Hello Anusha + John Mayer Concert

I suppose the trouble with blogs is the most importance you can give to a story is a single post, or a number of posts, when something things are SO big they could be the topic of their own blog. Especially when it’s about someone so little.

Meet my new niece Anusha. Unless we never talk, you’ve probably already heard about her and how I’m pretty ecstatic to be an uncle again . But more about her in the next post.

I left off with Suraj and I’s trip to Leavenworth. Good times. Great to drive out to the middle of the state. So great, in fact, that I did it again the next weekend.

The mighty Awus and I spent the Saturday after memorial day weekend at the Gorge to see John Mayer.

The Gorge is the most beautiful concert venue on Earth. Period. So it was cool to have an amazing backdrop to the concert, which was also great. Great guitarist. And the opener Ben Folds was maybe as good an opening act as the headliner, so that totally rocked.

Playing “Stop this Train”

Next up: Office parties, more on my new niece, and nerd euphoria.

Seattle Recap: Part 1 – Leavenworth

After that slightly sombre post, here’s the start of a quick catch-up on what’s been going on in my life.

I left off at the end of April, when the folks were in town and we had an awesome week hanging out in Seattle.

Most of May was a pretty busy month at work. At the end of the month was a long weekend for Memorial Day, so Suraj and I took off for a weekend road trip. This was the extent of our planning:

1. Get in car
2. Get gas
3. Bring food
4. Bring backpack with clothes
5. Drive East

We had thoughts of going as far as Montana, but ended up spending most our time in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is a small Washington town that, to fight a poor economy in the 60s, converted itself to a mock Bavarian village and has become a little tourist spot.

Driving to Leavenworth

Familiar German signs

The town (Pic Courtesy Wikipedia)

Make no mistake, it’s phony as hell. Were it not for the mountains and amazing scenery surrounding the town, Leavenworth is about as German as William Hung is an artist. But, superficial facade aside, it’s a fun town to visit and the scenery more than makes up for anything else. Suraj and I quickly took advantage of that by doing a killer hike up one of the mountains.

Break during the hike

View from the top

Great experience, and totally rewarding, but what we’ll probably remember from the weekend was just hanging out and the night-time partying with the locals. Most of it I’ll have to save for in-person stories when I see you in person .

A definite highlight is our trip to the karaoke bar. Leavenworth is a small town, with one karaoke bar, and one type of music: country. Suraj and I walked in, looked totally out of place, and heard 6 passionate renditions of country songs we’d never heard of mixed in with some Britney Spears by a bachelorette party group.

And then Suraj got up, addressed the crowd…

And sang “I’m too sexy” by Right Said Fred.

Wish you could be there . Good times.

Typical crowd-member reaction to our singing

Of course, 90% of the trip is who you go with, and hanging out with Suraj was definitely a blast. Can’t wait til the next adventure buddy.

Next up: Arvind’s favourite, John Mayer.

Links:
Suraj’s blog
Information on Leavenworth

Gingerbread woman

Came back yesterday from an awesome road trip with Suraj, and lots of hilarious stories to share…

I have some work to do right now, though, so in the meantime here’s a time-lapse photo of me eating a gingerbread woman.

I will be submitting these photos to the modern art museum later on.

April update, part 1

I am 10 books behind on my 2007 Book Challenge. The Abs Diet is gathering dust on my shelf. And I don’t even remember the last time I took the bus to work.

But that’s okay, because for the month of April I threw my resolutions out the window while some of my favourite people came to visit.

First was Brown Man at the beginning of the month:

My hair was long, and the times were great. We spent time exploring Capitol Hill, Belltown, Fremont, and the UW campus, but the best times were probably just reliving all the good times from Europe.

And even having deja vu moments like this one:

Cochem, 2006

Seattle, 2007

But we’ve matured a lot since Europe, and now that we’ve graduated and got full-time jobs, we’re pretty settled down and sensible now.

Right.

Next post: the mothership lands again, but this time with both parental units.

Halloween

There’s Halloween. And there’s Halloween in Capitol Hill.

Trust me when I tell you this that you have NOT seen costumes until you’ve seen costumes in Capitol Hill, the Seattle neighbourhood that this blog’s author calls home.

