Mridu Khullar

I have been way busier than I’d originally anticipated, and so I’m going to be erratic in postings over the next two weeks as I get settled into my new home, school, and way of life.

So far, America has been fun. My friend Jon, a native of California, drove all the way up from southern California, came to pick me up at the airport and showed me all around the Bay Area. In the six days I’ve been here, I’ve been to a steampunk party, a barbecue, had the quintessential tourist photo taken with the Golden Gate bridge in the background, and driven all over Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and little tourist towns on the way.

I’ve been productive too. Apart from the usual trying to figure out of the coolest bookstores, bars, and restaurants in town (in that order), I’ve managed to make a few new friends, have coffee with one of the faculty members (who also happens to be one of India’s top journalists), get some advice on my for-love-or-money conflict, chalk out a plan for the next semester (so many courses, so little time), set goals for the year (pay off debt!), meet an important deadline, and spend three days deciding on a phone plan.

Now I have five deadlines in the next five days, a dinner date, several hours of classes to attend, and a lot more discovering to do. This is going to be interesting.

(I’m also really behind on e-mails. If you’ve written to me in the last week, I will respond. Just not as quickly as I typically do. Sorry!)

Couples in India are finally figuring out that hours of horoscope-matching sessions followed by measures to correct planetary positions make not a good marriage. Urban educated twenty-somethings of today are ditching the priest’s grass mat and heading to the counselor’s leather couch.

Full piece:
http://thewip.net/contributors/2008/08/indian_couples_seek_security_i.html

Also, a blast from the past that just went online:
http://www.beliefnet.com/nllp/ChickenSoupSoul.aspx?date=8-17-2008&WT.mc_id=NL49

Hectic, hectic, hectic, hectic.

Moving, no matter where, is simply too exhausting. For one, I’ve had to get a whole new bloody wardrobe, because you know, I’m not equipped to deal with the weather. Everyone finds it hot or comfortable. I’m somehow freezing.

Two, I still have to work out the details. You know, like if the place I’m staying at is where I’ll continue to live, how I’ll manage to keep the cash flow going now that I can’t work twenty hours a day, and how the heck any normal person can afford health insurance in America.

And finally? It’s a whole lifestyle change that I’m terribly excited about and totally dreading at the same time. The school, the possibilities, the learning that I’ll be doing have me absolutely thrilled. I simply can’t wait to throw myself into all that completely.

On the other hand, I’ve left India. I’ve left behind friendships and a relationship that I cherish. I don’t have a great track record with long-distance, you know (two casualties at last count).

So, I’m sitting here writing this feeling on top of the world one minute, wondering how we’re going to survive the long-distance relationship the next. It’s taken an immense amount of courage to make myself vulnerable like this all over again.

Wait. And watch. Patience. Time will tell. Love is all that matters. All that. Wish it didn’t have to be this hard.