ourblog

College Update Sort Of Nothing Much Has Changed

2012-01-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

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)

2012-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

2012-01-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

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!!

2012-01-21T08:28:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Laura & Nicky!

2012-01-21T06:04:00.000-08:00

Ah, a beautiful green egg.

2012-01-19T15:53:00.001-08:00

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...

2012-01-17T15:39:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-14T12:25:00.001-08:00

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!

2012-01-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

India

2012-01-08T15:41:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-05T04:58:00.001-08:00

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

Belated Happy Birthday Eliza

2012-01-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

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

from Chennai IX, X

2012-01-04T05:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-01T16:06:00.001-08:00

It's very dark and windy out.

Pop pop VII&VIII: Cyclone Adventures

2012-01-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Poppop VI (Thanjavur)

2011-12-30T06:19:00.001-08:00

Janice: (Dec. 30, 6 p.m.)
Another day of just driving from one place to another, except for
some concern raised by the weather. We left Kochi at 9 a.m. and got
here around 3:30. As you may know (or may not), there was a cyclone
in the area around Chennai and Pondicherry, whose effect extended to
Thanjavur (abbreviated T'vur fron now on). When we reached Trichy, it
started raining and rained almost all the way. The drive told us that
access to T'vur may be difficult. But we got here fine and the rain
had stopped. Driving in Tamil Nadu is a lot better than in Kerala.
Kerala is totally congested. A whole series of different towns with
no breaks. The congestion of traffic was the reason we felt quite
anxious about the driving conditions. Today, the driving pattern was
the same but we had long stretches with very little traffic and we did
not feel the same anxiety as we did yesterday.
This hotel about which I had some misgivings (because of its price:
the total cost of two rooms for two nights is less than what we paid
for a single night in Kochi) turns out to be quite nice and it is
centrally located. The beer store is only a block away. A clothing
store (I needed to buy some T shirts, called "banians" here) is just a
few feet away. The staff are pleasant and helpful and the rooms are
reasonably spacious. The lighting is dim, however. The hotel is
Christian-owned. I should have known that from its name: Gnanam,
which means "enlightenment", a term used by the Tamil Christians for
those who have accepted Jesus. I thought it was in honor of my dear
departed sister Gnana (the enlightened one)!
Chandran has a bad cold today. Mine lasted only one day and I hope
he is equally lucky.

Pop pop V

2011-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

(Dec 29 5:30 p.m.)
The only thing we did today was to leave Kochi at 9 a.m. and drive
to Coimbatore (about five and a half hours). It was scary. The
drivers have no sense of danger and when they decide to pass, they
simply move into the right lane. There were a couple of close shaves.
Our driver was no better than the rest of them. Even though we were
in no hurry at all, he was driving as if we were being rushed to a
hospital. Chandran, in particular, feels that he was putting other
drivers at risk by driving off auto rickshaws and motor bikes off the
road and playing chicken with oncoming traffic. There is no point in
telling him not to drive so fast because it is in his nature to drive
like that. The reason Indians are so religious and have so much faith
in God is because it is only God's will that they do not meet bad
accidents on the road.
Thanks for the pictures of the snow on the deck and Noah and Hannah.
My Indian bank account is working as smoothly as in the U. S. I
went to a branch just a block away from here and withdrew $1000 with
no hitch at all! All establishments accept rupees from me without any
question.
A funny incident: Yesterday, when we were on the boat in the
backwaters of Kerala and stopped for lunch. We were taken to this
little building and sat down at our tables. A guy brought banana
leaves and put one in front of each of us. Nicky asked Sara what it
was and she said it was a banana leaf. And Nicky began worrying that
he was supposed to eat it and started fussing. He was quite relieved
that he didn't have to do that.

Pop pop IV

2011-12-27T18:46:00.001-08:00

Janice: (Dec 27. 8:30 p.m.)
Laura wants me to tell you she is having a great time in India and
has made friends here.
It is warm and humid. This morning we went to an area of Kochi (about
a mile away from the hotel) and even though Chandran suggested our
walking over there we took our van. We went to the "Jew Town" (Yes,
that is its official name and there are signs). The Jews moved to
Kerala in the mid 16th Century when they were kicked out of Goa. The
Kerala king gave them asylum and they established an area in town.
When Israel was created, most of them moved to Israel but they left
lots of their stuff behind. So there are lots of antique stores. One
of stores had a reclining Ganesha (not an antique) and costs only
$5000 and I felt that we should have that in a specially designed
platform at Brockport. That is our anniversary present! Chiara, Sara
and Laura went shopping in that area. Chandran and I (and NIcky)
found an excellent book shop. Kochi is a touristy kind of town. The
number of westerners is quite large.
We had an excellent lunch (the best aviyal so far) and then we
returned to the hotel. To say I was sapped and just wanted to lie
down is an understatement. In the late afternoon, there was a plan to
go to a basilica but we wisely decided we won't. We went to a
restaurant called the Menorah for dinner (one of the few places with
wine and beer). As you can guess by the name, there was a menorah and
a rabbi came and said some prayers and lit the candles. The food was
very good. Even the wine was tolerable. Then they had live music
with a flute and tabla.
Tomorrow early morning (6:30 a.m.) we are off on an organized
outing where we first go to an elephant training camp (which is where
the elephants from Trichy are!) and then on a backwater boat tour.
Sara heard from Padma (who is in Kottayam) but looks like we will
not see them.
On Thursday, we are taking off for Coimbatore.
It was really nice hearing from you. Thanks for the pictures.
Couple of things. The film reporter for the Times of India is Mini
Anthkad-Chhibber! Could she be a relative? The couple we mentioned
last night (from Rochester): he is the youngest faculty member in the
department and so you may not know him. His name is Greg Halpern (not
sure about the spelling of the last name). Their parents came today;
they flew from Trivandrum to Kochi and it took them an hour and a half
to get to the hotel from the airport. The father is a professor at
SUNY/Buffalo and he knows Chandran's advisor! At this rate, we may
well find that they are an arm of the Riddle family!
We are generally having a good time. Chiara is a total saint! Laura
is very easy.
Say hello to everyone! Tell Noah that I really missed seeing him
and we will definitely see him in Senegal.
Love
ELH

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

Pop pop III

2011-12-24T10:40:00.001-08:00

Janice: (Christmas Eve; 10 p.m.)
We spent 11 hours getting from Trichy to Trivandrum. The first 6
hours were a breeze: it was like driving on the NY Thruway (except for
one bottleneck situation near Madurai). Then we got on this 2 lane
road that went through several villages and we were essentially
creeping; in one town, it was standing for several minutes and then
moving for one. There was also an unnecessary delay at the border
where we had to pay a tax of Rs. 1000 because ours was not a private
car; it took 20 minutes to make the payment and wait for their
computer to print the permit. All this delay paled in significance
when we entered Trivandrum. Traffic was inching along and there were
two sections of the road where there had been flooding from rain today
with water knee deep. People were wading through the water and our
driver was worried about the engine stalling. Finally we got to the
hotel around 8:30 p.m. We were all loudly praising God for getting us
to our destination at last (of course, it was God who also made it
rain!).
Nothing else to report. I hope you are having a very fine
Christmas Eve dinner with the rest of the family. Tell them all that
we miss being there and wish them all a very merry Christmas.
Love
ELH

Also from Sara

2011-12-23T14:21:00.001-08:00

More from Pop pop

2011-12-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

Jayanthi has been here all the time we have been here. She is
leaving for Bangalore by train tonight (to visit Venkat's family) and
then fly from there to Hyderabad. Her school starts Monday. She has
received a very prestigious award from the Government of the Andhra
Pradesh state as the scientist with the most significant
contributions. She didn't tell me that of course; Tulasi did. Having
Jayanthi around made so much difference. She and Sara did a fair
amount of shopping today at Lakshmi Silk House and Saratha's in the
town. Saris, blouse, salwar kameez.

