Happy Birthday Madhu!

College Update Sort Of Nothing Much Has Changed

Hey everyone,

It's Oscar season!!! This year is gonna be soooo GREAT!!! Just kidding, it's gonna suck. The reason being my roommate doesn't seem all that interested AND Harry Potter only got nominated for like 3 categories, the boring ones that no one bothers to pay attention to.

I feel Alan Rickman should been nominated if not just for being himself then at least his acting. Am I right, or am I right?

It is also superbowl season, which apparently is a big deal in Canada. Who knew? I don't know about anyone else but I pretty much only watch for the commercials. I mean lets be honest football is kind of a boring sport. Maybe boring isn't the right word, but I mean football is not really all that interesting. Too many rules.

OMG I just totally remembered that Daniel Radcliffe is currently only about an hour away from me. Right now. Give or take. He's so dreamy. Sigh. He is in Toronto and I am here in Guelph. Sigh again.

Anyway, back to football. Actually, I have nothing to say about football so yeah. Ummm, schools going good I guess. Nothing much has changed (see title above). I have become better acquainted with Word 2010. I had to do an assignment for my computer science class on it. I wish I had more to tell you but I really haven't done much besides school. Oh my physics prof blew up a trash can and it hit the ceiling. That was exciting. He also should us this little postcard book. It was postcards for cute ways to break bad news. Example, picture of really cute puppy with "You're adopted" written on it. If anyone needs to tell me bad news I would prefer the puppy postcard, FYI. There were some other ones that were pretty bad that I would rather not say or write.

I kinda have to pee, but I'm in a public palce and the bathro sorry washrooms are grody, so I'll hold it. Thought you should know. Probably over share, but oh well.

I guess that's pretty much it so I'll be finished know.

Lunch at the 'Castle' (Bellhurst)

Hannah and I went to Geneva to visit her friend Kazia, who attends Hobart/William Smith, and to visit Professor Mark Olivieri. We took 5 photos of Kazia, and this is the one with her eyes open. It was fun.

Engagement party

The twins will be celebrating their first Communion on May 12 9:30 am, Church of St Ignatius Loyola. Let me know if you can make it.

Yes, Happy Birthday to you!!

Happy Birthday Laura & Nicky!

Ah, a beautiful green egg.

This lovely green egg was produced, I believe, by Mary (scarry mary as she is fearful). She is an Americana, and they are supposed to make green eggs. We have 3, and so far, this is the first one.

It is quiet on the Western Front...

Gus went home with his lovely family. Nicky feeding the chickens, who have been cooped up because of the weather. They do not like the snow.

aloha

I'm back at school. Well, in Savannah for the weekend but I was in Macon for the past week. This semester I'm taking New Testament, Intro to Sociology, Voices for Social Justice, and Shakespeare II. New Testament we're going to have to read the entirety of the New Testament and have daily quizes... yay. Voices for Social Justice is an English class. Most excited for that one. A requirement is we have to spend one hour a week tutoring kids at a nearby elementary school. Shakespeare will also be fun of course. We watched Shakespeare in Love in class on Thursday, heh.

Also, as you may or may not know, my future Oscar winning boyfriend is making a film this semester tentatively titled "Thy Neighbor." He's actually on a film set right now but when he returns I'll have him post the script/a preview so you all can see, and if you feel so inclined to make a donation that would be great too. It's only like a 10-12 minute movie but he's filming on actual film rather than digital which is apparently way more expensive. I went with him to a film set last night and it was cool to see how it all comes together. He starts filming Feb 14.

Oh, had a good birthday. Adam and I were still driving down here and arrived at like 3. Then we had Thai food and apple pie with cheese on top. I'm trying to give being vegan a go (again) so no more apple pie with cheese on top.

Time to Blog!

So as some of you may know I started my second semester of university this week. If you didn't know, I STARTED UNIVERSITY THIS WEEK! Please do not mistake my capital letteredness for excitement. I am merely shouting because everyone is so far away. Today was my third day of classes. At this point I have been to all of my classes. I have liked all of them so far except for chem for reasons I do not wish to discuss. Although I will say this, my chem lab TA is rather attractive and has an awesome name. It's witek, pronounced vitek. Cool, right? I don't know why but decided that it would be a good idea to take the three hour, once a week physics class. I had it literally 15 minutes ago. Well, it finished 15 minutes ago, but probably by the time you read this it will have been hours. It actually wasn't so bad. My prof (don't know how to spell it out properly) seems cool. He looks to be about 17 years old, but he is married with children so I'm guessing he's not. My Italian prof is actually Italian this semester, his accent is pretty good. This class is a lot smaller than last semester and it is in the worst possible room. There is no clock, the walls are all white and it looks dirty. Oh well.

I feel that I should inform you all that while I am writing this I am drinking milk. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but to me it is. I haven't milk in like forever. MILK IS SOOOO GOOOOOD!!! That was excitement. Notice the multiple exclamation points.

