The Weekend Rocked Because...

50th post on Kirrin Island, yippee. OG, my ex-boss would kill me if she were to see me start a sentence with digits as I just did in the last sentence...but somehow I didn't want to use the word fifty...this digital 50 seemed more appropriate.

So much for a completely useless and worthless introduction. Moving on.

In my new life here, I am trying to pack in as many first-s as possible. And make friends with as many people and nationalities as possible. As I see it, this is the only way I can justify leaving home, family, friends, and everything I was familiar with, in pursuit of a completely unnecessary but deliciously mad dream.

So what are the new things I did this weekend?
Friday evening I explored the entire University of Idaho library. That was awesome since it is huge, split on several floors, and has tons of books on every conceivable subject.

Saturday began on a good note. My flatmate Manasi had a friend over for the weekend, so the three of us made breakfast, then I got down to the nasty business of finally unpacking properly. That took pretty much the whole day. In the evening I came to the campus for a while, pottered around for a bit, and went back home to a dinner of all kinds of munchies, three kinds of American beer, and cigars. Yes, smoked my first cigar on Saturday, and I quite liked it. The three of us (I assume in a slightly inebriated state) composed a song; listened to Mark Knopfler, Indian Ocean and Rabbi (one after the other); ate several portions of delicious garlic bread, and finally went off to sleep at nearly 3 at night. Ah, the joys of living outside home again! :D

On Sunday I was invited over for lunch by the Albrechts. The Albrecht family is my friendship-family. They and I were matched together by the University of Idaho as part of the international friendship program. This is not incumbent on every new international student, it's something we are asked to do voluntarily. The idea caught my fancy, and since I am usually game to try everything at least once, I said "yes" without any hesitation. I met the Albrechts for the first time at the International Students Orientation Program. Their family comprises of Jason and Stacy (both school teachers and products of the U of I), their two sons Alex and Nik (Alex is a sports enthusiast whereas Nik is going to grow up to be a creative writer) and Jason's mother Lynda (fond of growing herbs and writing stories for children). So yesterday I went to their lovely house set amidst the hills, and had a great time chatting them up on subjects as diverse as Indian festivals to zucchini to Moscow vis-a-vis the bigger cities of US. I also met their two horses, three dogs, several cats, chickens and hens, and ate an authentic American lunch that included homemade icecream. It was fabulous! After several fun-filled hours with them, Jason and Stacy dropped me back to the campus where I had to attend the President's Dinner (something on the lines of a dinner thrown by the principal of a college/university in India).

This dinner was an outdoor event. First the U of I marching band played for us, and it was great fun to watch that. Then the President and the First Lady personally welcomed all of us new students. After that dinner was served to the accompaniment of live music. In the midst of it all, I befriended Michael, a student of landscape architecture who turned out to be a passionate pianist as well. And the best part? He could be easily coaxed to play some tracks for me.

Nice, packed Sunday. Loved it.