The party last night was at the Broadway Grill, and to give you an idea of how good the costumes were: there was an AWESOME 7-8 feet tall OPTIMUS PRIME…

…that came in THIRD.

Second place went to an enormous three-headed dragon…

…and first place went to the perfect replica of PREDATOR. Automatic rotating gun, lights everywhere, perfect material, and all home-made. What a monster, folks, check it out:

Wait, no, that’s a pregnant alcoholic Britney Spears with an “Oops I did it Again!” t-shirt and K-Fed. Here we are:

So the costumes were a mix all over the place, from the incredibly detailed to the sleazy and hilarious.

Yours truly? As IF I would dress up for Halloween. Come on now, costumes and superhero outfits and all that, I think it’s safe to say I’ve grown beyond all that.

Remember these weird alien things from the Muppets?

And speaking of Sesame-street…

Not everything was so cutesy though.

Happy Halloween!

Eastern Europe and Munich

Hello again

We just finished up travelling through Italy, and I’m writing to you from Nice, France. It’s our last day here, and tomorrow we leave for our week trek through Spain.

SO: after a very sobering experience in Auschwitz, we chilled for one evening in Krakow before heading out to Prague. Cool hangin out with ya Lindsay and Cecila!

In Prague, we realized that three bollywood superstars is better than two

Ankur is with us now, we met up in Prague, and we went through Vienna, Munich, Florence, Rome, and Cinque Terre together.

Now, not everything is fun in Europe. Even in a beautiful Vienna museum, seeing room after room of vase after vase can be a drag, right?

And when staying budget hostels and cramming in with five other people on sleeper trains, accomodations can be a bit… cramped.

So why is this trip so amazing? Because if you travel with the right people and you end up having an amazing time no matter where you are . If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now: I love me travel buddies.

These shots are of us at Neuschwanstein castle. Walt Disney’s Cinderella castle is based on this castle which is in Fussen, Germany, and is which we had the awesome opportunity of visiting.

Here’s a view from the window:

This (like so much of freakin Europe) is one of those really romantic places where people bring their wives and girlfriends and dogs and stuff. I think we kind of stood out.

It was raining like mad that day. Sis, now I know you told me those ponchos you gave me wouldn’t be embarassing… but I beg to differ.

I love Germany. Of all countries we’ve visited I’d have to pick it and Italy as my top two choices for places I’d live. Here’s me and and old lady appreciating their efficient train system.

Here are some shots of the Deutsche Museum in Munich, a MASSIVE musuem with everything from fighter planes (so yours truly can put Tom Cruise to shame)…

…to exhibits that are warm to my heart…

…and ones that I’m sure would be warm to yours

These shots at the hall of mirrors exhibit look like an ad for Canon. (As you can see Betsy, absolutely lovin the camera!)

So Germany, in conclusion: you’ve been good to us. Your intelligent people and your efficient systems and your culture and your history and, of course, your infamous one litre beer steins. Not that WE would partake in drinking out of mugs that huge, of course…

Lots of pictures to show more to follow real soon. Come back in a few for shots from Italy!

Goodnight Seattle

Does it make sense to say goodbye when you know you’ll be back?

I think not being able to answer that is what’s kept me from updating this blog in two months. See, my internship with Microsoft wrapped up on August 26th, the same day I received an offer to come back full-time!

Ladies and gentleman, it’s a dream come true, I’ve signed my contract and I’m back to Microsoft and Seattle next year . But a lot more on that later.

For now, I’ll close up this blog by saying bye to what I won’t get back: my incredible experience with all the other interns.

It definitely was incredible dude, and although I don’t miss it in the way I miss Hyderabad, there’s so much to this summer I’m never gonna forget.

Part of it is connecting with awesome new people…

…hanging out with them, partying with them…

…having way too much margarita with them…

…saving up enough energy to bhangra dance to karaoke with them…

…and I could go on. But a big part of it is really getting to know the buddies you THOUGHT you knew

Or maybe it’s just about making coconut bikinis with them and eating the leftovers.

In any case, you know you have reason to be thankful when all those buddies are awesome enough to make sure you have an incredible birthday in Seattle! Who cares if you end up embarrassing yourself beyond belief in the process . Remind me to tell you the strip-drink-YMCA story sometime.

