Home is where the work doesn't get done.

Once again, I can't believe its already Thursday. As I start writing this post, I am currently at Praneetha's house after a double sleepover (my house is being painted right now and is thus filled with noxious fumes, cold, and loud music). I arrived Tuesday evening with my Physiology textbook, a bundle of clothes, and three lipsticks. We ate, played poker, and I studied. Praneetha's photoshoot was the next day (hence the lipsticks) and I would be helping her get ready. She, along with three other pals of mine who learn from Jothi Aunty are having their arangetrams this summer, so they need nice photographs of themselves to put on the arangetram invitations and brochures.

We awoke excessively early the next morning (at 6:30). Praneetha, her mom, and I picked up Ramya and her mom, and drove to Jothi Aunty's house, where we met Neha and Shweta and their moms. The next two hours were filled with getting the girls all made up as if they were about to go on stage. This includes several layers of foundation, powder that lightens the skin by 5 shades, enough eyeliner to give the "raccoon" effect, and RED lipstick. Also, their hair needed to be weaved and braided into complex arrangements that allowed them to wear flowers (fake jasmines) in it. For the first time, I realized what an involved and lengthy process by doing it on another person.

I spent the first hour coloring everyone's toes and the outline of their feet with red Sharpie (of course that's my job...I am the expert, remember?) and undertaking other such degrading jobs. Luckily, I wore waste clothes so it didn't matter that I got red smudges all over them. We finally left Westford at around eleven, and drove all the way to Belmont to the photo studio. Tensions were still running high as people needed their eye makeup fixed or hair smoothed down before they were called down for the photographs. And then we spent close to 5 hours taking 4 sets of photographs in 12 different poses and 6 different close up shots. If you look at my arangetram invitation and brochure, you'll see just a few of these.


Oh mannn. It was so exhausting and I wasn't even in it this time! I was reminded of the stress I went through last year, what with the whole dance business and that Global Voices performance I had to give and upcoming graduation and prom and all that.

Ramya, Praneetha, their moms and I drove home pretty exhausted after the lengthy photoshoot and several hilarious pictures of our own. At Praneetha's we and a bunch of kids tried playing things like baseball, monopoly, and poker (all of which failed) and just ended up going to bed soon after, at around 11. We were so very tired.

Got up in the morning, and crammed as much Physio in as possible. On the bright side, I now know how the body regulates its salt and water balance. Will have some really awesome pictures up soon, so check back.

@---;----

Tra la la la laaaa

I am at home! For the past two days, I have been sleeping on time, eating food regularly, and playing soccer outside. I should study more.

Wheeee

Holi Cow!

It was cold. It was wet. It was gloomy.

And then there were colors! Of course, the crummy weather didn't stop us from celebrating Holi, as if college students w0uld ever pass up the chance to attack their friends with colored powder and dump each other into the mud.

Being on the board of the Hindu Student Council (yeah, that's right) I went to the HUB at 1:00 and sold Holi t-shirts for a few hours. Karthik and I then went running at Rec Hall because one of us came up with the clever idea that if we arrived at the Holi celebration all hot and sweaty, the cold wouldn't bother us as much and the colored powder would stick better. So at 5 PM we started the color splashing. In the beginning, when it was still somewhat organized, we handed out little paper cups with colored powder in them and people tossed them onto each other. Later on, it was easier to just rub oneself onto another.

Several people also got dumped with pails of water or pushed into the mud. It was fun, as long as you weren't the victim. By 7 PM, we were thoroughly drenched with water, mud, and colors. My hands were frozen solid and I was exhausted from attacking people or dancing to the background bhangra. Ramya and I went home, showered, and agreed to do our Holi laundry together. My t-shirt and sneakers look really cool right now.

Nothing much happened during the rest of the weekend, except feelings of relaxation and happiness that I will be going home in 4 days. YESSSSSSSSSS

Ohhhhhhh.

Oh Oh Oh Oh Ohhh. My head.

Took two exams today, Physics and Organic Chem. Think I did fine, but have definitely been stressing out a lot the past week and half and it's finally over. Really need to shower and go to bed, but cannot resist blogging. Am very relieved. Watched She's The Man just now in celebration. Should start using the word 'I'.

Anyhow, I've got a few more pieces of business to finish here, and then I can go home for a week! Yes, I'll be in Bedford the weekend after the next so I can chill with my Massachusetts pals during their April break and perhaps study for finals in relative quiet. Finals! Aaaaagh why are they so soon??