This morning, we went and picked up Kalyanam then went to Woriur.
The outside of the house is exactly the same except for a new coat of
paint (light cream color). The octagonal living room and the upstairs
room are left untouched, but just about everything else is being
totally redone. Lot of people working on it. The entrance to the left
half portion (where my mother used to live) has been blocked off with
a new wall. The owners have rented it out to an orthopedist (a "bone
doctor" as he is called) but he has not moved in.
Then we went to the bank. I was able to withdraw enough money to
pay for our van rental. The manager was very nice and extremely
helpful.
Around 11:15 we left the bank, being late to reach Kannan's house
by a mere half an hour. One gets used to not worrying about being
punctual. Earlier I had contacted Jayanthi (by phone) to ask her
whether she wanted to go to Kannan's for lunch; she said no because
she was going to have lunch with her mother (being her last day in
Trichy)! So, imagine my astonishment on entering Kannan's house and
seeing Tulasi there. She was invited by Rajee (Kannan's wife) and
decided to come. Jayanthi did not, however. We had a most excellent
meal. Rajee is an outstanding cook of traditional South Indian
brahmin food.
After lunch, we drove to Tulasi's, dropped her off and picked up
Jayanthi and went into the center where all the shops are. Chandran
took the twins to somewhere where they could run around, while the
remaining four of us went shopping. After shopping, we drove back to
Tulasi's. Tulasi's sister in law came for a visit; she is so nice.
We stayed for a short time and then we returned to the hotel.
The Tamil Nadu Kerala border situation seems to have eased and so
we will be going to Kerala tomorrow.

From Sara's Facebook

2011-12-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR CHANDRAN!!!

2011-12-21T13:24:00.001-08:00

From Pop pop

2011-12-19T10:30:00.001-08:00

Janice: (Monday, Dec,19, 6 p.m.)
Good to hear that I am valuable (or more correctly, my absence is
missed). The hotel has free internet cable connection in the room and
it works very well. I am glad I brought my laptop. Sara has her
i-phone and uses it for internet and e-mail, but she cannot use it to
make phone calls.
We did not do anything this morning; the kids slept till 9 and we
had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. If you want to see me eat a
huge breakfast, you should come to one of these restaurants. They had
South Indian dishes as well as western dishes (including an omelet
made to order). Our driver showed up around 1:30 (significantly late
to the point of our getting worried) but when I mentioned the
lateness, he said that the Temple doesn't open till 4 p.m. and implied
that there was no need to start too early). He is very nice and we
like him. He is probably 40. He is going to try to get my phone
unlocked and put a simcard in through one of the many phone stores
here. Right now, we don't have access to a cell phone; only e-mail.
We first went to a shrine near here in honor of St. Thomas, who was
one of Jesus's apostles and came to Madras in 53 A.D. and established
the Christian Church. He was killed in 72 A.D. After the shrine
(which is the oldest Christian church in India), we went and had lunch
at Madras Woodlands restaurant (attached to the same hotel where K2
and I stayed in 2008). Excellent food. Then we went to the
Kapaleeswaran Temple and then came back to the hotel around 6.
Everyone is fine and the twins are coping quite well. They are
watching TV now: cartoon shows with Tamil dialog.
I got Venkat's phone number from Jayanthi and talked to him a few
minutes ago. He is coming here to the hotel in another hour.
Jayanthi also told me that Kalyanam had a fall and hurt his shoulder;
so they are still in Madras and going to Trichy on Thursday (instead
of today, Monday). I talked to Kalyanam. He slipped and fell when he
got out of the shower (at Priya's house). There was no fracture but
his shoulder bone got pushed into a portion of his neck. The doctor
suggested that he needs pain killers and physical therapy. He has no
pain and seems fine. We will see him on Thursday. Incidentally, the
people who bought the Woriur house are not razing it down. The guy
told Kalyanam that they are doing some interior renovations and
leaving the outside as it is. This is very heartening news indeed.
We will be seeing that house on Friday.
Feel free to forward this e-mail and future ones to K1 and K2.

Love
ELH

Spotted!: Ricky Gervais

2011-12-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

An extremely engrossed Ricky Gervais spotted at the Messiah in Bath!

He got a box. Front left one.

Oh yes, and Hannah

2011-12-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

The Reason we made the trip. Oh, more on flickr.

Home from England

2011-12-15T06:01:00.001-08:00

We had a good time.

Better picture of Neha

2011-12-08T04:51:00.001-08:00

With her mother.

Chicken Haiku

2011-12-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Bereft, we seek Dear Janice. Her loving look, her tender words, her grapes.

Here she is.

2011-12-07T03:39:00.001-08:00

Clever Title

2011-12-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. It's been awhile. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. It seemed to be a good one this year , from what I witnessed. I know I had a good time. I went to see breaking dawn with my roommate. I can safely say it was as the book. I do have to admit that the actors sucked less than the last movie. Except for Kristen Stewart, I don't understand her. Literally, she can't seem to finish a thought and she is always mumbling and looking at the ground. My favorite part was when Bella goes into labor, it was hilarious. I'm laughing just thinking about it. Taylor Lautner was only shirtless like twice, or not even. It was a little disappointing.

Anywho, yesterday was the last day of classes for me. I have exams relatively spread out between now and the 16th. This semester had its ups and downs, but overall not so bad. I'm really looking forward to going home for Christmas. I have so many things to do when I get home and thankfully I'll have time to do them. Although one of the things is a doctors appointment and I'm not looking forward to that.

Nothing too exciting has happened, unless you count the fact that Susi got an iPhone. If you don't then yeah nothing exciting has happened. Ooo wait I forgot that I got a postcard from Hannah. That was exciting. My first letter. I don't remember what it said. Umm I'm running out of things to say. Hey does anyone know who that person is in Noah's profile picture on facebook. I'm 99.98% sure that it is not Noah.

Ok I'll leave you with a qoute from possibly the greatest book on earth.

"Always."

Five bucks to the person who can guess the person who said this.

London

2011-12-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

We are at the Crescent Hotel, Loved the flight to Toronto, sun was setting, we essentially wenWest over land, river that I did not recognize, edge of the Lake. There were 7 of us on the 18 setter plane.

Got of Oyster pass for the Underground, The Tube ride was almost an hour from Heathrow. We are staying in the same room on the first floor as we did on the trip when Brenda and Don were with us. Nice room.

Thanksgiving 11

2011-11-27T05:45:00.000-08:00

The food was good!

More pics on flicker.

