It’s been a long time since most of you heard from me… so I’m going to tell you everything in detail…

ABOUT THE COLLEGE/SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY

I’m studying for my Masters of Science (my degree) in Computer Science (My Major) at the University of Southern California’s (My University) Viterbi School of Engineering (my school). quite simple… isn’t it?

So… This college is ranked 6th in Computer Science and is the 3rd largest private institution in the world… Among some of the people that teach here, is Prof. Barry Boehm. he has been mentioned in some books on Software Engineering at our college level. He is the inventor of a lot of methods and fundas in Software Engineering. And he is just the tip of the ice- berg!

About the Infrastructure: KKWAGH is nothing but a small speck of dust when you consider the level of infrastructure available here… high-speed Wireless Internet Access is available 24 hours at around 85% of the campus! besides that… you are automatically created a special account for accessing the Internet from any office building/library at any time in the day. The library is open up to 10pm. Oh.. the library has around a 100 PCs for Internet access and 50 Macintoshes… and this is just ONE library among 5 libraries! The PCs here are the latest P4 Extreme Edition Dell systems with 19″ LCD monitors for each system.

The Internet speed? well… I’ll tell you the limits and you’ll realize what I’m talking about… For students… the max download limit should not exceed 3.5 GIGAbytes in two hours… and should not exceed 10GIGAbytes in 24 hours… you do the math.. how much is the expected bandwidth…! Internet Connection is available even in hostel (dorm) rooms…

All the administrative work is done online…! From registering for courses (subjects) to paying your college bills to even studying for a subject online… to getting clearance for some activity… all for the purpose of making sure that there’s minimum bureaucracy…! You want something… even a job.. just mail online.. and they’ll review it and call for an interview…! you want tickets for the big game next week… book it online a month in advance! Any activity… you name it and it’s online! Whatever’s not online… well.. they make sure that it’s professional and clear and the students don’t have to run around.

There was the time when I didn’t have degree clearance (meaning I hadn’t shown them my BE Degree) and I was blocked by one of the departments from registering for courses because of that. For this I had to go to the Degree Verification center and get their clearance… Now… when I went to their office… they told me to go directly to the registration dept and complete the task… the registration dept said that I didn’t have degree verification and I couldn’t do it… so I was sent back…

When I went back… these guys (at the degree verification office) were totally aghast, and called up the registration office and told them to allow ALL students to register! And on top of that… they APOLOGIZED to me! One of their people accompanied me to the registration office to make sure that there were no more problems… now wouldn’t you call that GOOD SERVICE? and of course value in a student! try to make that happen in any Indian colleges!

Ok… let’s move on…

For the convenience of the students… USC operates a special transportation service called “Campus Cruiser”. This is a bunch of cars (donated by Ford) that are driven by students after 5pm everyday. Think of this as a Taxi service… except that it’s for FREE. The restriction? Well.. it only goes up to 2 miles radius from Campus… but for all practical purposes that is MORE than enough!

Also, there’s a special Tram service (which is a bus service) which transports students between all the same places mentioned above and also the distant Union Station (sort of like CBS, except that it’s got train and bus terminals). This is also free….

On campus, we have a bookstore & computer store where we can buy everything from a pen to a Macintosh to an iPod… all at super discounted rates… (last I checked there was a 150$ rebate –discount– on an iPod mini… which means around Rs. 6600). We get all the phone operators selling handsets and services here at discounted rates… I got a Motorola Razr V3 for Rs, 7,700 along with a phone connection that gives me 450 minutes of free incoming and outgoing per month, in addition to 5000 free mines of calls every night and weekends. Oh.. and phone calls to people using the same operator (Cingular Mobile) as mine is free 24/7. Nice deal, don’t you think?

Now about something that’ll interest most people — FOOD: well.. we have around 30 different hotels/canteens/cafes/cuisines on campus. We get Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Mongolian, Indian, tandoori, ice-creams, Italian, Korean, Japanese, European and American etc cuisines…! oh… veg and non-veg…! And all this is at a relatively discounted rate for students… if some dish is costing around 4$ outside… it costs around 2.5$ in the campus.

