Thursday, June 30, 2011

Dallas - Kick Start!!!

On June 7th 2011, I ventured into the most challenging and difficult phase of my life. I was moving to a totally new city, state, place, home I had not knowledge about. It was an inevitable thing because I was posted at Dallas office to work as a summer inter for Ernst & Young. A part of me was really excited but the major chunk of it was damn Scared, TENSED and "worried".

I had made the planning and taken the necessary precautions before I moved in, thanks to all the help, support and information I received from my brother, friends at LSU and many more. But still it was a BIG deal because coming to LSU was a smoother transition thanks to all the people at LSU!!!

But who knew, the transition  to Dallas would also be a cake walk!!! Yeah I am sorry to disappoint all those who thought I would be cribbing about Dallas!!!

To begin with I have to mention about my apartment and roommate!! Both are awesome!!! She picked me from the airport, helped me with the grocery shopping and settling in the apartment, provided me with the basic information I needed. Most of all for just been a clean person and having the same requirements of personal space and socializing need like mine!!! :-D

Next comes the commute part. In Baton Rouge, its very difficult and time consuming to use public transport. In fact there are some important places where there in no public commute. On the contrary, I have had a pleasant and wonderful experience with the commute options here in Dallas and makes me feel more independent :-)

I think the 3rd item on the list should be my colleagues here at EY. To date they have been so helpful and understanding and accommodating I couldn't have asked for more!! I shall blog about the work experience may be sometime when I have enough to say.

The 4th one, would be the fact that I was able to visit the Mall and quiet a few restaurants here. I was initially under the assumption that my boundaries would be limited to office alone!!! This is also because I know a LSU Senior who moved to Dallas recently and she has been of great help just like my roommate [Afis]. And at EY all meetings are LUNCH meetings and all events for the EY interns are unbelievably FUN!!


Last but not the least, Texas is HOT in summer but its definitely not HUMID like Baton Rouge so though its summer I still feel I am enjoying the weather and the city a lot.

To make it clear I am not trying to compare Baton Rouge to Dallas, nor am I saying that Dallas is HEAVEN. All I want to convey is the fact I am nowhere close to the nightmare experience I had expected.

More Dallas on the way.......................

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Seeing off a friend to India...felt nice :-)

Even before my 2nd semester exams ended..I had some extensive plans on how to utilize the 3 weeks before I leave to Dallas. Then again, nothing works as "planned" ..so all I have been doing is working for 4-5 hours a day, instead of 8 hours, catching up with friends in the evenings...sleeping at 2-3 AM and back to work at 11-12 in the morning. However, today I woke up at 6:30 AM despite the fact that I hit the bed at 3 AM after celebrating a couple of friends birthday. The reason, I got up this early was to see off a friend at the Airport.

I have known him for less than a year, and have had infrequent direct interactions with him. He is moving to a different university next semester and is visiting India before that. This was my last day to see him. Though we are not the best of the buddies, we both are movie buffs and he has suggested me so many movies over the 2 semesters that I felt I ought to see him off.

Once I was in the airport, there was this evil instinct of ditching him and getting into the plane instead of him :-)..but practically it isn't possible! However when I was still cribbing about it, I learnt that another friend of his hasn't visited India since 2002!!! yeah since 2002!!! OMG I cannot even imagine what must be going through that persons mind!!!However sad it may sound that's the reality. I immediately auto corrected my thoughts and felt happy that my friend is making a wise decision by visiting India and transferring to a different university. Wishing him all the best and success in his life..because he totally deserves it for all the hardship he has been through in the past 2 years.

P.S :  I feel no more bad for waking up!!! It served the purpose :-)