The Summer of 2011

As the sun gets more hotter and the days become muggy and humid, the life in carbondale conspicuously  irks  in the mid-day of August. However, the greenish environment and the schools dynamics with new students keeps the city cunningly vibrant and beautiful, leaving back the spatio-temporal memories of climate in the horizon.

I was quite surprised and scared  to see the hives of mosquitoes that were chasing me in the garden in pleasant-hills, have never seen the mosquitoes chasing the humans like this before - was a kind of scary like a bio-mutant fiction. The passion of learning how to swim and some of the cultural shocks were common phenomena that i came acquainted in the beginning.The other day I went to hiking with Jay in Giant City, the eastern part of carbondale and see how early inhabitants of carbondale -Nomads lived in the cave hundred of years back.

The commencement ceremony drives me  to remember the time when i graduated from Kathmandu University. Although the environment looks pretty much different, nevertheless the goals remain unchanged. The new graduates were excited after the achievement they made and were flanked and in vanguard of their friends, classmates and educators. Couple of Nepali friends were graduated and we share the happiness, success and prosperity for the days ahead. Good luck and Congratulation Salukis!!

Dr. Carver’s  Linux system Administration course was not only a tech-savvy lecture but was a kind of philosophical in the sense that people knew very little about  open source , open thoughts, and freedom they can enjoy in the computing environment.  It was a humorous , interesting and mind-blogging class i ever had in my life.

The other day  as I reached the department, Jennie was showing mom’s picture in Daily Egyptian, I was a kind of surprised and shocked when mom’s picture is in front page with caption “ Gardner’s from Root of Himalayas’, We shared the happiness all the way from Carbondale to a half-way of world, Nepal. Gardening is something that's always what mom wants and she is fond of!, Finally she got her appreciation from DE. Congratulation mom! for being celebrity.

The other day we went to golf-training school in the eastern side of Carbondale. I  had realized that golf used to be the game of elites back in Nepal and its not the same in US. Tried to make the few shots and missed hitting the ball several times until Eric taught me some entry level gizmos to catch up with. It helped me to wash-up my frustration and praise Tiger wood( although i suppose he is in pain!). It was fun and excitement, and have never imagined the internal mechanics and ingenuity needed to succeed.

The summer concert in the school was one of the most exciting part of the carbondale. From bands Space Capone to Fools of Rowan, there were no words for excitement and fun, enjoying the music and dancing in the dusk. It was one of the most beautiful experience in the school in the humid  days. The 2011 Sunset Concert series comes to  an end with performance by alternative rock/pop group Fools for Rowan. “Burnt around the edges”, “Dead” Mullin’s vocal, Aron's bass and Jordan’s drum was still vibrating in the ear-drums and the vibe will be echoed inside the tributaries forever. As the bass get inside the ear-drum, it travels all the way through heart and soul, the physical body keeps on moving seamlessly, revamping and reincarnating spirit with triumph of happiness, excitement and enjoyment. Thank you guys! It was wonderful time. I loose couple of pounds!

Eric and I spend endless hours in Irish bar , taking about our dry ideologies and thoughts. Sometimes i used to drink coke, Eric likes Beer. It used to be all the way from social science to politics, from cartoons to science fiction, from celebrities to Nature, and from quantum technology to radio-active substances. As we see the world in mulch-facet and multidimensional way, it was really a tough job for us to come with some solid ideas to pacify our boiling thoughts.. It is  seamlessly interdisciplinary that has a discrete yet interrelated ideas and needs strong empirical justification , far more than quantification. We were trying to mess up sociology, economics, politics, international relations, nature, science and more importantly philosophy. Our ideas are reinforced by the susceptible and sustainable pillars of human, environmental and scientific values.

Common grounds has been the place for us to discuss the issues in free-time as we end up in playing with chess and drinking smoothies. Sometimes we play ping-pong in recreation center. Oh i learned how to swim! Yet I have to testify my null hypothesis.

The other day Eric taught me how to play poker!  I love it, he made me the gambler!..lol ;) No, that was my destiny..Oops..i should have been in Las Vegas.  And one day we end up in one of the so different house in carbondale, it was so scary and different.  I have never imagine life could be like this and people can be insanely crazy! I was so scared , finally we made out of the place at 4 in the morning and went to Eric house to sleep. Those were creepy yet scary  Friday nights in carbondale in the hot summer days.

The trip to Madison was fantastic. Oh.. i drove in the high-way for the first time. It was fun but a kind of scary-fun, a juxtapose. I have no idea how people can concentrate on driving like that. But i was more comfortable when we were coming back. 

We were lucky to attend reception ceremony of Nepali couples and was more suprised to meet one of my friend from Nepal. It was so amazing and suprising. World has been global place, you are going to meet someone whom you know wherever you go. In fact, Kathmandu is small and  has the strong social and cultural foundations that links Nepali society  perennially .  We went to see House on The Rock , it was fantastic place to see especially the infinite room, the kitchens and the lavish house itself built on the top of the rock. Then we went to see University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wow, the school looks great but i feel carbondale is better in terms of natural environment. We walked around the downtown madison, ate a pizza and took a bus to the university apartment. The previous day, i was more suprised when one of the guy acquainted with us and he asked about peace process in Nepal I  felt like world is keeping eyes wide open locally and globally.

The scuba diving was one of the most exciting adventure i ever had in carbondale and perhaps in my life. It was so much fun and interesting. At first i was scared as i even dont know how to swim properly but when we submerged inside and get assimiliated with artificial respiration system and appliances. It was so much to see the fish underneath the water, it was completely a different and exotic experiences. My instructor was awesome. I love it. Finally i have been in the surface of the earth for a long time, have fly entire world ! 360's, from East and West,  and down to the earth couple of meters in Scuba! awesome experience...

As we go to PK almost every friday night, we just get crazy and listen to local band. The clock goes to 2 in no-time and the summer was running out!.  The RSO  fair was so much fun as many people get signed  up in our RSO.

Finally, the first meeting of graduate students kicked off in Brian’s house. Thanks Brian for “Thesis-Mhessis”  It was lot of fun and the fall semester starts. Its going to be busy days again, intrinsically busy this time!! 

Enjoy the Fall and welcome back home Salukis.

P.S. ( As i am writing this blog, NYC is evacuated because of IRENE, please be cautious entire-east coaster's  we are with you ;)

After Six Months....

June 24, 2011

Carbondale, IL

The days have already started to creep, inherently long and dry, explicitly muggy and humid, life seem to freeze in the mid-day and waiting for more severe hot weather to experience. The hot weather has puffy effect in the life-style of an individual compelling them to stay inside office mansions or in an apartment. Nevertheless, days were extremely lousy most of the time but a kind of juxtapose culminated.

Trip of Kentucky to visit the biblical museum was not a noble idea proposed by Ben as we love to get indulged with atheism and secular humanism; however it was the decent idea to think the same from another facet of the cube, a metaphor for so hyped rapture. The trip was exciting when the Irene’s car got broke in the middle of highway, as we try to do drama of mechanic; the idea got flopped in no-time. Luckily, we were successful in reaching the workshop near-by with Eric’s calmness to drive, then got our car fixed and drive towards the museum. As we reach the museum, I was blatantly shocked by the comparison of Darwin’s Evolution Theory with God’s Evolution or Revolution Theory of seven days or whatever it is..!.  We walked through the each of the chambers, passing through the devout Christian each time; it was an embarrassing and illogical findings and comparisons that severely lack empirical reasoning. The movie they show at last not only undermines the achievement of human-kind in science and technology but on top of it, it uses the animation technology to describe the Christian religion and refuses to anticipate the development of science and technology. Later, we move to see the some horses and strange animals that make us feel better and finally we move towards our way after having wonderful Dinner at Meditarean, Louiseville, seeing the huge Ohio River and make our way towards Carbondale, Illinois.

The other day, Ben, Irene, and I made the wonderful hiking experience at the little Grand Canyon. It was such a memorable experience as we lost the trail and we got freeze inside the swamp. The mosquito bites seamlessly and the bruises were all over our body, a kind of scary experience but fully interesting, thrilling and adventurous when we lost the trail and had to walk straight through forest to reach parking lot.  As the Ben uses his compass compassionately, we were successful in making our way towards the parking lot and got surprised when we reach the place exactly from where we started it. It was lot of fun with so many bruises, at the end of the day, sleep was so strong and deep that I never realize it could be so beautiful and perfect unknowingly!!

The following day, we went to tear trail hiking. The hiking was very short but was memorable in a sense that we nearly got caught up by tornado when we were coming back. We got so surprised to see the power outage in the small town of Anna and sneak inside the rural ice-cream parlor to have strawberry ice-cream.

The other day, we end up in paddling boat in campus-lake and felt so sad when we saw couple of dead turtles floating in the water. Absolutely free-ride in US, never experienced something free like this!. The poor squirrel got fall from one of the tree near Campus Lake as we walking to the trail, it was staying standstill and we thought we have missed of the beautiful creature of this world. After waiting for a while, and getting disappointed about the pain of the innocent squirrel, I made the way towards it to see from near. Amazingly, squirrel ran away and head towards his/her home. Watching movie Panda in the theatre of University mall was another fun with full of laughter and amusement. It was after ages I have watched the movie like this but it was beyond my expectation and I enjoyed it so much.

Murphysboro Wine and Art Festival was so much fun with so many wine-stalls and music performed. I was so happy to see many peoples in the surrounding after a long time and it was amazing experienced as friends got drunk taking the sip of 36 different wines, they can taste! absolutely after paying the ticket price!

Band Perry performance in Herrin was one of the most wonderful moment I spend listening the live music in my life. With thousands of peoples and the beautiful weather, the chord of guitar looms far above the sky and echoes the ear-drums in the dawn. If I die young…., is a wonderful country side song sang by Band Perry, it just stretches further away very far away from this materialistic world making your tributaries in your mind relaxed.

Again, the sunset concert started this month and it was so excitement seeing another “Space Capone “band in the school. The chaos of coke and bear cans, the trash getting full in no time and crazy folks (including myself) dancing was so much fun, the indication of hot but beautiful moment of the year in door-step. It marks the end of six months in Carbondale, still inherently struggling hard to adapt in the academia and to enjoy free civilian life after a long military-service but the shadow is going farther away, melting faster than ever unknowingly.