It is time for me to tell you a sad story that makes me tear up every time I am reminded of it. So, yesterday I wasn't having a very good day. I was tired and grouchy and I just wanted to get some study time in before class. Since my roommate was asleep I went to the library. Now, I also went to the library to meet my friend Heather, because were gonna fill out the housing application for next year. Now I know what you're thinking, Jo made a friend, whaaat? The answer is yes, yes I did. Anyway, baack to the story. Since the application was online I needed to bring my laptop. I also brought my biology textbooks from last semester plus this semester's textbook. Why, you ask. I wanted to study this semester's textbook, obvs, and I was lending my other textbooks to a friend who is taking the class I took last semester. Carrying all those textbooks is no easy task and my back was hurting by the time I got to campus. This story prolly just seems like me whining about a not such a great day, everyone has one, but it all leads up to something I promise. After I finished the application I went to look for a place to study. I couldn't find a place anywhere. I was getting frustrated, I really wanted to sit down and do my readings. So eventually I went back to my room. Along the way I had a thought. I remembered this bench that is by the green house that is in a secluded area and isn't dirty. Now, I wouldn't describe the weather as warm really, but more like below freezing. Below freezing in Canada is so much more dramatic because it is automatically in the negatives. I didn't really care that it was cold, I was just happy I found a place that was relatively quiet.

After I felt I did a sufficient amount of reading I decided to go get something to eat cause I was hungary and cold. That's when I noticed my shoe was untied. Now I realize I left out a kind of important detail. For those of you who don't spend more than 24 hours with me straight may not know this but I like music. I am almost always listening to music when traveling, whether I am walking or driving. Not me driving, but while I'm in a car. Sometimes it's a radio or cd, but if I am by myself it is an ipod. So while I was reading I tucked my earbuds into my jacket. To tie my shoe I put my foot on the bench. To stand I simultaneously put my foot on the ground while raising my upper body. What I didn't notice was

that my knee had gotten caught in the headphones string thing. And THEN...

Here is where I will pause for dramatic effect and you may check your tissue supply.

... one of the earbuds came clean off. Yes, you read clearly. I, Joanna Chhibber, accidentally

decapitated my headphones. I know right. They or it I should say still works, but it is windy and is constantly

blown out of my ear. Also I am now missing the bass part, which is pretty much the best part.

Okay, that's all I can think of right now. Here's a quote.

"A diversion!"

Happy Birthday (belated) Noah

India

India , a set on Flickr.

It was a wonderful trip.

The "India" set has just a selection of the pictures that are on my photostream

Chennai XI

Swaminathan Madhu to me

show details 07:45 (6 hours ago)

Janice: Dec. 5 (Thu), 6 p.m.
No I am not coming home on Thursday. In fact, we don't leave Madras until 1:45 a.m. on Friday (that is around Thursday midnight).
In a few more hours we will be on our way to the airport. Our plane leaves at 1:45 a.m. but we are planning to be there by 10:30 p.m.

Yesterday, Jayanthis' friend Kamala came and we discussed and finalized the payment for our car rental. She is very nice and quite efficient. She and Jayanthi have been friends since college days. It was very smooth settling the account through her.

This morning, we went to a place where there are stalls selling bangles (glass and plastic) to buy some for the twins' teachers. Apparently, it is forbidden to give them even mildly expensive gifts. The glass bangles were certainly cheap: Rs. 15 per dozen (that is 30 cents a dozen). Sara bought ten dozen.

In the afternoon, we went to Lalitha's house. The strange thing was that we had skipped lunch for various reasons (one of them being that the twins wanted French fries and we could not find a MacDonald's on the way to Lalitha's house. Needless to say, both the twins were upset and crying when we reached their house. But lo and behold, Lalitha had prepared iddlies and the twins (especially Nicky) were in the seventh heaven. They consumed quite a few. We spent a couple of pleasant hours and we got back to the hotel. They live within walking distance to the beach. They are planning to visit B'port next summer.

I feel much more positive about Tamil Nadu than I did before. They have good highways and traffic flows smoothly.

See you Friday midnight at the airport!
Love
ELH

Send your good vibes from 1:30 to 2 p.m., Eastern.

Belated Happy Birthday Eliza

Have a good term in school!! Will you be home before you go to India?
love from your Roc Grandma

from Chennai IX, X

Swaminathan Madhu snmeee@rit.edu to me

show details 22:48 (9 hours ago)

Janice:
This message is in two parts: one which I tried to send last night but the mail server did not connect and the other from right now (Wed, a.m.)

