We (Peter n I) arrived in Manipal from 3 days in Delhi!!! Ole n Ehsan are on their ways home... We had a good time though, saw A BUNCH of sites in Delhi like the India Gate n the Fountain, Gandhi's memorial tomb, a crap tone of temples, and the city life of India. There are seriously people hassling you every other step you take while walking the streets. There are pick pocketers, dudes wanting to help you get somewhere then charge you for their "kindness," people charging you AT LEAST double the normal price, and debating on prices for the goddamn rickshaws. When certain people see foreigners they jump at the chance to get money. Straight up... For example, we were all on our way to see the Taj Mahal (which is in Agra 5 hrs away from Delhi) and our cab driver wants to get some stuff from a local vendor. SO! while were waiting for our driver, wer see guys on the side of the street doing tricks with monkeys n all this cool stuff!! So we take pictures of course, who wouldn't. Well, the moment we stopped taking pictures and just watched them, they ALL came rushing our cab tapping the windows and yelling at us for money (compensation for the pictures we took). We full heartedly refused because we thought it was obsurd to pay them money for a sad monkey taken from its home in the jungle and used on the street for tricks. These guys were seriuosly pissed at us so we locked the doors, yelled for our cab driver, and got the hell outta there! Here's a sad monkey picture:



The Taj Mahal was amazing.. I can't describe how beautiful it was to see in person. It's all marble and the curves and shapes the Taj has are really stunning. It's crazy to think that people built this so long ago. I hear it took 22 years to construct! Crazy. It was balls hot in Delhi n Agra (+40 deg. Celcius) and FULL humidity. THE hottest weather I've been in since I was in Arkansas in the summer time... To get into the Taj, you have to take off your shoes and walk up these stairs and across a clearing, so by the time you're halfway there your feet are cooking on the walkway. We had to run to the enterance and even that wasn't very helpful. The Taj Mahal, for how large and elaborate, is relatively small inside and serves as only a tomb for two. This shocked me a lot! The Taj Mahal was built by a famous Muslim king for his wife; the Taj Mahal is a symbol of love. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!




Now I am back in Manipal. WOOO... We're all going to the state of Kerala this coming up weekend and are renting house boats for the trip!~!!! We will be taking trains to the area and then begin our travels of the lands. This will be my last big trip before I head home... Our flat is being slowly replaced with new people and it is sad. Paul, Ole n Ehsan are all gone, and their rooms/beds have already been replaced. Taygun leaves tomorrow and Peter n I leave next week. I AM GOING TO MISS THIS PLACE!!!

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately! A flock of interns arrived the last week, so now our total count is 35+ interns. Crazy... It's so hard to remember names, the only way to do it is by getting their phone numbers (reminds me of freshman year lolz). We've all been eating/drinking/talking PLUS the new IAESTE Indian crew has arrived so we have doubled our Indian friend tally. WOO!



This last weekend a bunch of us went to Bangalore to see what the fuss is about. Seriously, I love the city life. It made me miss Seattle a lot!! There was a McDonalds across the street from our hotel, but it wasn't the same :( They have a chicken Big Mac that was actually REALLY good.. Anyways, it was a very inspiring trip. Three years ago when I read about Bangalore and the development of India in The World Is Flat, I had no idea I would one day be visiting the city. I had a tingly feeling. It is a definite melting pot city with a lot of different ethnicity's (mainly Indian and Chinese/Japanese). I really liked it! Except the hotel we stayed in woke us up at 8 AM for check out the day we were to leave because we checked in at 8 AM the previous day (we only wanted to stay a night in the hotel). I guess in India your check out time is 24 hours after the exact time you check in... WTF. It was a rude awakening. Another thing to add: we took a bus to and from Bangalore (each lasting 10-12 hrs) and it was fucked. The roads are like FULL of potholes and you are seriously flying out of your seat/bed during the ride. Zero sleep.

A group of us (business/finance/engineer majors) are planning to develop our own start-up company. We've been talking about it for the last couple of weeks, and it is very realistic with our current network. We seriously have sooooooo many connections through networking that we would be stupid not to use them, especially since we all want this and we're all here at the same time. IT"S VERY EXCITING!!! A lot of work though for sure...

My project is, again, almost done! I have finished developing a Principle Component Analysis algorithm for Matlab and now I am almost done with Independent Component Analysis. ICA is MUCH more complex than PCA, due to it's non-linearity, so I've found algorithms online through the GSL Scientific Library for Matlab. I still have to tailor it to my project's specific needs, but I can see the light and it is bright and beautiful.