Political Unrest Impacts Family Education

2011-11-20T17:46:00.001-08:00

You all heard that recently the Occupy Wall Street movement was uprooted by Michael Bloomberg. So the protesters took the movement to Michael Bloomberg. They are planning to occupy 79^th street between 5^th and Madison. So Steiner will be closed for now.

Turned off the water (KLY) and emptyed the fridge (me) etc.

2011-11-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

The etc. being, we went to the Alexander, NY cemetery. Having a family history is so new and totally interesting. Well, we did not find John Riddle's grave, but his wife, Olive. I think we located most of the Riddles that were buried there in the 18oo's.

More genealogy, sorry

2011-11-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

I’m stopping with the family tree for a while. I’m sick, and the fever dreams about chasing a family line last night were horrible. I’ll figure out a way to blog the tree later. Some things in the meantime:

Bacom and Colvin did not leave behind much by way of info or descendents. The well-documented lines (McKinney & Cantonwine) have been followed to England, Ireland, the highlands, the Netherlands, the Rhineland and Lalaland. The furthest back a US born line went (with a shred of credibility- if that isn’t a problem for you, I direct your attention to Grimsditch & “Boleyn” below, or John Hambledon of UK (1570-?), who seems to be a forbear of the great Hamiltons) was Nicholas Ferris, born in Henrico, VA in 1596.

We have a Hezekiah Moseby (1695-1745), next to whom Ezekial Jenkins (1695-1750)(both of Virginia, by the way- pretty much every path that reaches the 1700s leads there, to PA or NJ) sounds pretty ordinary.

One of the English Riddles is Robert Bollen of Norfolk. If that is a corruption of Boleyn, might some of us be in line with the throne? Must check.

Francis Grimsditch! This remarkable woman, b. 1621 in Cripplegate (!), London, d. 1716 in Port Royal, Bermuda (!) is my 9x great-grandmama. The fact that she gave birth to our ancestor Abigail Bloomfield at the age of 9 only makes me admire her more, and nothing is going to make me take her away from that tree. I think Grimsditch should become the default middle name for the DOJ clan. For females, I mean, males get Hezekiah.

Penelope Van Princis (1622-1732), Robert Henry Riddle’s 5XG-G, gives us a drop of Dutch blood.

Antrim, Derry, Mayo... I’m trying to get the Irish county names of the Galey ancestors together, just in case it can pad out that “Oh, I have ancestors from Ireland” conversational path.

Bettie Mckinney, Russell’s mom, gives us some interesting names as well as some German bllod on that side. Her mother is a Bowser, her 2xG-G is a Ditto, and her maternal G-G is a Dull. No Grimsditch, but a fine collection. The Bowsers are from Rheinland-Pfalz.

tl;dr: I could not find a Tom Riddle, but I did find a picture of him.

In 1930

2011-11-17T14:21:00.001-08:00

Alfred was living with the Krecks.

Noah posted.

2011-11-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

Descendant as Napkin

2011-11-14T17:31:00.001-08:00

Russell Bacom Hewitt

2011-11-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

Since Catherine will be filling in the Riddle side of things, this is a thread for the Bacom line:

In the 1880 census, John J. Bacom (1827) and Julia A. Bacom (1840) (my great-great grandparents) are living in Abingdon, IL, with 6 children ranging from 10-1 (Harriet, John, James, Nathaniel, Francis (age 3) & Samuel (!)). John J. is a carriage trimmer. John J. and Julia are both from Kentucky. Great Grandpa Francis seems to disappear at this point, but 30 years later...

1910- Bettie Bacom (26 yrs.) is living in Abingdon with her 3 children (Nathan (7), Russell (5), & Dorothy (3)) at her parents' home (William (50) & Rachie (45) McKinney) with her 3 brothers (John (23), Jessie (19), & Walter (14)). William and his 2 older sons work on the railroad.

1920- Betty (36) Has married David J. Hewitt (46), and is living in Rosedale, Kansas, with Russell and Dorothy in a house with David's brother, Richard, and his wife Lucille, who is from Sweden. Richard and David are barbers.

1930- Russell (25) is living with David & Betty Hewitt in L.A.. Russell is a checker at a wholesale grocery. David is a vacuum cleaner salesman.

All of this comes from census records. It would benice to find out what happened to Francis between being aged 3 and dying in a hotel room in Texas. And what kind of Civil War did our Kentucky forebears have?

Here's what Mom got.

2011-11-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Mom was taking notes, so she'll be right when we differ.

What I learned from Catherine Smith
11/12/11
The Great Aunts, Julia and Adalide Riddle were born in ……….Kansas.
Father was John Henry Riddle, Mother Elizabeth Galey
Siblings of Julia and Adalide were David, George, Sussanah, (Suda)
and Bloomfield.
How the family went to W.T.
They were active Methodists. They were at a meeting, singing. George
was playing the harmonica, badly. One girl gave someone a nickel to
give to George if he would stop playing. George was mad, a fight
broke out with David and George and another kid. A knife was
involved. And a kid was killed! David was convicted, but the whole
town knew that David was a nice kid, the kid who died was a bully.
David went to jail. He was there 3 years, and then his family got a
judge to let him out. The whole family immediately went to Waitsburg,
W.T. on the Oregon Trail!!! The father, J
That is how Cora came to be born in W.T. Her mother was Suda. Suda
contracted typhoid and died. Cora had 2 siblings Myrtle & Elmer
(?). Myrtle was a nurse. She died at a young age of stomach cancer.
We have pictures of her with fantastic hats.
The family moved to Chicago (?).
David Riddle became a doctor.
George became a policeman (we have a picture of him in uniform).
Cora was married 3 times. Arthur Colvin was Cora’s second husband.
They had mother and Alfred. She then married Mr. Bigelow, and had
Aunt Betty.
Cora was a nurse. Arthur was married 5 times.
The ‘Great Aunts’ went to medical school in Chicago. They had one of
the first cars in their town. Picture we have is of a parade in
which the car is decorated with flowers with probably them driving.
Arthur Colvin, mothers father, was married 5 times. We may have
relatives we do not know about.
However, Cora’s children are the only ones in the Riddle line. None
of the other siblings of The Great Aunts had children. And mother is
the only one of her siblings to have children.
There are letters about the cruelty of the Great Aunts.
The reason mother knew Lydia and Ed Kreck was they took her in and
defended her when she was suing to leave the Great Aunts.

Ready? Mom, check if this seems correct.

2011-11-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

Robert Riddle was born in Indiana (1830?), but he was a sod-house farmer in Kansas when his two sons David and George got in a fight at a 'sing'. The other guy (who was offering David a nickel to stop playing harmonica) died, and David Riddle was convicted. His parents launched a petition drive, and after three years he was released by the governor. The family immediately headed west on the Oregon trail. Wagons and everything. They were visited by a census taker while on the way.

Robert died en route, but his wife and 5 children, George, David, Julie, Adeline, Bloomfield, and Suda, (whose real name was...Susannah!), arrived in Washington territory. Suda is the only one to have had any children of her own. George eventually became LAPD, Julia, Adeline, and David all doctors. Suda died very young.

