Is it worth it ?

In two days my MBA classes start again. I noticed that in the past few weeks, as the day of the first class is getting closer and closer I am getting more & more anxious and more & more crankier.

For starters I am doing it part time. I started in Jan 2008, I still have about 2 years to go. I have a full time (thankfully not very stressful) job, and I have a husband and a dog to take care of. Husband helps a lot with taking care of the dog and some chores, which is nice. But I use the extra time I get obsessing about my classes.

Due to my Indian genes and the way I was brought up... I take my studies way too seriously. I obsess over getting A's and when I do get one, the happiness lasts only for two weeks - until the next semester starts. Yes I am learning a lot and it is a very good degree to have yada yada yada... But is it worth all this hassle.

I am no more as ambitious as I used to be in undergraduate. I had big dreams, I wanted to make it big in life, to leave marks. But after my Masters the zeal, the motivation slowly started fading away. Today I think that if I have a good enough job, I will be more than happy. It doesn't have to be the highest paid or the most important job. As long as I have money to travel around the world and live a decent quality of life, and ofcourse my dear husband, I am happy .

When I bring this up some people ask why did I start to do an MBA in the first place. There were three reasons. Firstly, for some absurd reason I was not happy with just a Masters in Computer Science, having realized that I am not PhD material. Secondly, my life has always been sort of laid out for me by my Dad, and for those who know my dad he can be very persuasive. So he convinced me I had to do an MBA (this could be the absurd reason in my first point.. hmmm..). The last but the most important reason was that while my husband finishes his PhD I had to find a job in Rochester itself. With Xerox and Kodak not doing so well my options were limited, and so when University of Rochester offered me a job I took it - one of its biggest benefits was free MBA.

So, my delimma is that I am losing a few years to get this MBA and I am not going to make full use of my qualifications as I see it now. Is it worth putting myself through it? I know a lot of people think that now that I have done almost 2 years I should just finish it. But I see it as 2 more years lost.

Looking for cars ?

The next big task on our hand is looking for a good car. With my husband finishing up his PhD and going for a real job (yes finally !!! :P) we will need two cars. We already had been feeling the need of two cars and were just putting it off for later. Now the time has come for some real research.

There are a few basic things that we need... big Big BIg BIG TRUNK... big enough to fit Clover's crate with Clover in it for long distance driving. And then for suitcases etc.. to go along with it. Secondly, it should be safe to drive in snow. I have already been hit by a dumpster, err.. I mean I have already hit a dumpster and hubby dear has run it into a stop sign, so a car that drives well in snow is a MUST. Thirdly, I should be able to drive the car :D.

So we are looking into Station Wagon, SUVs etc. There are some really good sites to help you. First one I found in my marketing textbook: www.edmunds.com (yeah what a weird name for a car site...). This site allows you to check specs, reviews and search with a whole bunch of criteria. Very user friendly site I love it. Second site is www.carsmart.com. This is the site where you get the blue book prices etc. I haven't looked into it yet.. as I haven't reached that stage yet.

So anyways, wish me luck.. hopefully in a few months we will have a new car ! :D

Cruising to Alaska

Its been over a week now that we are back from our cruising trip to Alaska and I still don't find myself quite adjusted to "back to work". May be I need to get the beautiful Alaska and the cruise out of my system by writing this post.

Our vacation began with a 7-8 hour journey to Seattle, this where we were going to embark our ship. We met up with a friend who moved there last year and it was great seeing him and great seeing some people don't change :). He is my hubby's batchmate and they still make awkward conversations as they used to unless they are talking about work or watching South Park !! I am much more informal with this friend, or should I say he is much more informal with me... I think its because we both are Indians ??? I don't have a better reason so do not judge me :P.

So that day in Seattle he took us to a very nice seafood restaurant for lunch. We sat on the port looking out towards the cold waters of the Pacific. It was very calming. We had a whole bowl of mussels.. yumm. The rest of the day until dinner was spent in his ridiculously hot apartment. Apparently it was one of the hottest days in Seattle and he didn't have air conditioning. Even after taking a couple of showers the heat got to me and I ended up being sick. Guys being guys dragged me for dinner to this awesome Lebanese restaurant and I came back and threw up all the yummy food :(. I went to bed and dreamt about two guys laughing loudly while watching South Park...

The next day we boarded the ship. We went on the Royal Caribbean Cruise line and the ship was called "Rhapsody of the Seas". We got their around noon had lunch at the buffet in the ship. Now cruises have food inclusive in the package. So guess what... I ate and ate and ate.. and right now I am on what they call a "post cruise diet". Anyways, so the ship had 11 decks, 3 bars, 2 pools (one indoor, one outdoor), capacity to hold 2500 people including crew. The crew was made up of some 700 people from 53 different countries. The vacationers consisted of people from 27 different countries.. yeah !! I was surprised by how many ship staff people were Indians.. I had not expected that. The majority was Philippines but the next was Indians... not just captains and crew members, but waiters, housekeeping, room service etc. etc. The activities included two formal nights so I got to wear some of my nice dresses... one of the high points of this vacation for me.. haha.

We were sailing for 3 days and were on ports doing excursions for 3 days. While sailing we were busy with the innumerable activities provided on board. There were raffles, games, dance classes and the list goes on. The 3 ports that we visited were Juneau & Skagway in Alaska and Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. The ship was also supposed to go right next to the Tracy Arm Fjords, but unfortunately weather did not allow :(. So we went to just about where it starts and then the captain got a huge chunk of glacier fished and brought on board for us to touch D:.

In Juneau we did white water rafting starting from the foot of a glacier to almost where it gets in the ocean. The water was ice cold - 34 degrees (Fahrenheit) and we were in the front row, so we got completely drenched even though we had a rain jacket and boots on. But it was a lot of fun. After which we went to this bar which used to be a saloon in the old days, called "Red Dog Saloon". We had locally brewed beer which was not bad.


Second was Skagway, where we went for the scenic high-pass railway tour. We were boarded in these old styled railway coaches and were taken about 3000 ft above. The view while going up was breathtaking and made our day. And third was Victoria, where we visited the famous "Buchart Gardens" and then went to a pub to taste some local food and bear. We also saw the famous Empress Hotel and just walked around the city which was a lot of fun.


Apart from having all this fun we met some great people. We had dinner with the same set of people everyday, as that's usually how it is in cruises. So we were seated with two other couples. The first couple was an Italian couple, our parent's age and they were very warm and we immediately connected with them. The second couple was more our age and we happened to be on the same tours and played games and watched shows together... ah what fun !! Oh and before I forget we saw whales, dolphins, sea lions, salmons and all sorts of water life :).


Oh there is so much more that I want to write here but I don't want to make this too long. So I will wrap it up here by saying that being on a ship with nothing but water around you, is the best escape from the real world !!

If anyone is interested in pictures let me know and I can email the link to you :). If you have never been on a cruise before, you are missing out on something and it is a great way to spend vacation with family and friends :)

Desi white couples

This post (rather rant) is about another blog post. Apart from this particular post being interesting, what is more interesting are the comments on this entry. Do check it out: http://stuffdesislike.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/desi-white-couples/

I agree with some comments that desi male/white female pairs are seen with a lot more respect than desi female/white male. We Indians make a lot of assumptions and judgments without ever meeting the person or not know what is going on. I will not be surprised if half my extended family assumed at that time that I was pregnant and hence my parents accepted that I am marrying a white dude. Though, what I find most irritating is that once you get married the person that they doubt or despise suddenly becomes the center of their attention because now they can use that person to boast the status of their family. "Oh my so and so relative's daughter married an American..." they say with a lot of pride... sigh!