Saket Vora

Ok so I cheated. We actually got in yesterday night. I went by campus and got my parking permit and student ID card made. We had dinner at this Gujurati restaurant called Chaat Paradise and it was delicious. The food out here is so amazing. Finally an Indian restaurant where I can get an authentic meal like the kind I grew up eating at home. We ate way too much.

Today Mom and I arrived on campus and met up with Luke Butler, one of the roommates I had been emailing before and coordinating our move. Luke flew in last night from Boston and drove in from nearby Menlo Park. We’ve got two other people already in our 4 bedroom apartment. One of them, Wei, moved in about two weeks ago and is starting a program in Management Science & Engineering (great! this program has a lot of courses i want to take). He did his undergrad at Univ of Virginia (go ACC!). Luke did his undergrad at Harvard in psychology, and worked at a educational development company before going back to grad school. He’ll be doing developmental psychology here. I haven’t met our fourth roommate yet — he’s in Denver at a wedding — but I think his name is Gene, and is starting his 2nd year at Stanford doing German literature. I’ll find out more later.

After some jamba juice we hit up the IKEA (only 4 miles away) and i got some lamps and stuff for the room. I’m planning on going back with my roommates on Monday to stock up the kitchen. Mom and I had lunch at Taco del Mar (a funky kind of Chipotle, only less corporate), and went back to the apartment to take care of some more things.

One of my mom’s friends from college back in India has been living out here in Fremont for the last 20 years. Her husband is in orthopedics. We drove over to their beautiful home to meet them, and went to dinner.

The weather is great. Mom is flying back to Raleigh tomorrow evening. I’ll spend the day with her, seeing as how she’ll be in India over winter break and I’ll be staying out here in the summer. Amit Desai, a fellow NC State alumnus, is arriving in town tonight as well. I hope to meet up with him soon. Oh! and my friend Nate Derbinsky called today. It was great to hear from him and it sounds like he’s having fun up at Michigan.

More tomorrow….