West Coast, you’ve been incredible to us. Microsoft, you and I are gonna change the world. But for now, I’ve got only got a few more months to enjoy life as a student! So change your bookmarks all over again cuz I’m not through with this blogging thing just yet:

http://robohit.blogspot.com

Til next time, goodnight Seattle

Tia Who’s?

Gyah!

The hardest part about writing a blog? Badmash.org.

No man, really. I sit down to write this thing, get a funny link from KD, and then half an hour later I gotta tell myself to stop watching the Dishoom and an Ambassador get demolished before opening up Notepad to write this thing!

But I digress.

How’re ya doing. Loyal blog reader? Occasional visitor using this site to pass time? Random web surfer who stumbled across this by accident? Whatever your reason dude, awesome you’re here. And if you’re one of the first two, sorry it’s been forever since I wrote.

The infrequency of my posts this term don’t exactly back up my point, but I really like blogging and I’m happy to defend why I do it.

I mean, I’ve been told more than once that blogging is a waste of time, and that you don’t really need it to connect to people. Hey, for sure I’ll admit it’s not for everyone, but what started back in India as a way to write stories for back home has become so much more.

Waterloo gave me the chance to step outside of my familiarity and work in new places and meet incredible new people. Blogging, I think, is also one way for me to help stay connected with those people even after the experience is over.

At this point, I could make some philosphical statement about life being as much about the fun stories along the way as it is about the big goals we strive for, but we all know what the deeper story is: Graham in a coconut bikini-top. Or at least, that’s what you’re about to see

But before we get to that, and to keep you in suspense (okay, okay, I know you can just scroll down) let me tell you about Tia Lu’s. Actually, let me not. Because I’m not gonna use this blog to whine about why, this past weekend, our favourite spot in Seattle became a place we don’t care for anymore. I’ll just say that their management is awful and nor myself nor my buddies will ever suggest you go there.

But hey, for a good part of the summer, we had some pretty good times over there

From top smiley face to lower smiley face, that’s Irene and Colleen, our buddy from SF who was visiting her best friend in Seattle, and our buddy in Seattle who was being visited by her best friend from SF. Respectively.

I talk good.

That’s our buddy John/Ted/Fry D. You’ll see him later this post performing on a pole for me.

That’s Graham making sure Irene gets a good shot of what she sees in front of her. And that’s Real superstar Joesph watching his protege Dave wear the happiest smile you’ve ever seen.

If you’re Rohit’s mom, read this:

My friends and I had so much fun having lemonade at Tia Lu’s! The waiter would keep filling trays of it, and we drank lots of them before going home safe and sound at a reasonable time.

If you’re not Rohit’s mom, read this:

Margaritas! And huge, happy-hour margaritas none the less. Can’t help but be left stunned.

But huge happy-hour margaritas lead to some good times. Lots of conversations about how much we all love Michele…

…burning our mouths off with Salsa…

…joking around with everyone else at the bar…

…and maybe even thinking about who you wouldn’t mind catching a plane to go see.

But the last thing we do is grab our phones and wake up our friends in different time zones.

Right.

Meet Michael, another one of our buddies whom it SUCKS is leaving at the end of this week. Yeah, Waterloo (and a few other schools) have their internships last until the end of August, but a lot of our friends are ending their twelve-week tracks now. No fun.

Anyhow, the great city of Seattle has a not great schedule for its Seattle-Redmond bus, so we had to leave the club around midnightish.

The blurry one on your left is Clare. Remember that name, because this past weekend her, Bill, John, Colleen, Bo and myself were up to some craziness, and in a couple of weeks I’ll fill you in on what it was

Bo was away that night. And Bill? If you’re wondering why these shots look so incredible, it’s because he’s the genius behind the lens. Thanks for letting me put your pictures up Bill! I’ll put up a link up to his photography site when it’s back up this Fall.

Anyhow, so yeah… we hopped back on the bus around midnightish to head to the suburbs and continue partying back home. Not like we stopped the partying on the way, though.

Anyhow, Graham just got back home from work so I’m gonna talk to him about how the conference is going. That means I’m gonna have to leave you in suspense about his coconut bikini yet another day or two.