We have a Multiplex on campus. Shopping malls, and a lot of other stuff… We also have an international level swimming pool, badminton court, football field (American and traditional), track and field, baseball ground, tennis, squash, and even cricket! All this is free of charge for students to use. (I intend to start using that once I’m settled in my apartment)

ABOUT THE JOURNEY

Well.. what can I say? after I went in… I went through immigration, which was no problem… just showed my documents and the lady stamped all the papers… then I went down for screening… everything else was fine… but they asked me to open my laptop bag. So, after the screening, we went to the waiting room.

There was an announcement that the flight was delayed since it arrived late from Dubai. It was late by around 40 minutes. Then we finally boarded a bit late… We first went to Bangkok… Unlike in Singapore Airlines, we were not allowed to get off the plane. they just added passengers and we started off on our way to Hong Kong.

Now the flight was delayed as it is… and when we reached Hong Kong, I had to rush down through security etc to reach the terminal which was 2 floors below in around 10 mins. So it was a LOT of rush…

I arrived late here in Los Angeles by around 30 mins. Then I went through immigration… I don’t know why… but the Immigration Officer kept saying… “The school must really like you!” I still don’t know why he was saying that!

So after that, I picked up the bags (that took a long time because they sent the bags to the wrong carrousels (the place where the bags are to be picked up). I met a guy (Paresh) there who was also heading to USC (he was an old student). He offered to put me up in his place for a few days. He seemed ok… so I agreed. I went to his place (which was near campus), and messaged dad, and also contacted Deepak (my friend from Nasik who’s studying here…).

Deepak called me up on Paresh’s phone and told me to pick up my bags and wait downstairs. He was getting a Campus Cruiser to pick me up so that we could go to his aunt’s place. So I left the biggest bag at Paresh’s place and picked up the other two and went to the college campus to catch a College Tram (College Bus) that goes to Union Station (I mentioned it before… kind of like Bus terminal + Train station).

Now, his aunt lives in Simi Valley. Which is around 1 and 1/2 hour journey from the college. It takes around half an hour to reach the Union Station from College. After we reached, I went up to the platform while Deepak went to get the tickets. A few minutes before the train left, he came back and we boarded the train. Actually he hadn’t got the ticket for me because the line was loooong and the next train was 3 hours later… which means we would’ve reached his aunt’s home by 11pm. By this train, we’d reach around 8pm. So we got onto the train, and bought the ticket on the train.

Now, the trains there are like triple deckers! Three floors. The lowest floor has a Cafe/Canteen in every bogey. and there are only 5-6 bogeys. All are fully air-conditioned and with comfortable seats and tables.

So we reached Simi Valley. It is a very pleasant and nice place. It’s located right inside a valley, so the climate was amazingly cool and pleasant… From the station we took Deepak’s car to his aunt’s place. There we freshened up and had dinner.

About the house… it was a very nice and elegant design.. very functional… sort of like our home… and the color combinations for the rooms were a lot like Patil kaka and Dhananjay kaka’s homes. (kaka means Uncle in my mother-tongue).

So we went to sleep after that, and we woke up at 6am (I got up on my own). I got ready and came downstairs and even a lunch box was ready for me! I have still not understood what time they wake up to do all that! So we went to college.. and I completed the formalities of Passport Verification and Immunization… and registering for classes.

Then we went back to Simi Valley, and in the night we were looking for housing for me… and jobs (I’m still looking for jobs right now…).

Well.. I posted a message on the USC housing group looking for temp accommodation and within a few minutes I got a call from one of the guys I was staying with on my last trip. He asked me if I would like to stay with them, since one of their roommates had shifted out… I agreed, because I know these people already and they don’t have any problems.

So I got my housing.. and the day after that… well I made arrangements for my phone etc… Anyway, I moved into Deepak’s room near campus on the 17th, because he would only be moving in around Sunday. And I’ll be moving into my new apartment on Sunday as well… so till then I’m staying at his room.

Right now.. I don’t have anything better to do really… till college starts on Monday… so I’m just passing time in any way I can right now… I sit in the library more often than not… online and reading some books etc…. that’s about it… *phew* it’s a long long long mail isn’t it? But I hope I haven’t taken up too much of your time…

Yeah, in a way I am missing home… but I have come here for some work… so I need to do all that… so keep in touch!