Suda's daughters Cora and Myrtle were both nurses. Cora went to care for the daughters of the widower Arthur in Shenandoah, Iowa. He was a prosperous traveling salesman. He started out as a grocer. Julia and Alfred were born there. Arthur and Cora divorced (he was beating her). Cora then nursed Caleb Bigelow, who had lost an arm in a farm accident. That was Aunt Betty's father.

Cora's brother, Elmer, was in jail for highway robbery, literally, and she seemed to have moved to Oklahoma with Caleb, to be near him. She was also petitioning for his release. Elmer was in the jail that Tom Joad is coming home from in the beginning of Grapes of Wrath. In the meantime, Julia and Adeline (henceforth the GAs) and George ended up in LA. They were also in Oshkosh, WI for a time, I forget why. They had a car. GA Julia was the first woman (maybe person) in Wisconsin to get a speeding ticket. She once hit someone. The GAs went to the Chicago Women's Medical college, both of them. Julia was a brilliant student. They had a magazine about healthy living practices and were very involved in the suffrage movement. However they are largely ignored in documentation about amazing women of the day. Perhaps because they were involved with the eugenics movement rather heavily, and their magazine was funded by a eugenics group! They were distributors of birth control, and probably practitioners of abortion.

Cora would already have known that they were awful people, because they had originally gotten Elmer sent into the juvenile system, because he was growing wild; the evidence for this is that he was consorting with Chinese persons. The GAs began raising Julia and siblings when Cora died. Julia would have been 11. They basically raised Cora, Myrtle, and Elmer, so this was their second little family. They appear to have adopted the children of patients they saw as unfit also.

Well known people involved in women's welfare and education helped Julia with her lawsuit against the GAs. She also had a high school friend (Hollywood High) whose parents protected her at the time. Apparently, Julia went, with the GAs reluctant consent, to live in a dorm, at a Christian college. The GAs demanded that they be informed if she left the dorm for any reason. They were very weird about men. The college refused, (GA Julia's letter to them is pretty creepy,) and they gave Julia permission to go stay with the friend. GA Julia came after her, but the friend's family and the neighbors intervened, and GA Julia was unable to grab Julia.

The man below is James Riddle Hoffa.

Beauty and the Beast

2011-11-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

Curtain call. The play was delightful, Susi was beautiful.

NYC weekend

2011-11-07T11:47:00.001-08:00

NYC weekend, a set on Flickr.

it was a lovely week end with Janice and Madhu. We went to the Met to see the new middle Eastern and South Asian galleries, done beautifully. Had a nice lunch at Saravanna's and a very good dinner with Junu at il Riccio.

Local Pullet Graduates

2011-11-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today marked the proud beginning of adulthood for one Reed Road Buff Orpington. "Well, it couldn't have been under worse circumstances," she confided to this reporter. "It seemed like the flock would just never leave, but finally the Human with the Hairy Fiend showed up and let them out.
I thought I would have a quiet moment in the only good box, (I would never lower myself to use any of the other three-you'd never see George or Leslie in them, and, of course, Barry never lays at all, though only this morning I saw one of the Australorps in there, tacky, but you know Australorps.) Anyway, the next thing I knew HWTHF came IN to the house! That beast was dancing about in the doorway!
She came over and dared to touch me and checked to see if there was anything in the box. If I could talk, I would have said, 'There's nothing there yet, and what have you done with Dear Janice? And why have you no grapes?'
But I can't, so I just centered as best I could while HWTHF struggled with a new food bag. Oommm.
Well, then it happened. 'Pa-kaaaak, pa-kaak,' I cried, hoping to summon the others, you understand, but all I got was HWTHF holding a handful of scratch up to me. So I left. Well, okay, I ate a bunch of scratch first, but let me tell you I tried to eat a bunch of HWTHF while I was at it."
The Buff Orpington reports that she hopes to distinguish herself in the egg-laying field, as she is otherwise indistinguishable from the other two Buff Orpingtons.

I got the last chicken in...

2011-11-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

I went down after dark, and, sure enough, there was a dark form huddled on the ladder behind the chicken house. I grabbed it, and, luckily, it was the missing chicken. I still think it's a rooster.

College: Halloween Edition

2011-11-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. I hope everyone is well. I myself am just fine. I am currently into my 8th week of school. That would 8 weeks out of 12 weeks. My first semester ends in aboot a month. I don't know aboot you but this year seems to be flying by.

So yesterday was halloween, which is always a fun time. Except for this year if you are apart of the Brockport clan. If I'm not mistaken it was business as usual. I spent my first college halloween in a 3 hour chem lab. It started at 7 pm. It was actually a relatively easy lab but there was a lot of waiting we had to do. We made aspirin. It was actually kind of fun. It was also my roommates 18th birthday, so she went oot with her friend from home. Now I know what you all must be thinking, does that mean Jo got no candy this year?!!!!! Don't worry Mommy has got me covered. She bought me a whole bag of mini coffee crisps. If you don't know what those are 1) you're missing oot and 2) come to Canada and buy some. I saw a lot of "friendly" costumes. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. I also saw some rather interesting costumes. When I say interesting I mean kind of unoriginal. There were some cows and monkeys and of course witches. My new friends, the early morning Starbucks ladies, all went to work dressed as hippies. It was completely unintentional. Yeah other than that nothing really exciting happened on halloween. So, let's gossip.

Apparently Kim Kardashian is divorcing her husband after 72 days. Just messing with you, I'm not actually gossip now. Don't worry Grandma, you don't need to know who they are.

Anyway what else has happened? Hmmm. Oh yes, I remember now. I went to Stratford with those still left in Brockport plus Sam. I don't remember what they saw, but me and Sammy saw Jesus Christ Superstar. It was even better the second time. Then after the show I got a cd signed by Josh Young aka Judas. Now that I think aboot it, it wasn't all that exciting. Not quite the same rush I got when I got dan's autograph.

So anyone seen any good movies lately? I haven't.

Over and Oot

For better or for worse......there it is

2011-11-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

2011-11-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

I thought the red eye effect worked well in this case.

We had a fun night. First we went trick or treating, on 78 street, with our next-door neighbors. Then Allison, Colum and Christian came over. Chiara did her own thing with friends, I forgot to take a picture, oh well.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T08:43:00.001-07:00

IMG_0936
Originally uploaded by sarapicassa

Valleys and some of the edging

2011-10-26T13:39:00.001-07:00

I went out the the lake this afternoon, steady rain, big waves. I fully expected no progress, BUT one guy was still working! The color is hard to see in the grayness, but I think it will be ok.

Roof update

2011-10-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

Some insulation, then 2x4's. No steel is sight. The apple trees are almost all picked. Crews are even working today (Sunday). The red ones look so good.

a new roof begins, fianlly 10/18/11

2011-10-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

College Update

2011-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I have posted. I will deprive you no longer of my sharp wit and biting sarcasm. I can't remember what I posted last time so if I repeat myself, deal with it. Five days ago changed from a girl into a woman, well legally anyway. My birthday this year would have been totally awesome. It was on a Friday, it was nice out and I was turning 18. However, I spent my birthday going to class, studying for my calc midterm, that evening and chem midterm, Saturday morning, and oh yeah I was sick. So all in all not a great birthday. Mom and Susi came up Saturday evening and took me to dinner and then we watched a movie on demand at the hotel, which is when disaster struck, well for me anyway. I first became sick on the Tuesday after Canadian Thanksgiving. It was mostly a horribly sore throat and a little sniffling. When I woke up Sunday morning I couldn't breathe through my nose, my voice was pretty much gone and I had a fever. It was also hard to hear. We had planned on spending the day wondering Ikea and then going to see Johnny English. We did go to Ikea, but not for very long and we never made it to the movie. I was told to eat soup and go to bed. I have been pretty much been napping between every class since then. I also skipped a class for the first time. It was Italian. I had a pretty bad day yesterday and I would rather not relive it, so if you are really dying to know ask mom, I told her.

