Hiking in Riverside

I am into something new - hiking! It is scary at times (partially because I am a "little" scared of heights), but at the end of each hiking trip it feels good.

We have formed a small hiking group (all CS grads) here and we go hiking every Friday morning. Captain Steeb (Steven Cole) always finds the tougher trails to go through. Casey (Filipina Balla), Dino, Edward and Denise run all around the mountains and go down steep trails. The only sensible people in the group, I and Nathan (Nate Dogg), walk carefully, prefer walking on the roads, don't like steep trails too much (but are forced to take them because everybody goes that way), prefer driving around with lot of food and drinks. :D

First week we just climbed on top of a mountain and stood there for a while with a nice view around. The week after we went to the famous "C" (just like HOLLYWOOD, we have a huge C on a mountain here) and it was awesome. Watching the C, up there on the mountain, everyday from the campus, and then actually climbing the mountain to be at that place! Here is a pic of me and Nate at the center of the C.



Here is how it looks from up there



And then we crossed a train that had stopped on the way :)



I must mention here that we took these pictures using an iPhone and so they are even more important :D

This week we went to Mt. Rubidoux and the way down (Capt. Steeb's Steep Path) was the scariest till now. I'll add pics from this trip once I have them from Casey, Nate and Steve.

Hail Capt. Steeb!

Back to school

I am back, in school, and its fun.

Last time I was in school (at Biochemical and Bioengineering Department at IIT Delhi), I was really busy. I had a lot of sports to play and watch on TV, talk to friends for hours, downloading and listening to music, downloading and watching movies, watching TV continuously for hours waiting for something interesting to come up, carom, TT, Sasi, KLS, Nescafe, paraatha wala at flyover, plotting and enacting ingenious pranks, giving teachers a tough time in the class (if I was ever there) and occasionally writing exams (three times each semester). That was too much to handle and so it is obvious I couldn't concentrate very well on my studies. I never wanted to learn too much of bio anyways!

Now when I am back, this time in the department of computer science, it is a lot different. I find the courses interesting, look forward to finish assignments and projects and study on my own at times :D. Its good! And then I get to play a lot of sports (that I missed during the years I was working). I still download and listen to music and watch movies. Its fun!

I miss some friends here and all the fun we used to have at 501 Nethravathi and at 111, Brigade Court.