Back online
After a very long hiatus, I am back at this blog. I have had long absences before, and I can only blame my laziness and the fact that hardly anybody reads this thing (though I hope the limited readership that exists, appreciates what I write). I am starting with an update on what has been going on.
I graduated from Carleton in early June, with the strange-sounding degree of Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science. Graduation was an exciting affair. My family didn’t make it (half-way around the world), but it was fun to meet other people’s families. I’m also glad to say I managed to graduate summa cum laude, and since they put all the “summa people” alphabetically at the end, I was the absolute last student of the Carleton class of 2007 to receive his degree. A few pictures can be found here and here.
After graduation, I spent a month with Rosie and her family in Denver at her wonderful grandma June’s apartment. I have visited Denver three times, and I have really liked what I have seen of the mile-high city. Besides, it’s full of people from Nepal. When you walk around certain parts of Denver, you almost feel like every other store is owned by someone from Nepal. They may not look that way: most stores owned by people from Nepal advertise themselves as Tibetan (and sometimes Tibetan / Nepalese) stores, but once you go in, you are usually greeted by recognizably Nepalese faces. Without doubt, the attraction of Tibet as an exotic, mystic destination and purveyor of souvenirs is greater for Americans than that of Nepal.
At the end of June, we also went on a rafting trip on the San Juan river in Utah. It’s probably (in fact, it surely is) the hottest, driest place I’ve ever been to, but the rocks and the river were beautiful, and the fact that the air is dry actually makes you feel less hot, though with cruel effects on your skin. Pictures can be found here.
On July 1, I came to New York, without really knowing where I would live. I did have a reservation in a hostel and a hotel, where I spent three nights; Chelsea international hotel: cheap, clean, narrow stairs, and the Gershwin: expensive, comfortable, artsy (read “strange”). Thankfully, I found a place to live after just two days, in Jersey City, New Jersey. I’m pretty happy with the place: it’s much cheaper compared to living in New York and it’s really close to the PATH station. It is, on the other hand, on the fourth floor in a building with no elevator, but that only means I’m getting my exercise.
So what am I doing in New York? For the past three weeks or so (and with training since July until then), I have been working as a “Technology Analyst” (read “developer”) at a major investment bank in New York. Apart from work (and TV and movies and dinner and the usual), I have been trying to read as much as possible, so I hope to write here about what I’ve been reading; even some book and movie reviews might be upcoming if I feel like it.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Niiiiice! Keep up the good work.