Sunday, August 28, 2016

What happens in Champaign at midnight!

Back in month of June when Ashutosh was away for his internship in California, me and Om were trying to have a good weekend. Saturday was nice. Me and Om went grocery shopping at Sam's and had a usual day. We had fun on Sunday. After the delightful Sunday morning and afternoon (for a mom like me, delightful morning and afternoon means: Om eats all his breakfast and lunch well and gets a nice 2-hour nap, and I finish all my household work when he naps and we get some time to spend together playing with his toys), we went to the Boneyard Creek park near our apartment. Om had fun looking at all the ducks in the pond and we got to see the cutest puppy ever. Om loves to observe things. He was enjoying the beauty of nature and so was I. It was time to go back home and I secretly (no more a secret) wished that Ashutosh was with us instead of being in California. 

After coming home, we recited "Shubam karoti" and it was dinner time. I made veggie Khichadi for both of us and Om had his dinner. We saw Ashutosh on google hangout and it was bed time for Om. Om slept at his usual time. I had dinner, did the dishes and watched an episode of House of Cards for the second time and thought about how much effort goes into making a masterpiece like this. I love House of Cards and I am eagerly waiting for the new season. It was 9.00 pm and I thought to myself "1 more episode", but realized that I had to work tomorrow and went to the bedroom. Without disturbing Om, I must say I have mastered this skill, kissed his chubby cheeks and went to bed to fall asleep right away. It was 12.00 midnight and Om's bottle time. I went to kitchen and warmed up his milk to give him the bottle. He drank his milk and then I was coming back to bed again when I realized that my right eye was itching. I went to the washroom to check what went into my eye to find nothing and washed my eye many times. The eye was still itching I tried looking into the small mirror to get a close look into my eye but could see nothing. Now I was frustrated and worried because my eye was red. It was still 10.30pm in California and I decided to call Ashutosh, he is very good at taking foreign bodies out from the eyes and gives good directions/suggestion as to what to do if something goes into your eyes. Together with the help(techno-help) of hangout we tried to find the monster (now it was monster to me) in my eye but could find nothing. I being a sceptical person, thought that this foreign body is never going to come out and that my eye is going to itch for the rest of my life. The itchy eye was now hurting and blood red. It was 1.00 am of Monday, we decide that I need to go to the emergency room (worst decision ever). I would be lying if I say I was not scared to leave the house at 1.00 am alone with a sleeping baby and itchy eye. Ashutosh gave me courage and stayed with me on hangout. I took things needed, put Om in the car seat and ran towards the car. I put Om in the backseat, sat in the driver's seat and locked the doors immediately and gave a huge sigh of relief.

At the hospital, I found a vacant parking spot nearby. Me and Om went inside the emergency room to find it flooded with people. The lady at the front desk told me that it may take time. But I did not know that it would take 3.30 hrs to get out of the chaotic emergency room. Finally, 2 hours later after testing my level of patience, they took me inside the room to check my eye, but the doctor was not yet there. Om was awake and playful, even in this situation I had fun talking and playing with him. Finally, some doctor who was interning came and asked me what was wrong with my eye. I could see that his lips curled into a cringe worthy smile and I said to myself that I hate this doctor. He checked my eye and found nothing. I was sure there was something. I told him to check my upper eye lid. He could find nothing. Now I was really really frustrated and angry because, I had to disturb my sleeping baby, come to emergency room at odd hours, the doctors were incapable of doing their job and on top of that pay the emergency co-pay for nothing. It was easily the worst night of my life. I came back home at 5.00 am. Om was asleep and I tried but failed to sleep. 

There was no point in thinking about the itchy and red eye and I decided that I am going to office despite of how tired my body and mind felt. But seeing Om smile at 6.00 am in the morning was as good as it felt/feels always.


P.S.: My appointment with eye specialist was scheduled the coming Tuesday. The specialist too found nothing. Wednesday morning, I decided to take care of my eye by myself. TMI warning. I sanitized my hand as good as I could. Then, with my little finger, I brushed the upper eyelid from inside multiple times and found a tiny tiny fiber, and felt instant relief. I know that this may sound funny to some people, but it was not funny at all.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Packing List - USA

Hi,
Well finally I am settled at my new house in USA- Urbana Champaign, I thought, why not start blogging. This is my first shot at writing a blog and I will make sure that the things I write are really helpful to all the people who read this.

Let me first give an introduction...
Me and my husband landed in US on 1st of August 2014 at Chicago O'Hare Airport. He is currently a PhD Student at UIUC-CS. While he is away attending his lectures and working in his office, I find new ways to pass my time :) . This is one of them.

Let me tell you about the things that you should take from your Home Country when you travel to USA. I Being an Indian, might be some things will be specific to Indians.

