Jeff (my new roomie and her fiancé) so late at night, so we decided to just stop at a reasonable hour.

Saket and I tuned into ESPN long enough to watch some of the Cal/Tenn game and see that Georgia Tech routed Notre Dame. Normally, I’m happy for any ACC victory (except for Duke, of course), but this victory was especially sweet giving the deplorable treatment GT received the week before this game as a rival of America’s darling ND. NBC, that bastion of fairness, advertised the game with a HUGE picture of ND’s logo covering half the screen and opposite it……..”vs. Georgia Tech” in what appeared to be roughly size 4 font. What the hell? It is not the fracking “Notre Dame game” but the “Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame game.” Saket and I were both royally pissed off by this ploy and equally pleased that Georgia Tech, to pu it mildly, beat the hell out of Notre Dame. Go Yellowjackets!!

The Adventure Begins...Again

Greetings loyal followers, dear friends and family, or anyone who happened to stumble upon this blog.

If you're interested in finding out how I spent the spring semester of my junior year in college abroad at King's College in London, please read the posts dating from January through April. If you're more keen to find out what I'm doing now, please read on.

I have some catching up to do since I'm updating this blog just over three weeks after arriving in the Windy City. I shall begin the chronicle of "Sapana in Chicagoland" with our mini-roadtrip up here from Cary, North Carolina. Per the example of my siblings, I will attempt to keep the entries brief yet pithy. Giving my propensity towards verbosity, however, such an endeavor may prove to be more challenging than it would initially appear. Nonetheless, I pledge to prevail.

On a second note, these entries will not be merely bogged down with stories about school and classes. That would be entirely too dull. Instead, look for some personal commentary (frequently informed thought not guaranteed so) on a wide range of topics from the important to the inane, or just the irrelevant.

I hope that is preface enough. Without further ado, welcome to Sapana in Chicagoland. Enjoy.