Welcome to My Blog

Hi Friends,

I finally decided to start blogging. I worked on one constantly during the summer, but it was mostly formal writing for my research trip to India. Now is the time for fun journal writing.

I hope you enjoy my little blips on cycling, school and life in general. This may give you some insight into my daily life and what I enjoy doing. Thank you for checking it out.

If you are interested in reading about my experiences in India, check out the mblog. Here's part of it:

To Vijayawada with the Race Car Driver

Every time I have gotten the chance to travel to one of the cities in the area, I have taken it. Wandering around aimlessly and people-watching has been one of my favorite pass-time activities here. The city truly expresses the beauty of Indian culture.

After starting the Chevy turbo SUV, Kumar reached across the seats and opened up the door. I hopped in ready to go to Vijayawada. Crossing through the gate, honking to the security guard, Kumar revved the engine and began to accelerate. I asked him if he had any music, and he flipped on a Telugu, techno sounding song with a persistently strong beat. Shifting up a gear and continuing to honk his horn, he passed auto after auto, approaching 90 km/hr. The horn seemed to be an important indicator used excessively to notify the slower bike, motorcycle, or auto rickshaw that he was passing him. He constantly switched lanes, not even fully driving in either lane at times. As he glided into the right lane, we saw a truck approaching us. Kumar quickly flashed his brights on and off and accelerated through the gap between it and the auto to get into the open left lane. I felt as though I was in a chase scene from a movie.

With planes of dried grasses and soil ending in mountain like hills, with the Indian music pumping out the bass, with the many little bikes, autos, and motorcycles, with the fast driving and passing, with the little thatched huts on the side of the road, with the cows crossing in front of us, and with the sun setting over the hills, I realized, ‘Wow, I am in India.’ My body reacted to the rush I felt in seeing and hearing new things as a chill spread through me, leaving goosebumps as a result. The natural high was unreal. Moving my head to the beat of the music, I looked at Kumar. As he met eyes with me, he bluntly stated, “My talent is driving.” Chuckling, I returned my attention to the road to continue to absorb the rush as it flew at me.

Out of the little city, Mangalagiri, we began to speed through a rural village with tall green leafed trees hanging over the road to make a natural arch. Many more thatched huts now lined the road with men and women sitting, standing, and bartering for goods. In our seemingly different world of the air conditioned car, I’m sure we rushed by in a blur, too fast for these locals to notice; the Autobahn like road seemed to suck us through the area.

Looking to the other side of the approaching dam, I could see the dormant volcano more closely; the view of the temple that rested on the side of it became crisper. The large blue building seemed more intriguing than before. I decided I was going to visit it on a later date. Pulling out my camera, I wanted to capture the beauty of the sun setting over the Krishna River. Kumar noticed it and kindly pulled over while flipping the emergency lights on. I didn’t expect him to stop and it made the experience all the better.

Gazing out from the middle of the dam, the sun spewed its orange pinkish glow to the clouds that engulfed it. It still shed enough light on the little green islands and boats fishing in the river, to see them. Kumar pointed to the island in front of us and said “Buffalo. They swim back and forth.” Still trapped in the euphoria manifested by each of my overloaded senses, I could only reply with: “This is beautiful.” I felt like an explorer discovering an unknown land that he spent months searching for. For me, it was a discovery seeing a different part of the world. It was something I had dreamt about since I was a child...

Check the pictures out: Pics of India