Before you start packing the things in "the list", what you need to do is get a weighing scale. (For us the weight limit was 46 kg each, that means 2 bags of 23kg each  per person)

THE LIST

Important Electronics :

1. Ethernet cable.Its costly in US, doesn't weigh much
3. Universal plug (Very costly in US, doesn't weigh much, because here its two flat pin plug)
4. Data cables (Costly is US, doesn't weigh much)
5. Mobile phone (If you are planning to buy a mobile phone, do not buy in India, come here and then buy    one, its cheaper here.)
6. Laptop (If you are planning to buy a laptop, donot buy in India, come here and then buy one, because its cheaper here. If you are a student , you may even get a laptop from the university, just confirm once)
7. Your hard disk. (If you need one. Make sure it does not have any pirated data)
8. Camera.(Get yourself clicked at the beautiful US locations :P, no one forgets this, this is just to make the list complete)

Kitchen Items:

1. Pressure Cooker - Flat base. (You won't get a pressure cooker in USA, I bot a Hawkins heavy base         3.5 L cooker)
2. Pressure cooker : 1 ring, 2valve, and 1 instrument to change the valve.(Mostly you will have           electric gas stove)
3. 2 utensils which can be placed one upon the other and can fit inside the cooker. (Cook daal and rice at  once and you can save on electricity and in turn money, electricity here doesn't come cheap)
4. 1 Flat pan to cook rotis. (All utensils that you get should have flat base)
5. 1 Belan to make rotis
6. 2 wooden spatula (to turn the rotis or stir the vegetable curry ,for girls or boys like me, who are scared of turning the hot rotis :( )
7. 2 Flat base Kadhai (medim and small size to cook vegetables or maggie, etc)
8. 2 steel salad bowls (medium sized to make salad or may be to store anything, little thick based, so that you can even use them to cook little things)
9. 5 air tight containers (to store extra roti dough , to store remaining food, or may be you can pack some thing and take it to college or office. If you have microwave in your future house in USA, its better if the container are microwave safe, so that you can use them to heat food.)
10. 6 spoons.
11. 2 forks
12. 3 serving spoons (1 for daal, 1 for rice, 1 for vegetable) (light weight)
14. 1 glass to drink water (only if you donot directly use the water bottle to drink water)
15. 1 water bottle to store water.  (water bottles are costly here, doesn't weigh much)
16. 2 bowls (for you lunch and dinner plates, better if microwave safe)
17. 2 plates (better if microwave safe, they are also light weight that steel ones)
18. 30 Air tight Clips. (To close the maggie packet or rice packet or any other kind of packets. This is required since you wont have that may utensils to empty those packets into)
19. 1 Chai ki channi/gaalni/filter. (Very costly here)
20. 3 air tight containers (tea, sugar, salt , may be cofee)
21. 1 Spices container

Eatables/Beverages:

1. Tea/ Coffee (Tea is really costly)
2. Masalas (You get everything here, but its costly, so bring some)
3. 10 Ready to eat/cook packets (idli, dosa, upma, yellow dal ready to eat, chana masala ready to eat etc. you can eat this with whole wheat bread for sometime till you are settling)
4. I bot lot of khakra and chakli and bakarwadi, etc , they are really extremely ready to eat and we feel happy that we have them. :) you will realize once you land here.
5. Rest you can decide on the availability of space and weight. You get most things here in USA. Save the space for more important things.
6. Do not get pickles I would suggest, worst case - they may ruin your entire stuff if the packing goes bad.

Essential clothing:

1. Undergarments (that are sufficient for 15 days. Every house may not have a washer and dryer, you make have to go some where to get your laundry done, so its important to have spares.And washer and dryer take up electricity, hence money :( , so even if its there in house, you may use it just once a week)
2. 7 napkins
3. Cap (saves you from sun)
4. 2 Sweaters, 2 Jackets
5. 2 pairs of Hand gloves
6. 10 pairs of Socks (you may even have to wear 2 pairs of socks at the same time :( )
7. Winter Cap which covers your ears and not just any fashion cap.
8. Long coat. (you can even come here and buy one).
9. My friends told that the secret of surviving winter lies in layered clothing.
10. 10 t- shirts
11. 3 jeans
12. 7 stay in house clothes.
13. 2 towels
14. 2 pair of good formal wear.
15. 1 pair of formal shoes.
16. Extra pair of footwear.
17. Heels (for girls, its really costly here)
18. If space / weight permits get some more food and not clothes. :)
19. You may have to buy winter boots here.
20. An Umbrella

Beauty essentials:

1. Sunscreen (The sun is really bad, and you get a bad tan)
2. Lip gaurd
3. Moisturizer
4. The above things are not just for Girls, guys you need them too, winter is too harsh here.
5. 1 soap for bathing.
6. 2 tooth brush (costly here)
7. 1 toothpaste
8. tounge cleaner
9. would suggest you to buy hair oil here.

Bedding:

1. 2 bedsheets
2. 2 pillow covers
3. 1 rug/ rajai.

That's the list for now. :) I will keep updating the list as soon as I realize that "the thing" should be included in the list.

Happy Packing !!! :D :D