Some other things to look forward to: the weekend! I haven't had a weekend for quite a while. And on Friday, we'll be celebrating Holi by throwing around colors and splashing each other with water on the HUB lawn! I really cannot wait and will post up some awesome pictures.

Okay. I'm out.

The month of worms

So it's been raining a lot lately, and when I say "a lot", I mean that it has rained thrice within the past week. It's also sort of warmish, so it is the season when the small invertebrates of our hemisphere start to reproduce like...small invertebrates.

I'm talking about the worms. After it rains, they crawl out from their soily hideouts underneath our lawns and lounge on the pavement until they get stomped on by students, run over by skateboards, or gobbled up by beasts larger than themselves. A mixture of emotions wells up inside of me when I see these pathetic little creatures. I feel disgust when I see a not-dead-yet worm inching front of me by way of peristalsis, the same method of smooth muscle contraction that moves food down our esophaguses (nature is gross, isn't it?). I feel pity that it has little or no control over its destiny. Who's to stop me from squelching the life out of it using nothing but my sneaker?

But there is also envy. Yes...a bit of envy that the little annelid is never going to have to experience things like a brain tumor, cold sores, or back pain. Nor will it have to experience anxiety from upcoming exams or decide what to wear tonight. If it has survived long enough to have children, it's job is done. It's selfish genes have been preserved for yet another generation.

It can eat dirt, act intoxicated, and no one tells it what to do. It can't get any lower. I think I may want to be a worm in my next life.

Dancerific!

Helloooo my blogreaders,

Turns out I'm going to India this summer, the day after my finals let out. And I'm going to return a week before my MCAT, right at the end of August. So I guess I won't be seeing my pals all summer :(:(
I know, I know, we did just go to India, but who can resist? Turns out we have several weddings to attend and my parents desperately want us to go as many times as possible before I begin my 4 years of Hell (a.k.a. medical school).

The last few days were pretty action packed:

Friday night was Bhangra Resurrection: a huge party where everyone comes together dances Bhangra until either their feet give out or we lose the room. Oh boy! I really do love Bhangra and to prove it, I have two large blisters on both of my big toes from the repeated jumping and breaking-it-to the beats of the dhol. It was massive fun. We have a bunch of dance teams at Penn State...minus Bhangra (very sad).

On Saturday, Ramya's parents and sister came from Philly, so we had a nice dinner with them at a VietThai. From there, we drove over to the Eisenhower Auditorium where there was DANDIA ON FIRE!!! No, nothing caught fire...Dandia on Fire (DOF) is a massive competition where collegiate teams perform Raas, another style of dancing. This one comes from Gujarat. There were 9 teams and the University Maryland won the competition, getting the opportunity to advance to the next level of competition, Raas All Stars in Texas. Of course, all of the teams performed excellently, along with Penn State's own Ghamudyaaz. Paul Varghese (comedian, NBC's Last Comic Standing) made for a pretty freaking hilarious emcee. I may actually like him better than Russell Peters.

On Sunday, I went to Puja where we ended up having a really long Bhajan just because we actually had a tabla player present. After that, we went to Indian Pavilion for a nice Ugadi brunch. Ugadi is the Telugu New Year.
Monday was rather uninteresting, except during the morning when I woke up 10 minutes before Ochem, ran to Shivam's room, and tossed him my lecture problem. He was supposed to go to Ochem that day to hand them in, but slept in until a few minutes before the class ended. Luckily, he woke up in time, ran to class, and just managed to hand them in. Props to Shivam for that one.

And then, yesterday, we finally performed our rat surgeries! This was actually pretty bad planning on the part of the bio department, for scheduling our surgeries on the same day that the 9 page lab report was due, especially since many people pulled all-nighters. It is never wise to have sleep deprived college students performing unilateral ovariectomies on rats and expect them (the rats) to survive. But somehow, the surgeries were pretty successful, apart from the fact that Jon and Shivam's group made a massive incision into their rat's abdominal muscles and had to give it 15 sutures. Now, we just have to wait and see if the rats survive until their autopsies, two weeks from now.

Today was pretty uneventful except for the fact that I ran 3.5 miles after eating nothing and then stole 2 slices of pizza + 3 breadsticks from the dining commons.

By the way, about the India thing: April Fool's.
Guess you'll have to put up with me this summer after allllllllllllll....