Ok I am tired of talking about depressing things so lets move on to a new topic. This would be a lot easier if this was like a live feed or something so I could answer questions or talk about something you want to hear about. It usually takes me an hour to write one of these things because I never know what to write about next.

Anyway I have decided what to write. Lets play a game. I'll call it True or False: Canadian version. You can call it what ever you want. Now try and answer these before looking at the answer which will be directly following the statement. I am too lazy to try and hide the answers. Actually I'll put the answers in the comments.

1) Canadians say "eh?" after pretty much everything.

2) Canadians pronouncing out and about making the o sound into an Oo sound is a myth.

3)Canadians consume more macoroni and cheese than any other nation on earth.

4)Mail is delivered on Saturdays.

5)Their motto is " Be Bold".

6)Canada's national animal is the beaver.

OK that's enough. I must do laundry now. I hope you enjoyed this post. Feel free to comment on how lovely it was. If you didn't like it, well then you can comment too, but I am so deleting you as my friend on facebook.

I'll leave you with a quote.

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

PS That is not from a movie.

Pictures

2011-10-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Milkweed

Canadian Thanksgiving

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO

2011-10-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

I hope you are feeling better so you can enjoy the day.

copied from Kalyani- facebook

2011-10-14T08:14:00.001-07:00

This is Brockport High School's entry for the Glee contest. The prize is $50, 000 for your music program. Unfortunately, it's not about judging, but about voting. You can vote every day on every computer to which you have access until November 7.

In the video, Susi is in the back in green.

JO is home- Thanksgiving in Canada

2011-10-10T05:11:00.000-07:00

Lake Ontario, crystal clear. 2011 'sculpture' with new willow behind it. Sort of a B'day dinner for JO, B'day next week.

Coming to Broadway

2011-10-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Jesus Christ Superstar is coming to Broadway in March!
We read it today in the NYT so it must be so.

Aborted Canoe Trip

2011-10-02T05:59:00.001-07:00

Cold, rain, and potential winds caused us to not put our canoes into the water. We drove into Lake Lila, near Little Tupper Lake, which is a beautiful wilderness place in the Ads. Walked, in the rain, ate lunch. It was a long walk, which turned out to be the best part of the trip. We headed to Speculator, and found not one motel or hotel available. Tippi and sibs were at Helen's.

So, Sherrill, Kly and I drove home in the rain last night, dinner at the Savoy in Rome, still good...and warm.

The chickens know that profile is an advantage to their appearance.

Missing Corgi Reunited with Family After 11 Years

2011-09-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

A Las Vegas family is celebrating the return of their lost Corgi after spending more than four thousand days apart.

Michelle and Kipp Blauer bought Duncan, a corgi, for their two boys 11 years ago. And then he vanished. “Then one day he was gone, just disappeared,” Kipp said.

The family searched the neighborhood and local shelters, putting up fliers and hoping for good news. As time passed they were forced to accept the fact that they would likely never see Duncan again.

Thanks to a microchip, they were eventually proven wrong. “I got a call from this lady in Missouri and she says I have your dog, and I’m like ‘what dog?’” Kipp said.

Apparently, Duncan had ended up in a shelter where he was adopted by an elderly woman. “She was an elderly lady and the dog ended up being her companion for about ten years,” Kipp says.

Duncan’s adopter eventually passed away, and afterward her daughter took Duncan with her to Missouri. He got loose and was picked up by a local rescue group. They were surprised to learn that Duncan had a microchip: nobody had ever bothered to check for it.

On Monday night, after more than a decade, Duncan was reunited with his original family. “I never would have thought it, I never would have thought it, not in a million years,” Michelle said. “But you know, life is strange, you never know what is going to happen.”

Week 3

2011-09-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

So, I honestly don't know what to write. Nothing seems good enough to write about. Shocking I know. It's just nothing has really happened besides school and Popop and Grandma coming to visit, but you already know about that. School has kept me pretty busy. Well actually more like just physics and chem. The lab for chem is 3 hours on Monday nights and my physics class is 3 hours Wednesday nights. I also started writing my quizzes for physics. The first quiz is due this Friday. For each quiz you get 3 tries. You must score at least an 8 to pass. The quizzes are only out of 10. If you get an 8 out of 10 it's an automatic 100. I believe. You get 20 minutes for each quiz. You have to take the quiz in a special room called the quiz room. After you have finished your quiz you can leave it in the box or go over it with a TA. I have taken the first quiz twice so far. The first time I did not pass. I sat with the TA to have it graded. He must of thought I was a complete idiot. I had to graph some waves which is not my strong suit. I took the quiz again yesterday. I was kind of worried and confident at the same time. I didn't have time to finish the last part of the last question, but I was confident with the questions I had completed. I wasn't able to sit with TA because I had to go to my first physics lab, but we'll get to that later. I asked the quiz room lady when the grades would be posted and she said by 5:30 that evening. Cliff hanger.

So after the quiz marissa, my roommate, and I went to do our physics lab. It was rather stressful. We had only an hour and a half to do the lab and calculations and if we don't finish on time we have to come back and do it all over again. I'll tell you know that we did finish. It was an acoustics lab so there was a lot of high pitched humming. I couldn't get the ringing to stop for like an hour after that. It's kinda hard to describe the lab so I'm not gonna even try. All you need to know is that we had to draw a graph and calculate the slope, percent error, and wavelength. There were two TA's in our lab. One was pretty chill and helped a lot if you needed it. The other was a little meaner, but I liked her. The other girl didn't like her because we asked for help on something kind of obvious and the TA sorta jumped down our throats. I liked her because she actually helped and I understood what she was saying. Our lab was from 2:30 to 4pm. We finished around 4:30 but they didn't seem to care that much because we were just doing the questions not the actual lab.

After the lab Marissa and I went to get an early dinner because we missed lunch. We went our separate ways after that. She went to the science atrium to study and I stayed in the room to study. I also took a shower which was very nice and it woke me up too. I have discovered that doing the readings for class aren't so tedious if you read them out loud in a different accent. At 10pm we had a house meeting. Apparently a lot of stuff has been going on around me that I had no idea was happening. Like people vomiting off the balconies and pancake batter being smeared all over our microwave room and the scariest one, which I did actually know about, peeping toms. Apparently someone downstairs left their blinds open and saw a guy standing there and he came up and started knocking on her door. We are now told to keep our doors locked because it isn't hard to get into the building because the door is open pretty much all the time. So now we keep our blinds closed 24/7 and only leave the door open when we are being social. Which for me isn't very often. I did make a friend in Italian though. Which is a nice segway into my next paragraph.

