TO BE TAUGHT HOW TO TEACH.

Hello Everybody.. your friendly neighbourhood chatterbox is here

well this blog will basically be about the last week. and how it started and how yours truly is slowly becoming to understand why brain drain really happens

well the next time i walk on an indian road i will have serious problems. thats for sure. cause the cars stop for you here. as in if u are standing on the side of the road and looking to cross they will just stop and let u go. well ya. there are signs at the main crossings where u basically wait for the walk sign to appear but everywhere else..its the new york state law that cars must yield to people who are walking. yipeee!! i remember in delhi. when u would be wanting to cross and the motorists would be really having there sadistic pleasure to torture you by not stopping, there would be a time when the red light would suddenly be on and rajeev and me would be dancing while crossing the road. you know . doing the jig. and making faces at the cars that stopped at the zebra. that was fun.
here when i first experienced cars stopping for you all i could say to the driver was "sorry"and later realised it was my right to walk on the road and expect them to stop !! well ...!!!

i missed the bus that takes me to baker laboratory (which is by the way one of the blocks for the chemistry department and primarily my livng quarters for the next five years) on tuesday. on monday S2 showed me where to take the bus fro. but on tuesday i was standing about five feet away from tat place. the bus stops. and leaves without stopping where i stood. and thats lesson 2.. ALWAYS STAND AT THE PLACE WHERE THE BUS STANDS! :) the walk from my present stay to baker lab is about 15 minutes. but about 1.2 km and the entire thing is steep uphill.

wednesday also i missed the bus. this time i was tied to the stop. i think i even made a mark on the grass!! :) no. just kidding. but anyways. this time the bus comes. stops. and then leaves. and the driver shows me the finger. not the middle one. the thumb. i didnt understand wat i meant. so cursing my luck i walk all the way again and realise what the driver was saying was there is a bus right behind which is less full and i should take that! well.....!!!

the program that i am attending is called teaching assistant training program. as the name suggests it trains us to be teaching assistants. which is quite nice. considering that they keep giving us food and drinks all the time. i mean really. cool aids, oreos, chips, crackers, sometimes chocolates and tropicana or some other juice.. is just kept there on the tables!! well .. it might not be a big deal for some of you. it is for me!! so u just go there. take one and sit and they give you safety trainings or play games or tell you about cornell and ithaca

well.. safety trainings are what we guys must be going through cause most of our stuff i.e. the chemicals are pretty hazardous. and especially us indians who have a tendency to pour almost everything starting from benzene to picric acid down the drain learn facts like this : the university pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage wastes such as 10M solution of hydrochloric acid. well that figure also include hazardous wastes but i focussed on the acid because for us.. well its just acid. so u put it down the drain. for the ignorant reading this blog. benzene as a liquid and otherwise is carcinogenic and picric acid is an explosive material. these guys out here are so safety cautious, if i tell them that i have mouth pippetted bromine or iodine and some of my friends have done that for benzene they would probably fall on the floor and pass out. well anyways coming back to the trainings we have had waste management trainings, fire safety trainings where a part of it was to extinguish a inflammable liquid fire with the help of a Carbon Dioxide fire extinguisher. well its cool.. i had never done that before and now i have. gives you that confidence of "been there. done that" . we also have had compressed gas safety trainings and the likes. well the trainings basically consist of a long speech (powerpoint presentation) which is usually very informative (if we are awake ) and also obvious. i mean it shows some guy deliberately dropping a flask or putting is head inside a fume hood and stuff. but then it also contains some really good stuff that we guys from unsafe labs dont really follow. for e.g. if a environmental protection agency (epa!!!! yes.. i can see the smile on those faces who have seen simpsons..the movie.i smiled too when i saw it ...well ya. they are really one of the agencies to monitor us) inspector comes to your lab and finds an open bottle..... just a bottle that u forgot to put the cap on...and thatsit.. some thousand dollars fine.

after the presentation its normally a movie. which has cheesy music .. like saxophones and stuff.. kind of like those in the movies that you dont want other people to know that you see them!!
and they normally have a story line (again...!!) with very bad actors with bad delivery. but some of that is quite funny. i mean..its not supposed to be. how can u call something funny if it shows some guy getting hit on the head by a heavy metal object. well.....it is.. cause he deliberately puts his head inside a box and doesnt bother to hold the top of the box. and so it falls and hits him on the head!

so thats about the safety programs.

then there are games that we play. mostly these are partof something called diversity trainings. where we are taught to be tolerant of other cultures. i will describe some of the games.
in the first one, half of us where given small coloured sticker dots.. basically yellow.. to be put on ourselves. we stayed inside the room and were given instructions like

