Three weeks in Raleigh and two weeks into classes, and I’m blogging only now. It’s not that I’m too lazy. I’m getting too much of work. Anyway, I’ll try to summarize about all interesting events from my flight from India to present.

Double Trouble

Chris Tucker (Carter) accidentally punches Jackie Chan (Lee) instead of the Chinese goons.
Carter: Sorry man!
Lee: [Holds nose painfully] Carter!
Carter: Y’all look alike, man!
- Rush Hour 2

The flight from Mumbai to San Francisco was uneventful, except for two three facts.

1. There was a lady who sat in the window seat in the same row as me. I chose an aisle seat, as I wanted to walk every now and then. She was trying to talk to me in Telugu. I told her (with a smirk which was brimming with arrogance) that I am a master of 5 languages, listed them and asked her to talk in any one. But she wouldn’t speak in any language other than Telugu. Finally, I had to resort to sign language. But the Jhansi Ki Rani that she was, she wouldn’t give up, and preferred talking in Telugu to sign language. I wondered how this lady was able to travel alone to US, not knowing any language other than Telugu. I gave up and tried to ignore her. But she was hell-bent on talking to me and kept nagging me. I found an easy way out of this. I would sheepishly grin and nod for whatever she said. (without, of course, knowing whether she was asking something, or swearing at me!) How I wished my brother was around, because I’m pretty sure that he understands a bit of Telugu! (for reasons no one knows)

I got the answer about 5 minutes later. She was traveling with her niece, who got transferred to the middle seat from some other seat, as it was empty. They had got two seats far apart and wanted it together. I learnt from the niece that the lady had been asking me if I would switch seats with her niece all along. Now think how stupid you would have looked if you just nodded and grinned for that question!

2. I saw too many face resemblances in the flight and in Shanghai, that my head started spinning. I saw, sitting across the aisle, a guy who looked strikingly similar to Manoj Night Shyamalan, a point which I didn’t hesitate to tell him, as we talked during the layover in Shanghai. I saw a girl who looked like a brunette Mary Pierce. I saw a guy who looked like Masi Oka (The actor who portrays Hiro Nakamura in the series “Heroes”), in Shanghai.

But the surprises were not yet over. I almost lost my balance when I saw someone who looked like ME!!! As I recovered from that shock, I realized that I was looking at my own reflection in the lavatory mirror.

3. I finished another reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the only book that I carried to US.

Good Ol’ Roseville

Nothing interesting happened over the course of my 10 day stay at my uncle’s home. Both my uncle and aunt were working overtime because of their workload, so I was all alone at home most of the days. One interesting thing was that I was feeling completely comfortable on this visit to US. It didn’t look awe-inspiring as it did in my first visit. Maybe the novelty had worn off.

In Raleigh

Finally I was in NCSU. The campus looked good. They have a very good transportation system, called the Wolfline. (NCSU folks are called the “Wolfpack”. So most things here have some mention of wolves.) The night time bus service is called “Werewolf”. And there is a dance coaching going on, called “Dances with the wolves”. Nice, huh?

However, Raleigh downtown disappointed me. It looks so sleepy that I don’t wanna visit that place again.

Hike!

One thing I really wanted to do after coming here was learn American Football. Not that I had any intention to increase the number of bones in my body or decrease the number of teeth, but I thought it was cool. I got the chance during our international student welcome dinner. It was fun, except for the dinner! Being a vegetarian, I hardly had any options; all I had were garlic bread, fruit salad, a snack with fried cheese balls with jalapenos inside, and coke! (That’s not too much, by my standards). Each person could register for one “fun game”. I signed up for American Football without even checking other ones.

We set out to the lawn outside after dinner. There were two American students to teach us. It was fun big time. I was in the offense, and unfortunately I was one of the linemen. (or whatever they are called.) So my job was to stop the guy in defense from reaching the quarterback. You couldn’t get a tougher guy for the job, mind you! So there I was, being tackled ruthlessly. I fell down couple of times, and I even tackled one. But he turned out to be one on my team. But it indeed prove that I was strong enough.

After that, we went in, sweating all over, for the next round of sweating, which was called Line Dancing. Let me tell you that I’m a dud at dancing. Singing on stage, and rocking the stage is an art which comes naturally to me. But I can’t dance to save my life. However, the line dancing concept made a dancer out of me, and I really enjoyed it. Don’t ask me to dance now. I forgot.

Carrot Heads and Paisley Eyes

As if we hadn’t had enough, there was this ECE/CSC bash on Tuesday. But unfortunately, the welcome bash was washed away in the rain. It was raining non-stop, killing all the fun. To top it all, the only vegetarian food that was provided was salad. SALAD!!! Why the hell was I wasting my time eating salad? And they had icecream. Yeah! As if I’m crazy enough to have an ice cream during cold weather. Apparently, I am crazy, because I did have ice cream. After that, I quickly escaped from there in a wolfline bus. The only thing worth mentioning is the moment when I was taken aback when I suddenly saw a guy with what looked like grated carrots planted on his head. And I’m not exaggerating. It was orange.

I won’t say much about the paisley eyes. I saw them the next day which was otherwise bland with boring lectures. I think I’m smitten.

Hitch

One day when I was returning from my part-time job, there were a couple of people shooting something with their camera. And they were shooting 5 second videos with students as amateur actors. They would choose the best ones around the country and use it in their ad. And they were giving free T-shirts to whoever agreed to act. All you had to do was say a smooth pickup line. They had a list of lines, including the Hitch dialogue, “I noticed it just now, but you look a lot like my next girlfriend”.Now who wouldn’t want a free T-shirt? So I jumped in.

Here’s what I said, “Is your last name Gillette? Because you are the best a man can get!” How’s that for a pickup line?

That’s about what happened here till now. Oh yeah.. we had another party for Indian students. I’m overwhelmed! A major disappointment was that the release of Half-Blood Prince is postponed to July. Plus, I’m in love with the songs of Rock On. One of these days I will sing “Sindbad the Sailor” with our band.