My first quiz for Italian is this Friday. I'm a little nervous. She's giving us the whole class for the quiz. Not to mention I have a math quiz right before that. It is gonna be grammarful and vocabful. Oh well.

So I guess I did have something to write about after all. I have decided that I am going to end this with a movie quote like Noah does because I have been craving LOTR. For those of you who don't know what that is immediately two things 1) for shame and 2) Lord of the Rings.

"A red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night."

PS I totally kicked butt on that physics quiz.

Guelph and JO

2011-09-27T13:01:00.001-07:00

A little early for JO, but she did come to our hotel to say good bye. We ate a fine dinner at the hotel the night before. The scallops were really good.

I found this online.

2011-09-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

2011-09-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

What are the plans for Thanksgiving?

Brockport Band

2011-09-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

News from the East

2011-09-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about spending a day in Oxford with Susi and Dad. There's so much to do. We could go punting!
We're staying in some dorms at University College. It's like a maze. The numbers don't go in order.
I'm glad Buster is getting better. I start dog walking on the first.
Today Kazia, Emily L (not UR Emily), and I went to the Bodleian Library and took a tour. It was so cool. The room we waited in used to be the divinity school and was used for filming the Hospital Wing scenes in Harry Potter. The old part of the library was used for the restricted section. The tour guide was leaning on a shelf telling us about the room and what books they have and she put her hand on a book and was like, this is the first English dictionary, no big deal. We were all like, holy crap, that's so cool!
Then I had my tutorial. Boo. It went pretty well. After my tutorial I met up with UR Emily and we went to the History of Science museum. It was the most disappointing museum I've ever been to. There was nothing in there and nothing was older than the 16th century. It was all the same stuff too. They'd have 50 microscopes and 20 cameras. And nothing was well labeled.
For dinner we went to the Eagle and Child pub. It's were Tolkein used to go hang out. It was pretty good. We ate all their ketchup.
I went to the JCR (our common room) after dinner and some girls were watching Bride and Prejudice for the Jane Austen class so I watched with them. That movie is terrible but hysterical.
Tomorrow I'm going to the Natural History and Pitt-Rivers museums and the Oxford Castle.
Love, Hannah

news from the south

2011-09-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

I don't have much news but Popop wanted a report! Classes are going fine but a lot of work. I've been going to Savannah to visit Adam most weekends but this weekend he visited here. We finally went to downtown Macon which was actually pretty nice, and found a mall nearby. We went to Atlanta for the day on Friday and went to two movies... Drive and The Help. Drive was way too violent for my taste... I almost left in the middle. The Help was great. The south is pretty much the north but everyone is a much nicer driver and cashiers call you "baby." I'm doing well. Time to watch the Emmys!

Excuse me, but this is H.B. to Susanna and Suzanne

2011-09-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Shelia!

2011-09-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

Random Info.

2011-09-15T09:48:00.001-07:00

Some of you may curious as to why I would post this picture. I'll tell you why. I met the bald man. During my physics class last night when he introduced himself as our prof. No joke. My prof is in a sideshow act. He will be leaving our class for like 3 weeks during the semester because he has to do shows. He calls himself The Great Orbax. Apparently that's what we are supposed to call him too. He didn't quite clarify. He actually knows what he is talking about when it comes to physics, so have no fear. Me and my roommate have his class together which is nice because his class is from 7pm to 9:50pm and walking back in the dark can be a little scary.He's really funny and I stayed awake the whole class. He doesn't like kids sleeping in his class. His rule for a student sleeping is letting all the other students know and then pointing a laser pointer in the student's eye until he or she wakes up. If we know this will happen to us ahead of time he won't get in trouble. The class was mostly a blur and I didn't retain much but he didn't expect us to because we basically did an entire unit in one class. Luckily waves and stuff are the last thing we covered in physics last year. So I'm all set. It's actually a relatively small class, which is nice.

Next topic is winding your toy. Some of you may know what that is because I've already explained it to you. For those of you don't know,I found some clips on youtube of our peprally. So know you will have a visual. I don't know if I explained the peprally. If I did already I apologize because I'm going to explain it again. The peprally, which took place on Sept. 5 this year, is mostly just for first years and OVs (orientation volunteers). The first years are lead by our residence presidents. Hee. Anyway, the prez of each rez is required to come up with a dance to compete with the other rezzes. I couldn't find my dance but I found the OV's dance or as they call it, the boogie. Every dance is required to have the winding of the toy which is a U O Guelph tradition. It's easy to spot in the dance because the minute they start doing it the crowd starts cheering. It was like that for all the dances. Our dance kicked ass, but apparently the judges didn't agree. Another part of the scoring is our pep. Whoever cheers the post for themselves and for everyone else is a big plus in the judge's books. Our house cheer was WHAT SERVICE??!! ROOM SERVICE!!! Get it. 'Cause we live in a hotel. We also had some Guelph cheers that you could see in the youtube video if you decide to watch it.

Okay, I amnow going to vent a little. Not much I promise. It might not make sense, but bear with me.

For Calc we have to have these course notes and now I find out we need the calc textbook as well. This normally wouldn't bother me but it costs a lot. I went to the bookstore to buy but apparently they only sell the text and notes combo or just the notes. Not the text. so I went to the co-op bookstore. They didn't sell it seperately either. So I have to buy it via thecannon.ca which is actually cheaper, but still a lot of effort. I guess I'm mostly pissed because instead of taking a nap or doing my reading for class tomorrow, which will be done this afternoon, I spent my morning running around campus. End of vent.

So after all that I came back to my room. I then proceeded to start my chem homework. I got all the questions correct so far. Ialso signed up for physics labs and copied all of my notes. So all in all a pretty productive morning. Oh I also decided to switch it up and get a pumpkin spice latte instaed of a vanilla one. It was pumpkin spicy. I kinda liked it. They have this rule where first years aren't allowed to use their meal cards to pay for anything before 2pm. So to punish them I paid all in quarters. Hee Hee Hee. They have awakened the beast within.

So I started typing this around 12:45 pm. The reason it is taking me so long to write is because I am also eating a delicious lunch from the Bullring. It's a salad. I had a scone for breakfast. It was okay. I have lost feeling in both legs now because I have been sitting on the floor for close to an hour now. Why you might ask. It's because the best internet connection is under my desk. Hmm what else? It's chilly out. I'm afraid I've started talking like a Canadian. I also tend to get kid of defensive whenever someone brings up the US. I have no problem making fun of it, but I don't like it when others do. Thankfully it doesn't come up much.

OK I'm done.

Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbjitrgo-qI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfrAEAhMKek&feature=related

just copy and paste I don't know how to make it blue

Trouble @/c flickr

2011-09-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else had this problem in the last week: I select 9 pictures, put them on my desktop, and flickr put 52 picturts up. For example, I put one full length image of a person, it puts that up both the person and the head shot. This includes parts of trees.

Classes

2011-09-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! It has been 10 days since Mom and Dad abandoned me here. I guess I have to forgive them because I was the one who chose this school in the first place, but that's whole other story.