1. do not look straight in the eye of someone u are talking to
2. keep at least one arm distance when u are talking to someone.
3. do not smile at someone whom you do notknow
4. do not touch someone while talking to them and do not allow the same.

the other half and green stickers on them and they went out of the room and when they came back they were boisterous. trying to start up a conversation and coming near us trying to talk to us. well .. their instruction was apparently to do the opposite of our instructions. and then after 5 minutes.. we were asked to say wat we felt.

wat this was supposed to teach ( and it did..) was that there can be people who are exactly opposite to what u think is normal behaviour and thats just part of their culture. and not something to hate or dislike just because u dont share the same views.

then we had this other game where everyone chose a card .. like playing cards and the number, 1 k q j 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 designed at what level of hierarchy they were.. but the fun part was that u couldnt see ur own card. u would just hold it on ur fore head so that everyone else could see it. but not urself. and then u were supposed to treat the other people as they should be treated. so for e.g. one of us had an A. and everybody said Hello Sir, and some even bowed to him and said your highness and stuff. while people who had 2 or 3 on their card were basicaly the lowly janitor level staff..and they would be asked to clean up spots and get the drinks and etc. my number was 8. so i was supposd to be what i am. a grad student. although it took me quite some time to realise that. and that was the game . at the end of 7-8 minutes our instructor asked us to form a line and fit ourselves in on where we thought we were supposed to be.. and it turned out that people fit themselves in quite perfectly. all the 2s and 3s at one side. and the ks, qs, and js and the a on one side basically the face cards.. on one side. when asked they responded that they got to know about their position quite early in the game while the middle people never really understood properly except that they were somewhere in the middle. and so wat we learnt was that people behave differently to others if they are at dfferent levels of hierarchy . but if u dont know what position that person is you behave normally. or u tend to.

then there was another game where all of us stood in a circle and each of us were supposed to say our name and something we liked that started with the same first initial. so it was something like this. and im trying to remember all my class mate's name by this way..

dave likes dumpster diving
mike likes marine biology
huang likes honey
jess (he is a professor but he is the tatp advisor. at least one of them) likes jersey
ling likes ligands
laura likes licorice
swapna likes sugar
jeff likes jelly
angela likes apples
sean likes sulfur
sonia likes silver
jimmy likes jeff
mark likes malt beverages
michael likes microphones
hao likes hiking
saba likes something that starts with an s.
ming likes monsters
martha likes maps
megan likes something that starts m
erica likes elephants
minh likes molestation stories
will likes weezers
ray likes to rock out
ria likes roses
alice liked apricots
chrisita likes cash.

and i think im missing out some names!! well ya.. i think i missed outone name. and well i liked something as well. lets see how many of u can guess

anyways.. these were some of the games. quite useful actually and it helped know each other well at least by names!

then there were other stuff. like campus tours. then presentations about the bus services and other travel options and how u can get a car and use it. and how much for parking and what kind of bicycles you would want to use. and what are the electronic resources in the library and how many libraries and stuff. and then library tours. then there were toursof the nmr and the protein facility. and there was this presentation called ITHACA 101 which i personally liked a LOOOT. It was given by one of the members of the staff who is director of all electronic equipment etc. Lars. his presentation basically aimed at wat and where.. so he told us about where to get groceries. and where to buy bikes. where to gets liquor. and where to party. what are the coffee shops. and how much they generally csost. where can we get cheap or even free furnitures. the farmers market. the rock shows. the bus fares and routes. everything.. alsmot everything. it was awesome.
there was also a presentation about history of cornell. which was quite informative as well. i will not go into the details of it cause its like u can get it u are really interested to know. but ya . it was definitely very informative.

we keep getting handouts. folders pens pads. you know. the normal stuff. and tats great too except tat it makes my bag heavier. everyday. we have got hand outs about how the american culture is and etc.

some of us, basically the international students are supposed to enter a program called international teaching assistant development program. thats quite fun too. we are taught english intonations. and more about the american culture and we are even given hand outs about the slangs used at cornell. :) tats quite interesting as well . i dont have the sheet with me right now. but there is one word that apparently describes the weather here during winters of no sun, snowy, very low temperatures and misty winters which is called "ithacating".

tats basically the course.. lunch happens somewhere in the university. and mostly at the campus eating places. which are good. and one thing that i have tried out and liked is something called quescadilla. .its not too different from our mutton dosa. except that the crust is harder. and the filling can be vegetable or chicken or beef or mutton. watever u order. burgers pizzas sandwiches and coffee are well mostly the routine stuff.

the bus service here and i think i ahve mentioned it is brilliant!! i mean really.one thing though. we indians normally dont wish the driver when we get on our buses in india. here they do. and we do as well. and say have a nice day when we get down. the college id card has a magnetic swipe thing which allows u to go for free any where anytime. otherwise its a dollar and fifty cents to ride the bus any time.

the place.. well ... its beautiful. and huge. quite obviously. i havent yet quite explored the entire region.. but i think i will do that by midaugust cause thats when classes start and as Lars emphasises all the time (a little too much for my comfort!) once classes start we guys are going to live at Bakers!!

well that was most of the week. I did open a bank account and it took 15 minutes and the guy Joe was literally flying on the keyboard and talking at the same time. and he was cordial and all that. Quite a shock from the banking atmosphere you see in India.

