Laughing in your sleep

I do this ALL the time.

Just when I started thinking I had a big problem I woke up one night in Murray to faint laughter. I turned around and Jonathan was giggling really hard, eyes tightly shut.


Phew. I'm not crazy.


Just had to remind myself!

Sculpture park

I walked along the riverfront, in the Odette Sculpture park and took some pretty pictures. It was peaceful minus some creepy creep who insisted on following me chanting "Hi hi hi hi". If looks could kill he'd be a dead guy.

It's so funny that America is like... right there! I could see their post office even.

Am I Raj Mahal sick? No. I'm over it :) . I do miss Jonathan but I'm happy, optimistic and cheerful, like I should be. Meghna always bounces back.

P.S. Update on the little dog who was suspicious of me - we're best buddies now and he loves me  ^.^ . I'm extremely fond of him .. he's an adorable little thing. And he gives me leg kisses. Jonathan says gross but I say cute. :P 

Get me to the church on time, BUS!

I've learned my lesson. I HAVE to leave the house one hour early to make sure I arrive at church on time when it's just a 10 minute journey because buses are extremely infrequent on sunday! I waited for nearly 40 minutes!!! And I was half an hour late :( !

The church was full and there was one seat left at the rear so that's where I sat down.

I love this church because everyone is so friendly and that makes me very happy! They actually invite you to do things with them which rarely happened in KY. Then again, I think the KY folks were always scared they were invading the newly-weds' privacy.

I honestly think my social skills are better without Jonathan around. Is that normal? I am friendlier, absolutely confident and open. I think it's because I have nobody else to depend on to pick up the strings of conversation so I just do it myself. And I'm not always thinking "Oh my goodness, will his friends like me?" as a result of which I'm no longer self-conscious. So yes, I met some nice people and I'm definitely going back next weekend :) .

I also think that people here are more open to outsiders and people from other countries. Everybody didn't grow up knowing each other like they did in Murray and since it's a university town that attracts kids from all over the world, everyone is used to welcoming new people. Although everyone in KY was very nice indeed, I always felt that people never really knew how to react to the new kid.

Here the awareness that new comers need attention and MOST importantly company is very much there and I'm feeling it.

The only reason I had a BLAST in America is because of my amazing husband and his thoughtfulness :) !! We did so much cool stuff and he made me very very happy :) !

I also made a friend on the bus today! That would've never happened with Jonathan around because I would've been way too engrossed in him to notice somebody else. I was waiting for a bus to get back home and she walked up to me and asked me if the bus 1C passed that way. I said yes! That's what I'm waiting for! We got talking and we seemed to get along really well! Told her why I was in Windsor and she told me all about herself as well. The bus arrived, we got on and talked more and more. And eventually exchanged numbers. It's not as romantic as it sounds I assure you :-P. But it was fun because it was so random. She is a grad student at the university here and we're going sightseeing sometime.

I did some work today and that's very exciting too because I get paid for it! Yay!

It's the smart little feller who stocked up his cellar

To be honest, I'm as happy as I could possibly be considering the circumstances. I owe this to good housemates, my privacy, my mobility and being just a hop, skip and jump away from the US.

The bus system is fantastic here and their maps are so useful! My bus pass takes me everywhere. Mobility at last, folks! :)

Today I decided to dress up, put some make-up on and go out. I first took the bus to the Windsor Community Museum which was small but quite interesting.

I learned/saw some interesting things at the tiny museum :

1.

 "It's the smart little feller who stocked up his cellar that's getting the beautiful girls"

^ And that is why prohibition will never work :-P .

2. 'Pontiac' was a Native American chief! So was Tecumseh. And Ottawa and Huron were tribes. In fact, Pontiac was chief on the Ottawa tribe.

3. The name 'Detroit' is french meaning 'The Strait'. Who knew!

4. The term 'biological warfare' . Simply frightful. Refer picture below.

My second stop was the Windsor Public Library which is fantastic and gave me free, first-time membership. And of course, the Indian in me loved that ^.^ . 

I came home to 3 dogs - two little ones and one large one. They are all cute. Even the littlest one who is highly suspicious of me and barks every time it sees me. I tried bribing it into liking me with food (the same way I can be bribed into being anyone's friend with Oreos) but it simply ate it and continued barking. Sigh! Well, it's cute anyway! 

New beginnings - Hello, Ontario!

My 6 months in America flew by so fast. It was an amazing 6 months, that's for sure.

So I've now moved to Canada to wait out my greencard process. This is my home until I'm allowed to move back to America, to live with my husband.

Crossing the border, into Canada

My room is great, my housemates are great and I have everything I need.

This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

You are feeling sleeeepy.

On Wednesday, after my GRE exam finally ended, Jonathan and I headed to the university to attend the hypnotist show. A hypnotist was performing on stage for all the college kids!

He called several kids on stage, got them to sit down and slowly lulled them into a trance -like state of mind. And they actually did all the crazy things he asked them to do! It was hilarious and we had so much fun watching. When they were in their hypnotic state or whatever it's called they'd appear to be asleep, slumped on their chairs. When he snapped his fingers they'd wake up and start doing whatever he had asked them to do while they were 'asleep'.

Hey, I wanna be hyptonized too!

Salon Ya-Ya and butterchicken

I did some research on where to get my haircut and settled on 'Salon Ya Ya' near Green Hills Mall, Nashville. It was FANTASTIC. I love my new hair and the girl who did it was so friendly. I definitely recommend this salon :) .

We also hunted around for apartments since Jonathan has to move there in November. There are such beautiful new apartments in Nashville and we loved them. Nashville is a special city because it is green and beautiful yet modern. I know I'm going to enjoy living there! We also met some nice people while apartment hunting and who knows, they may be our neighbors very soon :) .

Dinner was at 'Bombay Palace Restaurant' because I was craving good Indian food. And by good Indian food I (obviously) mean butter chicken, paneer and buttery garlic naan. The amount I ate was possibly 10 times my body weight and, like a stuffed python, slowly curled up on our car seat all ready for the trip back to Murray.

But I will say this - noone makes butterchicken like the 'motherland' does. Indian food is Indian food only in India. And like most Tamilians do when they see each other, the waiter looked at Jonathan with a HUGE smile and said, "Madras aaaa?" . And to his absolute astonishment Jonathan replied, "Murray, Kentucky". Haha, that answer NEVER fails to shock people. Brown people in Kentucky?! What!? 

We comforted Mr. Waiter by telling him that I, on the other hand, was indeed from Madras :) .