So Thursday was my first day of classes. This week we only had to attend lectures, so I didn't have to go to labs and seminars. On Thursday I have calculus in the morning (8:30 Gah) and a bio seminar in the afternoon. So naturally I only went to the calc class because of the previous text written. I got up at 7 am to shower and stuff then at 7:30 am I left to go to breakfast. The campus was mostly deserted because who in their right mind would choose to have a class that early in the morning, aside from me. I didn't know what to do for breakfast mostly because I was feeling sick with fear and I had a feeling I might not of been able to keep down what I ate. So of course I went to Starbucks. Now those of you who know me really well know that I do not drink a lot of coffee. Well actually I don't drink any coffee because it's nasty, sort of like what ever that women found in the wood shed in Cold Comfort Farm. So instead of that I was thinking about having a hot chocolate. But when I got up there that is not what came out of my mouth. The previous night I had been texting with Susi and I was telling her that I was thinking about trying something caffeinated to wake me up for class, but I wanted it to be warm because it was starting to cool down. So she suggested a latte of some sort. Now my roommate, Marissa, also suggested this. When I woke up that morning I had lost my nerve so I was just gonna have hot chocolate, which is when I said a vanilla latte instead. I have no idea what you're thinking, but I was thinking crap what if I hate and end up not drinking it and then falling asleep in class. And it's not like I could go back and change it because who drinks hot chocolate in college. I have an image to maintain you know. Just kidding, but it still would have been weird. I also got pumpkin bread because it's my favorite. I took my latte and pumpkin bread and sat outside. I took a sip of my latte and it wasn't too bad. My pumpkin bread, however, had raisons in it. I tried to eat around them for awhile but I gave up and threw it out. I did finish my vanilla latte though. Back to classes. I was feeling rather nervous about them so I called home around 7:45 am. I talked to Mom and Dad. I don't really remember what we talked about, but I think it made me feel better. I asked Mom if going to class 30 minutes early would be a little too weird. She said I should wait until about 8:15. I went anyway. I was pleased to find that I was not the only one there early. There were about 10 other people there. When class started I was starting to feel better. In class we mostly she mostly talked about the course outline. When we started to review material I was pleased to find that I knew what she was talking about. Well mostly. The she I refered to is my prof. I can't remember her name which I guess doesn't really matter because she is getting married in a month anyway.

The next class I had was Italian. Which was on Friday morning. It was a 9:30 class, which would be totally fine under normal circumstances, but I stayed up watching Troy until 2 in the morning with some people in my hall. I had another latte in the morning. There were about 125 people in my class which my prof said was more than she has ever taught before. She's American. That may not seem like a big deal to you guys, but being surrounded by Canadians all day can be tiring. And not to mention being one of a few Americans in my class I kind of stand out. I guess thinking that people are talking about looney tune when they say looney is not correct. Anyway, when I found she was from Boston and went to BU and Cornell I wanted to introduce myself. When I told that I was from the US and I was excited to meet another American, she threw her head back and laughed. I have only ever seen people do that in movies, never in person. Besides the fact that she is American I really liked her. I have a feeling that Italian will prolly be one of my favorite classes.

Later that day I had chem. Chem was the class I was most worried about. I still am. Mostly because I did terrible in that class in high school. The prof was wearing a shirt that had hydrogen on it, like from the periodic table. And he was wearing chucks. He was a little bit intimidating, but he seemed nice. I have noticed that the profs here want you to succeed. They don't want us to fail, which is nice. They all seem really nice and some are even funny. The chem class didn't really get rid of my worry. I mean since we didn't start learning anything I don't know if I remember anything.

I have only 3 of my 5 classes and so far they seem ok. Saturday I still had to wake up early because I had decided to go to Niagara Falls with the other international students. I love Niagara Falls but this wasn't as fun as my friend Heather and I had anticipated. I won't go into too much detail because it was a long day. We left at 9 am and got back at 9 pm. I slept in until noon today. I literally just woke up and started posting this. If you would to know more feel free to email me. I don't feel like writing anymore. I am now going to watch Doctor Who online.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!

2011-09-09T18:38:00.001-07:00

We had a nice b'day celebration for Isaac at Johnson House. Beside Madhu, the Talleys, Madhu/Chhibers and us were there.

First Day of School for Nick & Laura

2011-09-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

First day of school for the twins. It was a bit chaotic. I had forgotten to fill out their forms, the dog need walking and Nicky forgot his backpack. We did get to school on time and managed to take a picture. Laura was really exited and nervous, Nicky was mostly nervous until he saw his teacher, he has the same ones as last year. Most of the boys are the same from last year and also some of the girls. Laura also had kids she knew in her class.

have you seen this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcYbo7pjto

Bullring

2011-09-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hiya

2011-09-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ok so the title is a little bit more cheerful than reality, but I didn't know what else to put. I thought it was time I posted about school. I would like to say that Canada sucks so mom and dad will come get, but it's not all bad. I like my roommate. She gives off that quiet awesome vibe, like me! She enjoys Harry Potter so she's good in my book. The rest of the house seems a little sketchy. Their main priority is drinking and partying it seems like. It's ok because we can't really hear them.

So far I've been pretty busy. I went to this orientation for international students where I met a girl from Rochester New York. No joke. She is real nice. After the international thing mom and dad and Susi came and moved me into my room. I have a queen size bed, a bathroom, a tv and a mini fridge. It kind of rocks. I've been trying to go to as many events as I can because the busier I am the less homesick I feel. I went on a lot of campus tours. I feel pretty confident about my whereabouts now. I even went to a yoga class held outside in the early morning. The grass was a little wet, but whatever.

Classes haven't started yet, but I have been preparing myself for them. I was super nervous when I first got here, but I have been talking to people and they have eased my nervousness. We have been attending group meetings with people who are in the same program and talking to an upper year student in the same field. I also went to this meet the profs thing, which they described as speed dating. It was actually nice. All of the Profs were really nice and gave me good advice on how to succeed in my first year. It is also reassuring to know that I am not the only one feeling nervous about classes. Classes start on the 8th. Which is the same day I can get my bus pass.

I am going to dedicate a whole paragraph to the food places because I think they deserve it. The food here is hard to describe. Whenever I describe the food at the U of R I would use words like suckish or crappy, but those words would never ever be used to describe the food here at Guelph. You hear upper year students saying how good the food is here to new students and future students, what you wouldn't believe is that it's actually true. All the meals I've had here have been real great. My favorite place so far has been the restaurant called The Bullring. Which was actually a bullring back in the day. With like real bulls and stuff. Ask mom and Susi they know.

I'll post again after classes start. I must go now for there seems to be drunks in denial out in the hall. There was also some pounding on our door.

This morning, @ 6:40

2011-09-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

First day of school.

2011-09-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

It seems that tetherball connects to something in the corgi soul:
corgiball

2011-09-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

in this week's New Yorker, I felt it was there just for me.

Hannah's Room with a view.

2011-08-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Letter from Hannah, my emphasis

2011-08-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Things are good. Yesterday morning I got settled in and waited for other house members to arrive. There are five of us here right now. Kazia (pronounced Kaja), Lauryn, Jessica, Chelsea, and me. Apparently I've settled into the wrong room. Lindsay (staff member wo picked us up at the train station and showed us our rooms) got mixed up and put me in Nicole's (who isn't here yet) room. By the time we figured it out, I had already completely unpacked, so Lindsey said I could just stay there. I hope Nicole doesn't mind. It's the best room with the best view. It's the only room in this house that is meant to be a single, so it's cozy. I'll send pictures after Nicole gets here just incase she wants me to move. I hope she doesn't care. We're also waiting on Heather.

