Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Urbana-Champaign

I haven't really been able to blog in the past 2 week and that’s because I've been in different cities and barely been with my laptop long enough to sit and write a post. 

After visiting London, Miami and Orlando, I'm finally at my campustown: Urbana-Champaign. Today I saw the place I’m going to be spending the next 4 years in and I loved it. Its a huge shift from your skyscraper-filled skyline of Dubai. Its mostly brick-buildings with lots of eateries and coffee shops. The people here were so welcoming it was so different even from the other US cities I just visited. 

Despite being such a huge campus, the central area is what I fell in love with. The main signature quadrangle was absolutely amazing. A place you'd probably see in the movies as a scene where a family comes for a midday picnic. There’s a very well connected bus service that runs throughout the two cities of Urbana and Champaign and that really solves the hassle of reaching a class from one end of the campus to the other. 

From tomorrow onwards, there’s a lot of orientations for us International Students that look to be helpful and necessary from an International student’s viewpoint. Let’s go and see what they have to say and make that decision for ourselves. 

That’s all for an update right now, more blogging coming up as soon as I get settled into my room and as soon as regular university life starts on the 26th. 

Until Next Post,
Parichay

P.S. Finally hit 10 Thousand Views! Hell Yeah.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Officially Leaving.

So today’s my official last day in Dubai. Unofficially it was 2 weeks back, when I left for India but I came in for 2 days of transit. There’s not much one can do in 2 days of Transit in Dubai. Luckily I did all that I had to do before I left then. Visited all the restaurants I had to, met almost everyone I had to and basically did enough to keep Dubai’s memories lasting till December when I’m back.

So I spent these two days doing absolutely nothing. Barely did any packing (despite being asked to do some repeatedly), didn’t really do anything. Just sat at home and chilled. Met a couple of friends yesterday one last time and meeting a couple of friends today. No shopping malls, no tourist destinations and barely any restaurants. And that wasn’t really the plan. My plan at first was visit all those places that I’d miss once I’ve left for university but I realized that I already did that 2 weeks back and have enough of those memories.

Everyone goes on and on asking about “Will you miss Dubai?” , etc etc. And I find that a little irritating. After spending close to 18 years in this city, do you really think I’m going to forget all about it and never come back? This is practically my home.

This is no long post on how I’m going to miss this city and thank it for all that its given me. I’m not leaving forever. I’ll be back in less than 5 months.

See you in December Dubai!

Until Next Post,

Parichay