However, heres just hoping that I will atleast be posting stuff from time to time...
Ok so lets start at the begining...
I landed in the USA on the 1st of August after a long and non stop flight from Delhi. And from then on life has been a mix of "yeah I know it" and "o really" expressions. The world today is more or less uniform, with the same products, places and people all around. But that does not mean that there are no surprises left if you get to a new place anymore.
I will try to list what are the new things that I have seen/ felt since I came...
Firstly, for somebody born and brought up in Calcutta a city "of population of almost 5 million, with an extended metropolitan population of over 14 million, making it the third-largest urban agglomeration and the fourth-largest city in India" moving to a Chapel Hill, a small university town with population of around 50 thousand is quiet a change.
Well, lets try describing Chapel Hill....from what I guess its a town that grew up around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest public university in the USA. The population is more or less completely made up of people studying, working or somehow connected to UNC. Everything about the town itself has UNC written all over it.
restaurants, coffee shops, the novelties all scream out UNC.
The "happening" place is a stretch in front of the University on Franklin Street. Its where you get all the usual hangouts that you would expect students to frequent...book/ cd shops,elty shops which sell you your loyalty to the alma mater and so on. Besides there are the banks and post office for those who need it. But thats all and it would be less than half the length of Park Street overall.
So getting back to the point...what are the new things that I have seen.
Firstly, people are usually really polite, greeting everyone with a nod or a smile or the customary "hey, hows it going". I guess its a trait that is part of the small town relaxed atmosphere. In the cut throat world in Calcutta or Bombay, it seems people are just itchng for a fight. Yeah is true that people in both the cities are usually really helpful when someones in trouble but the daily tension of existence out there rubs on and people are usually not in a mood to spare a smile to a passerby.
Secondly, the public transport system is really great,when it runs. The buses are free and follow a schedule. So yo know when you need to go to the bus stop. However there are only a limited number of buses and the service does not run ( at least not on all routes) late into the night. Also they have limited services on saturdays and none on sundays. So during the weekends for somebody without a car (read me) it becomes pretty difficult to move around.
Well thats about all that I have the enthu to write in right now, will try to add to this in sometime soon.
