Supriya Uchil

I am off to Africa on Tuesday - morocco, ghana, kenya and south africa. I am so excited. I am really looking forward to it. My first year at school is over. Yahoo!!!!!

Last evening, I went for a long walk by the river. The sunset reflected in the water and the changing colors bought up memories of Seattle, the mountains and the Puget sound.

I have been in a reflective mood lately. I have several good friends in Philadelphia now, and am over the socializing hump. I also learnt that I need to tone myself down a bit when I am interacting with new people. My exhuberance for life is sometimes mistaken for other things.

Anyway the walk by the river helped me calm down and think of what I wanted in life. I have decided to take the summer off and travel to South America, meet my Italian model friend Francesca and live life.

Yahoo! The celebrations started on Thursday night where I organized a get together for my class. Tons more people from different classes showed up and finally I just got bored of meeting new people and left. Today Ameet my brother arrived and we went to the lovely restautrant called Alma de Cuba. Excellent food, Audrey you will love this place. Just got back home. Tomorrow we are doing touristy things in Philly and then having a dinner for 10 people at my place. Tomorrow night is an Indian party so will be going for that. Sunday is a social event from a neighbouring building so I am gate crashing the pool party. School on Monday at 8:00am. Fun times, really enjoying myself.

Happy Bday to me!!!! 

I just finished two weeks in school. The schedule goes like this - set alarm for 6am. Wake up at 7:30am, rush to school for 8:30am or 9:00am class. Then fall asleep in class. Running through economics, statistics and accounting. Also take calculus which is a pre requisite. Took a mandatory math exam on the 15th and just found out that I cleared it so my prerequsite for grad school is done. Accounting is very very very boring. Barb I am so proud that you are a CPA, I dont know how you do that. Just getting close to the accounting class makes me sleepy. Stats and Economics are very interesting. Classes last 5pm, come home, grab a bit, go to the gym. Study study study, then go out partying every single night from 9:30pm till 2:00am. Come back home and try to sleep. Set alarm for 6:00am. I am so partied out and so socialized out! I am also having so much fun. I am totally loving it.

Set alarm for 6am to go to gym and reach school at 8:30am. Woke up at 7:00am. Took one whole hour to decide outfit, did not change outfits again and again. Just decided and wore a green silk skirt, white full sleeved shirt and a brown scraf with white polka dots to match brown handbag. Stepped out of building, started sweating because of the heat. By the time I reached school shirt is completely wet.

Enjoyed welcome breakfast and went into social overdrive. Comedian in me emerged, to the point that people came over and introduced themselves. Met Rahim, my buddy from pre term days. Gave him hard time for not writing. Met two friench guys, did the bonjour thingie. Met Angela, another welcome weekend person. Scheduled lunch for Saturday. Shirt still completely wet and people now starting wondering whether I had emptied a water bottle on myself. Drinking lots of water to keep myself cool.

Went and looked into immunization requirements, had packed lunch of dal, rice and spinach at 10:45, ate cherries and carrots. Mum, noone laughed at my carrots. Then went to several information seminars. Went into social reverse drive. Wanted to hide in bathroom a lot. Went home and read, going to gym and them going for welcome reception at 7:30pm. First day ends. Tomorrow classes begin, calculus and integration. Eeeks.

Surprisingly I dont feel excited about it. I dont know why. I have been busy helping Irene get setup in her apartment next door. The girl who I met at welcome weekend from Holland (originally from Indonesia) suddenly turned up as my next door neighbour. She is also an excellent cook so I have been at her place a lot helping her assemble furniture and listening to her sing the opera. 

I now have two friends - Sel from England and Ghana and Irene from Indonesia and Holland. Tomorrow I will meet eight hundred or so new students.

Priyas Dad writing this post.

For the first time I entered a highway of six lanes with contradictory advise from my dear daughter. She said to me once watch the blind spot. I was looking for a blind spot to park my car when still in the fast lane. I was looking at the drivers side view mirror and i did not see any cars. I looked at my daughter who is still concerned about the blind spot. Finally I turned back and saw whether any cars are touching my bumper. Fortunately there were none. I drove around ten miles perfectly from my point of view. However, my daughter will all the tensions written on her face bluntly told me to pull over to the next exit. Well story ends. 

Dad knows the ambassador of Liberia and we got invited for the Independence Day celebration of Liberia in Washington DC yesterday. We drove down from Philly, Dad wanted to stop for an obligatory meal no. 10 (fish fillet) and strawberry milk shake at McDonalds on the way. He loves the milk shake and was happy slurping away at it.

The celebration was excellent, we saw several people with Liberian attire. The colors of the headress and gowns are just gorgeous. We heard the Liberian national anthem and had a pretty good time. I am glad we went and am excited to see whether I can figure out a way to help the country while still in school.

Yesterday my friend Saurabh made me feel guilty about not cooking for my father. Dad has been doing a lot of the cooking and assembling of furniture, while I have been whining about how much work there is to do but not really doing anything.

So today I made Dad tandoori chicken, it turned out really well. On Friday I am inviting a bunch of the newcomers to dinner at my place and I will make tandoori chicken again.