Our house has four bathrooms. The one by my room on the top floor is a huge room with just a shower and a sink. Next down is a bathroom attached to Jessica and Lauryn's room. It have two vanities, a sink, and a bathtub with no shower attachment. It is also carpeted. Then there is a bathroom with just a toilet and a sink on the landing. The last bathroom is in the basement by the kitchen. It has a toilet, sink and shower/bathtub.

Our kitchen has two fridges and a freezer. It has a stove (either the stove itself or the burners are called hobs, which makes no sense) that has a grill (a little oven) and an oven (another little oven) attached. Then we have a little washer and drier. They gave us a "welcome pack" of food, which included pasta and sauce, which we had for dinner.

We have a common room on the first floor that has several couches, a TV with VCR and DVD player, a desk, a guitar, some books, and some movies. The movies included BBC Pride and Prejudice (VHS), two Sense and Sensibilities (DVD), Persuasion (DVD), Bridget Jones's Diary (DVD - we watched it last night), Stardust (DVD), Clueless (DVD) and The Fellowship of the Ring (VHS). Kazia has never seen the Lord of the Rings, or read all the way through them. The common room is where we have the wifi, but it it currently reaching all the way up to my room.

This morning we were picked up to go to Nelson House and Masonic hall for various orientation things. We were given our food allowances for the next couple of weeks. We were also given tea, coffee, and biscuits. We had a tour of Nelson House, then allowed to leave for lunch before we had to come collect our books and go to various meetings if they applied to you (nothing applied to me, so I had a lot of free time). We (Kazia, Emily [from the U of R], another Emily [I think], and me) went to a sandwich place and brought them back to Nelson house to eat in the common room in the basement. It was pretty delicious. We chatted for a long time and eventually other people started showing up and it was a fun chatting without actually getting to know anybody time.

I got textbooks for two of my classes (Tudor and Stuart England, and Renaissance Politics). One was used. If the previous owner had left marks in them, they were free. Mine had no marks :(.

So apparently John Cleese lives in Bath. He's away right now, though. Jonathan Hope, the Dean of the program, told us we might see him, and I got excited about it. I was mentioning it later to Jamie (the only boy here right now) and he didn't know who John Cleese was! He's never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Or Fawlty Towers! Also, Sir Ian McKellen is currently doing a play here that we might try to see. I don't know what it's called.

We also had a meeting about social things. I took an application to sign up for volunteering at the dogs and cats home to walk dogs. I also signed up as interested in volunteering at Bath Abbey. It sounds really cool, but I don't know if being a tour guide is for me. We'll see.

We were given a shopping tour of the city. It wasn't wrong, but I got completely disoriented and couldn't figure out how to get home. Luckily other people knew, and we made it home without getting hit by cars, which has happened apparently. Also, apparently there have been several ASE student marriages in the past, either within the program or with English people they meet here. They don't get married while they're on the program, obviously, but later.

I'm liking it here, so far. Everyone seems to be nice. I miss you guys, though. I think that's all for now.

the storm

2011-08-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

We are all fine, the power is on.
The city is unusually quiet. As you may know the transit system was shut down.
Is the weather effecting Hannah's travel plans?
How was the party?

DOJ

2011-08-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Suzi and I have been discussing dates for next year. August is bad for Jay. C&S, would you be back by the last week of July?

i live in Georgia now

2011-08-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

A week ago today Adam and I started driving down here (he in his van, me in my Camry). It took us about 3 full days. The first day we hit heavy rain around New Jersey and ended up staying in Delaware rather than our intended destination, Baltimore. The New Jersey turnpike was terrible. I was gripping the steering wheel for dear life. But we survived! 12 hours of driving that first day, and the second day what we thought would be a 6 hour day turned into 12 hours. We stayed in Benson, North Carolina that night. The next day we stopped at a bizarre Disney World-esque place, South of the Border, SC. Anyone else been there? Terrible food, super weird. Arrived in Macon about 7pm. My house is very cute, with a huge outside back porch, big backyard, big kitchen, 3 bedrooms. My room was already furnished with a queen sized bed, dresser, desk and TV with cable! Pretty sweet. My roommates are both very very sweet and have really strong southern accents. One is a med student, one is law.

Macon itself is not very nice. There's a lot of crime, apparently, and not a lot going on. Just Burger Kings and gas stations. I've found one nice area with a couple good grocery stores.

Campus is really nice (voted one of the top 4 most beautiful campuses by Princeton Review and I suppose well deserved). But kind of giant and I got super lost the first day. I'm taking Intro to Literary Studies, Fiction Writing, American Romanticism, and Intro to Global Health (thought I was signing up for nuitrition but this is more like health care policies and stuff...). No classes on Fridays so I'm in Savannah visiting Adam. It's about a 2.5 hour drive, and very easy. Today we went to a diner called Clary's with his roommate. In Forrest Gump, it is the diner where Jenny waitresses.

Well, it's not Senegal but it does seem very far from home!

The Ferrari

2011-08-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to Eastview mall to finish shopping for Fall and eat. While Ashwani and I waited for the girls by the restaurant, we watched a guy in a very new red Ferrari. He was maybe 60, white hair, shorts, sneakers, kind of wiry. His girlfriend (?) maybe thirty, heavyish, very tattooed, inadequate sundress, not permitted to smoke in the car. They waited for the valet parker to show up. Then we saw them in the restaurant. He had left a note under his wiper. To the valet? They had to wait for a table, but he kept bouncing up to check on his car. A lot of people stopped to stare at this car.
Then, when we were leaving, we noticed a cop giving the Ferrari a ticket. The girls got back out of our car to watch. Everyone stopped to watch. It was like a community event; the weather was lovely.

The Lake

2011-08-24T17:08:00.001-07:00

sarapicassa's photostream on Flickr.

Photos on flickr

Noah posted.

2011-08-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

No new pictures, though.:(.

Yay!!

2011-08-18T13:48:00.001-07:00

She did it!

2011-08-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. Madhu with her advisor.

Bhuaji returning to India today

2011-08-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

It was very nice having Vinod here, she will be missed.
Spider web on the way up the hill to say goodbye.

The East North Coast

2011-08-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

The new stage, scenes from the Tempest, Nicky was Ariel,

Week end in NY

2011-08-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Madhu went to a play both Sat. and Sun., Chiara and I went to the Guggenheim one afternoon, nice. Drive home with the 3 kids was long, the sky was gorgeous.

the weekend

2011-08-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice weekend with Janice and Madhu. We had tickets to see the RSC. Chandran went with Madhu on Saturday to see Julius Caesar, I went on Sunday with Madhu to see As you Like it, it was fantastic. On Sunday we also met up with Junu and went to the new Saravanaa's on the west side. Not as good as the one downtown. Janice And Madhu went off this morning taking the kids with them. We will be going up tomorrow.

Noah posted.

2011-08-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

hotel wales, nyc

2011-07-30T05:23:00.001-07:00

Nicky and Laura slept with us at the hotel. This picture woke them up. Their living room is painted.