(January 3, 10 p.m.)
We left M'puram and reached Madras around noon. We are staying at the same hotel you did.
Not much to report. For dinner, we went to the original Saravana Bhavan restaurant, which is in Vadapalani an area of Madras about 20 minutes from here. It is a huge place sectioned off into smaller halls. The food was totally awesome! The weather is quite warm but not unbearable. I walked to the bank (half a mile) with no discomfort and Chandran and Chiara walked to Higginbothams.
Venkat came around 8 and, since he had not eaten, we took him to one of the restaurants in this hotel. It was nice seeing him again and he will come by tomorrow or day after. We are hoping to see Lalitha and Sankar on Thursday.
This hotel charges $8 per day for using the internet. So, is Leslie gone forever?
Love
ELH
Jan 4 (9 a.m.)
My room in this hotel smells like a sewer. (Only our room; Chandran's room next to us is fine. I think the carpet in our room is the problem.) We did not notice it during the day because we did not spend much time in it. Last night, I just couldn't get to sleep because of the smell. This morning I informed the front desk and they are shifting me to a different room. The hotel is very nice and the staff very courteous and helpful.
Sara, Chiara and I are going shopping today (Poompuhar and the Cottage Industries). Jayanthi's friend Kamala is stopping by this afternoon. She is the one who arranged the van rental and I have asked her to come so that we can make the payment for the van. She sounds very nice on the phone.
We are seeing Lalitha tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.
Higginbothams will be fine for certain kinds of books. I am planning to buy a couple of Tamil novels. Chandran bought a 3-volume set (beautifully bound and boxed) of The Mahabharatha (comic-book type version). It is really very good.

Love
ELH

Leslie is missing.

It's very dark and windy out.

Pop pop VII&VIII: Cyclone Adventures

VII
Happy New Year! Chiara expressed a desire to stay up till midnight
but we told her that we will celebrate New Year's arrival with all our
family in the U. S., that is at 10:30 tomorrow morning. But we
decided we will go with the Japanese who are three and a half hours
ahead. So we said Happy New Year to one another at 8:30 p.m. here.
We went to the Brihadeeswara Temple this morning and the Palace in
the afternoon. It was a very nice day and we enjoyed those places.
Then our driver took us to a place where there are men who actually
make the bronze statues. It was very good. They showed us the step
by step process of making a bronze statue. I saw a small statue of
Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, which I really liked. I decided to
buy it ($30).
The weather is quite nice here, especially after Kerala (which was
hot). Last night, after dinner, Chandran, Chiara and I went for a
walk. A walk here is like walking through a mine field, dodging all
kinds of vehicles. We did the same thing tonight after dinner, this
time all six of us. This place is active beyond belief, especially
because it is New Year's eve.
Tomorrow we are off to Mahabalipuram. The road near Pondicherry is
closed because of the cyclone. So, we have to figure out an
alternative route. I had hoped that we can pass through Palamarneri
(Echi's village) but it may not happen.

VIII
Happy New Year once again!
We left Thanjavur around 9:30 this morning. It took 45 minutes
to check out of the hotel, because their computer system was
malfunctioning and the clerk kept trying to get it fixed. We could
not go directly from Thanjavur to Mahabalipuram because the road near
Pondicherry was blocked due to the cyclone. We have decided it is all
Chandrans's fault. Of the four times he has come to India, three of
them have been accompanied by catastrophic events: a cycle in 1972, a
Tsunami in 2004 and a cyclone in 2011. We think that the Government
of India should pay him money not to come to India. So we went from
Thanjavur to Trichy and then took the National Highway toward Chennai.
Four lane divided highway and zooming along at 50 mph!
When we got to the point where we had to take a highway east
toward M'puram, the driver decided to take a short cut, which was fine
until we came across a stream of water just sloshing across the road.
It was probably a distance of 100 feet and we did cross it with some
worry. Then we approach M'puram and, guess what, this is New Year's
Day and a Sunday and half the population of Tamil Nadu have decided to
visit M'puram: simply thousands of people. So the town
administration blocked off all the roads to cars and buses. They
would not let our van take the road leading to our hotel. When I
explained to the guard at the blockade that we are tourists with
reservations at the hotel, he suggested that we walk to the hotel
because it was not too far away (just 1 km). I ask what about our
luggage and he says the blockade will be removed at 6 p.m. (it was 4
p.m. then) and the driver can bring the van to our hotel after that.
So we walked: a mass of people and vehicles that were let in by the
guard. Our hotel is right in the center of town and it was not a bad
walk. As we are walking to the hotel reception area, I hear the sound
of a familiar honking and, sure enough, it was our van! The driver
said he bribed the guard 100 rupees and was let in.
This is a nice hotel. Lots of open areas with trees and
gardens. The rooms are arranged like town houses. Our building has
three rooms. Think of the luxurious Temple Bay with lot less pizzazz
and costing one-third the price. Sara and the kids had a nice time at
the pool. The mosquitoes are horrendous; so, I left Chandran to
finish his beer by himself while I drained my whiskey and came back to
the room.
My next report will be tomorrow.