Columbia SC, USA

A lot of people have complained about me not updating this blog.. (and I thought no one reads this) Well, since I know people are reading, I have more incentive to write. The only thing is, I doubt if I will have any exciting travels to write about for a while. Now that I am back in Cola, and school has started.. both school and my impending full-time job search is going to keep me busy and rooted here in Columbia.

I arrived in the US on Tuesday 21st Aug, late night in Charleston WV. Classes started on the 23rd, so I had to drive from Charleston to Columbia .. a 6 hour drive the very next day after I arrived. Considering I haven’t driven a car for 8months, and that my car had not been driven too for 8 months, it was not fun. First the battery in my car was dead. It was actually funny when Bean, Falguni and I tried to jump start my car.. 3 Indian girls who are clueless about cars other than just driving it (which some people have doubts about that capability too :-) ) (Photo 1: Bean and Falguni at work). Whatever Falguni did, it worked for me to drive my car to the closest Advance auto parts and have them change the car battery. The drive to Columbia itself was not that bad. I had a bunch of CD’s in the car, my I eclectic(which most people would call warped) music collection which I haven’t listened to for months helped make the 6hrs go by fast.

Thursday was my first day of classes. It is awesome to be back in school and meet up with all my classmates and catch up with them on their experiences this summer.. I had classmates returning from their internships & studies from places as far flung and diverse as China, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Morocco .. it is simply amazing!! It feels strange and at the same time exhilarating to be back in school… again a student. Though I can’t really complain.. the past few months have been very good to me :-)

I took the weekend to unpack and reorganize my apartment.. Now that I have finally finished unpacking and stocked up on groceries, it is now livable once again. It is indeed good to be back home.


Budapest, Rome, Geneva, Amsterdam..
July & August, 2007

That’s what happens when I drop the ball and stop writing- I have so much to catch up on and I don’t even know where to start…

Let me start with Budapest… a city (and people there) that I have grown to love. My last two months of the internship seemed to have just flown by. I guess it was because I was having so much fun. Thanks mostly to my wonderful colleagues. I will miss all of them.. I will miss my friend Ildiko and her great sense of humor - she “mothered” and initiated me to the Hungarian culture and has been a great colleague to work with and was my support system in Budapest. Then I will miss my lunches with Norbi and Gergo with who I have had countless meaningful and meaningless conversations (But I will NOT miss Auchen & Tesco - that's where we ate almost every day). I miss all the others from my team too .. Zsuzsa, Bea, Irina, Judit, Viktor, Marcin, Donna. I even miss the work… I will miss it even more in October when the Dealer Launch event that I had been working on most summer, will take place and I wont be there to attend it and see the fruits of my labor. Oh well… at least I have had great experiences. Below are some pictures from our (Matt, Zack and mine) farewell party. It was an outdoor event and we got rained on, but it still did not deter everyone from having fun and letting their hair down – literally!!!

At the farewell Party at Romkert

GM Crew
At Romkert ... Dancing in the rain

Rome, Italy
July 20th - 23rd 2007

My first trip to Italy! I wish I had more time though in Rome. And while I am wishing, I wished I had traveled to Rome earlier in the year. Yes, it was beautiful and it had an overwhelming number of places I wanted to visit, but it was so HOT!! My advise.. avoid going to Italy in July! Yes, most places are hot in July, but in a place like Rome, you will be spending almost all the time outdoors and walking in the city... And in the heat - how much ever amazing historic sights exists trust me - it is not fun. Still, that does not mean I did not have a good time. How could I not have a good time... I had good company - Logan flew down from Geneva. Monika, my host mom from Tubingen traveled to Rome to meet with me. Jeff, Matt and Emily from the IMBA program flew in from Berlin, Budapest & Lyon respectively to Rome. How could it not be fun! (Photo: Jeff, Emily, Matt, Logan, I, Monika)


Geneva, Switzerland
August 16-19th 2007

I did not realize that Geneva shares the border with France. And I thought my geography was good. I guess it is not.. after all I am living South Carolina, and as our teen representative mentioned some people like such as, in our US America nation don't have maps like the Iraq or South Africa such as ;-)


Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 19th - 21st 2007

This is my second trip to Amsterdam this year. I hated it the first time, and thought I need to give it a second chance. It did not help.. I still do not like it. It is probably the filthiest city I have seen in Europe. Ok .. hate is probably too strong a word to use .. I did not dislike it that much .. it was just my expectations were a lot higher so I was disappointed with the city. However, I must admit the 2 places that I would have enjoyed and perhaps would have make me like the city better - I did not visit - namely the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. I did not enough time.