I also got a phone. finally. its a prepaid phone. and it took me about 20 minutes to get the phone get a connection and start using it. Now thats to remind myself that it took me 2.5 hours to get just a connection in calcutta this summer. well the number is obviously not for circulation and also i get charged for getting sms-es. so ..please dont msg .. those of u who have the number. the best calling time if u are calling me up is between 6:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon , indian time. if u dont have the number u can call my house and get it. which would mean u have to know my house number and that i guess acts as a filter. otherwise also. please give me some time to acclimatise and i will give u a call. u see... i havent got my first check yet! :-)

finally about my first birthday overseas.. well ... it was good. and strange. u start getting wished about 12 hrs before u realise the calendar really shows ur birthday. and it feels strange.. and im sure it might feel strange to those wishing me from india. because it did to me when i wished my brother last time. I was in India then. and i didnt realise he still had about 12 hrs to go to realise its his bday yet.. ! some of my friends insist im an indian and should follow the indian time.. well. its easy to say... when u are staying in india. and its basically just the age old concept of "frame of reference!"

anywyas.. none of my friends here knew baout it. even my roommates. but subh had msged me. and swapna some how heard me reading the msg. or saying thank u. and she spread it tothe indian group .. well .. so everyone wished me.. and they asked for treats as usual!! and well i didnt really have money. so.. i told them to wait.. although i dont really know how much i can spend.. i did earn a chocolate earlier that day cause i had answered some question correctly.:) hee hee. so tat was shared.. and well later on we did go out and have dinner. at the end of our program we went to a library to have coffee. this library also has a dvd collection which u can borrow. and if u are a student at cornell u can get 400 items ( which can include books, journals, maps, movies, cassettes video and audio, and anyhting else thats there in the libraries) for borrowing. 400. i mean tats huge. i just got two for the first time.. but imagine. 400!!! u do have a 3 day returning limit but u can renew online.. and after that we went to this place called the big red barn. its like a great hang out place for the grads.. and every friday they have something called TGIF - Tell Grads Its Friday.. where they serve beer for 1$ , soft drinks and chips and snacks for free and u can hang out there. so we went there and there were my restof the classmates waiting for me.. and they sang for me and stuff :) that was really sweet. and i thank my indian classmates for spreading the word around and everyone else for the song.. it does feel a little better if some people sing the song for you :) even if u turn 24!!! im still a studnet after all!! :)

anyways.. we excused ourselves after some time and we went to downtown ithaca to hangout. i bought a book for myself as a birthday present. Enzyme Structure and Function. Dont really know if I will read it a lot but then it was for a dollar and any music that I wanted to buy was like 6$.

By the way.. I saw LPs being sold. I dont know where to play them but if anyone has a player that plays LPs well I have got some great albums here that I can buy for cheap. I mean Atom Heart Mother for $1. It looks great!!

after walking for a while and enjoying the slow drizzle we chose a Japanese restaurant for our dinner place. Chrisita who is from the Philippines suggested it and we went and ordered mainly what she said would be good. I will try to upload one of the dishes that we had.. its called Chicken Teriyaki. The description is the following

You have two big flat pieces of chicken.
on top is brocolli and beans and carrots (all baked) . this is served with rice.. (shown on top if u are seeing the photograph)
costs about 13$.


so after that I came back to the evening hang out place I think I mentioned. Its the lounge (read common rooms ) of one of the engg. depts. and it has 6 of those reclining chairs what we normally call as Joey Chairs!!
The day ended with Ice Cream...!!! and well that was my first birthday celebrated overseas.....

Did miss the late night session at my house and mom's cakes. but then... cant help it can I?

Thats the end of this blog. It may have been long and detailed but thats what you guys are looking for right. If there is something that you might want me to add or subtract please feel free to comment. It will be nice. Also I dont know if I will be posting weekly , or biweekly or fortnightly or monthly or randomly. So if there are options given to you that you will be notified when I add a new post please add ur email address to it. Because I dont know how to do that.

My posts might suggest that I have completely adjusted but thats not true.. I am going at the normal place and its only been a week.. so I have time. What it also means that even if I may not mention it on the blogs I do miss all of you at home and friends and everyone else. So dont even dare to think otherwise..
Thats all for now folks.

Enjoy your weekends.