Sorry dude! Hope you didn’t think all that reading was for nothing. Or maybe you just skipped all the text and just looked at the pictures. But hey, that’s alright, I just think it’s cool that you dropped by and took a look. Because of all the reasons I said I blog, the number one is always gonna be the one in front of the screen – you.

Aww what the hell. Picture now. More pictures and an explanation later. Gnite everybody

Rainier to Cali

If you’re in Seattle, you gotta love the outdoors.

So after our Vancouver trip, and before dying my wardrobe pink, when we got the chance to go hiking with 200 interns to Mount Rainier we were all over it dude.

We pulled into the lot, I pulled out my camera, and got my first look at the most beautiful mountain I’ve ever seen.

After moving Graham to the side, of course.

Man, we do take an insane number of pictures. Case in point: here’s Ted’s mouth…

Here’s Bill taking a picture of Ted’s mouth.

Here’s Rohit taking a picture of Bill taking a picture of Ted’s mouth.

So back to Rainier. Walk. Climb. Take pictures. Repeat.

And pose.

While the most incredible hiker in our group goes to work

And frown, cuz you thought you left all the snow back home.

Goodbye Rainier. Hello California!

Dave Graham and I flew down to San Fran to spend the long weekend with George. It’s not too long of a flight, and it went by even faster cuz Graham’s such awesome company on planes.

We hung out at Pier 39 around the downtown docks of SF the most.

Remember Clean City, Green City Lu?

SF’s the most ridiculously hilly city I’ve ever seen. Find a hill to walk up and you get the whole skyline in your view.

Find a steep enough street to drive up…

And you get George to floor the pedal and go up it in reverse

Can’t complain about the view, though.

Lots of partying in Frisco, complete with downtown crashing at swanky hotels.

Worst part about the morning after? Doing the touristy stuff in a city that has staircases for sidewalks!

But dude, when you go out for a boat tour and this is the view you get…

You don’t mind at all

The boat tour was the best part. We went all around the Bay, including Alcatraz.

Why am I so happy to pull a “portrait of a brown man in front of jail”? See for yourself Tuffy.

Being good Full House fans, we had to make sure to see the Golden Gate bridge. While making sure the wind didn’t blow Dave away.

This is apparently the crookedest street in the world. It kinda sucked.

This is Dave oblivious to what’s going on around him.

This is Stanford Country Club University.

And this is the end of our SF trip in pictures. We partied as much as we toured that city, but didn’t take any pictures of the nighttime.

BUT, we brought the camera out for our last couple of weekends in Seattle, so I can fill you in on everything from Coconut bikinis to dancing in the bus.

Til next time, Georges: thanks for makin our SF trip to awesome, hope to see ya in Seattle. Take care everybody. And keep reading

When in Seattle

Vancouver was an awesome time; getting to know a new city and getting to know friends you already know even better.

But part of an internship is getting to know new people too, so once in a while you gotta make some phone calls…

…and get into a Toga

Our buddies Thinh and Andrew threw a Toga party at their place the weekend after Vancity. Awesome setup, great food, and although not everyone knew how to get the whole Toga thing going…

…and some people looked more bored than others…

…us three kept things fun but didn’t do anything stupid.

Well, not really

No no, but great times all around. I mean, any night you get to see authentic Romans…

…and wear the most ridiculous bedsheet you’ve got for a Toga…

…is a good night in my books. And it can only be followed by, well, an even better day.

That weekend we went to Brewfest. Brewfest is an event we discovered in Seattle where 50 local breweries come out and let you taste their stuff for really low prices.

You’d think that low prices = good & cheap beer = a mass of crazy drunken frat boys or something.

Not quite.

Turns out Brewfest was this big family event. We still had a great time and let the breweries show off their best stuff, and by the time we got on the bus even the rest of the passengers knew we were comin from Brewfest.

Not like we tried to hide it or anything…

We kept the party going at our place after Brewfest. Colleen carries her family around on her phone so we got to know em pretty well.

And we keep telling Dave we’ve got spare beds at our place from him to crash on, but hey man I’m not gonna argue

Have a good one everybody, I’ll see ya tomorrow.