Cal in Spring-Summer

Things have become much more familiar. I'v started getting used to the area, know some of the eat outs, where to get stuff from, the Indian shops, and more importantly the biggest improvement being that i'm able to have dinner in the room itself. Living of ready made frozen Indian food - Chappathi and a variety of Indian curries. The best way to survive short stints in the US is to find the nearest Indian Shop. Believe me u'll find everything there that you can find in a shop like Nilgiri's or Spencers in India. Starting from Vegetables to Haldiram's snacks to Maggi to Ruchi pickles to Thumbs Up!!. Shops would have freshly made Chapaties and Parathas which can last for 3-4 days. You can also buy frozen curries at the shop. I'v tried the 'Deep' brand on Sriram's suggest and found it to be much more closer to home made curry than the MTR brands that you find in India.

Owe a lot to Sriram from SVCE and Lakshmi from Cypress for driving me around, dropping me back after workl and taking me out for grocery shopping more than once!! 

Last weekend was amazing. Went out for a 10km hike/trek along the hills of Montrey Bay and that followed with a vist to the Montrey Bay Aquarium. The trek was so damn exhausting that at the end of it i could hardly give rest to my legs without my muscles locking up. My frequency of going for treks have been now around once in two years... After undergrad i'v maybe gone for 3 treks over the past 5 yrs.. Tada (Chennai), Gimmelwalt(Switzerland)-[wouldn't qualify as much of a trek though] and now this one at Montrey(California).

Work-wise this trip has become much more demanding than the previous one as everyday i'v got to wake up at 6 for attending the daily morning meeting and then come back from office by around 7pm ish...kinda around 12hrs per day...add to that the fact that i'v got to either go out for dinner/make food at the hotel after that. Time enough to sleep for around 5-6 hrs. Things have simmered down a bit now and able to get around 2 hrs free per day.

Additional things to keep my enthu going. After a 4 yr stint with my dependable Sony DSC-p73, I'v got the Canon SX10IS and a host of accessories to go with it... batteries, mem card, tripod, filters, lens, case.