I am OFFICIALLY returning to Seattle on August 9th around 3:30PM. It's will be bitter sweet b/c I know I'll miss everyone here but I can't wait to see home again! FOOOOOOOOOD!! I've lost a lot of wait....

Yo. So things have been moving along pretty well. My professor gave me another task involving more signal processing, but now I'm learning about Principle & Independent Component Analysis. This is pretty cool. Example: Three people are talking in a group at a party, and there are three or more microphones all around the room. Let's say there are other people talking in the room. Using PCA n ICA I can pull in those 3 peoples voices (signals) and record them individually. Spy-tech shiz.

Lately we've just been partying and kickin it. A group of us went to Mangalore which is a 2hr bus ride out of Manipal to go see Ice Age 3! Good movie. The other night we met these sketch Indian dudes, but for some reason went to go kick it with them and ended up bein HELLA fun. These people know how it's done. The suns been peaking through the clouds here n there, so we've been beachin it too.

My professor's cool with me bouncing out of the university Aug. 7th, so I'm leaving town the day after to go travel India for about a week then head home. Most likely move farther east to see what's up over there. Mysore, Madurai, and maybe Chennai! Pumpd.

LISTENING TO: Hi-Tek's High Teknology 2

Shiiiiiiiit the rain never ends, seriously! Monsoon's getting annoying... Anyways, I've virtually finished my project, so I'm reading the New York Times front to back every morning n surfing the net like a fiend. I am very current with the world affairs mmmmmmmmh.. After work we either get drunk, play football (soccer..), hang out n chill, or all three. All in the rain of course lol. It's beginning to hurt troop morale, especially the people who had zero chance of seeing nice Indian weather. I had 2 weeks of brutally hot n humid weather and went to the beaches so that was nice. My morale is high cuz I can pretty much laugh at anything now. It's seriously the only way to survive this place n all the stuff it has to throw at you!! That and cigarettes.




(I live in this building)



A few of us are planning a sweet trip to Delhi to visit the Taj Mahal n other sites, prolly make a stop off in Mumbai, then get our asses back to the university to go on a huge trip with the entire intern group to Kerala.

Right now the lab is full of Indian children for some weird reason. The guys who "monitor" us must have brought them in for daycare. American universities are seriously amazing. You don't know what you have in the states until you go to a TOP school in a developing country n see the facilities. Not they are bad facilities, they are just MUCH different. There toilets are amazing! Holes in the ground with no toilet paper. If ur lucky you have a nice seat but you'll never see TP. I love Western...

Since my project is virtually over, I am heading home earlier than previously planned. Most likely August 9th. LOVE!!

Last weekend the boys n I went to Goa via train, which was pretty sweet. Just imagine the beaches of Hawaii while raining cats n dogs. Monsoon season is ridiculous... Still fun though, we went to a couple local historical sites and partied a bit. Good little vacation within a vacation. Goa is a very Christian based state because back in the 16ish century the Portuguese took over the surrounding lands and brought Catholicism too. We saw St. Francis Xavier's relic (coffin), and I went to the Church of Santa Monica! :) It was a chill time. We were in this town called Panaji and we wanted to get a bite to eat n some coffee, so we see this cafe FULL of Indians so we assumed it was good and walked in. SO WEIRD! We were standing in the middle of this super busy "mess hall" just scoping to find a seat, and while this was happening everyone was just staring at us tough. We felt SOOOO lost at that point!.. but we found a seat and had coffee n samosas mmmmmmmh.. Another thing, the prices for a hotel in India are INSANELY cheap! We slept in this baller hotel for $25 for two nights... Seriously, a dollar goes a LONG WAY in India. Same goes for transportation.






My work for my professor is virtually done. I have written a few Matlab scripts that do some niffty stuff, so in the future he won't need an intern to do his grunt work. I don't think he expected me to finish this early, so now I sit in the lab n do whatever. Pretty chill.

I was deathly ill for a good 36 hours a few days ago, and I haven't been that sick since I had the flu as a child. I'm noticing my energy going down (same with the others) cuz we have no red meat or anything that sticks to our guts. My appetite is soooo low!!! The reason being is that when you eat food, you only snack a bit. Throughout the day you snack about 5-6 times a day, so you never really eat a lot at a time. When I get home: Big Mac super sized meal...

TO CHAD:
Happy to hear about your move in situation in bham. I'm pumped to see the new place! I know we haven't talked, but I know what you;ve been up to through mom n dad. ENJOY THE BHAM SUMMER!!!! MISS YOU!

LISTENING TO: Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine