I hate moving out!

The lease to my apartment at University Club expired at noon today and obviously I had to move out. For the past few days I had been packing up all my belongings in preparation. The process was made more complicated by the fact that me, my girlfriend, my sister, my roommate and my uncle were all moving out of Charlotte as well so I had no place to store my stuff for the following year. My roommate and I decided to get a storage unit and few miles away from the university area to stash our stuff. The next problem was that we didn't have a truck to move our boxes and what not to the storage unit. Another one of my roommates Dan, told me not to worry about it, that he would get a friend's truck or a U-Haul so we could all move our stuff. Due to a number of other reasons, Dan said he would get the U-Haul truck this morning at 8 am.

This morning, I woke up at 8 am, and Dan not long after, and while I stacked all the boxes in the living room, he went to get the truck. I had a lot more boxes than I expected so it took me a while to get everything organized. Even though our rooms were clean, the common areas were quite filthy and my plan was to get all the boxes in the truck and that way we had more room to work with as we cleaned.

Dan went to the U-Haul locations, but they did not have the truck we wanted and the ones they did have were far to expensive for us to move. By 11:15 am, Dan had no luck getting a truck, and Hannah and I, starving because we didn't have breakfast left to Breugger's to get something really quick. When we got back at 11:30, I went to the University Club office to ask them if they could give us an hour more because we didn't have the truck yet. They replied rather brusquely, I must say, telling me that that was out of the question, that they would come and inspect the apartment at noon and that if there was stuff in there I would be charged $100. Absurd really.

Since I could do nothing about it. I raced back to the apartment and tried to get everything done in 20 minutes. There was a lot of stuff in there that we could have used, mugs, plates, a lot of cutlery, but since we had absolutely no time, I had to throw it all. I called Dan and told him that we couldn't keep our stuff in there and so he hurried back, abandoning his search for a truck.

If I thought my day was going badly then, there was a lot more coming my way.

By noon, we had miraculously gotten all the stuff out and emptied the entire apartment. A little more relieved, Dan called his friend and told him that we would need to borrow his truck. Right after he left to get it, with all our stuff sitting out in the parking lot, it began to rain. Hannah and I raced to cover the boxes and electronic items with whatever blankets we had. The rest we tried to move into a covered space to protect it. I grabbed Dan's printer off the ground but it had a large printer cartridge sitting on top of it. without a stopped and in my hurry, I spilt concentrated ink on my jeans and shoes. As was expected, the moment we got everything covered it stopped raining, but by that time all the boxes were wet.

Dan arrived around half an hour later and we loaded the boxes onto truck and went on our way. Fortunately nothing happened and we reached the storage unit and piled the boxes in. All the boxes even fit in our tiny 25 sq ft unit and I was happy that we had it finally out of the way. That's when Dan tripped and stepped on the lock by mistake, breaking off the key inside it. We found it funny though, because nothing was going our way and got a new lock without thinking much of it. Then, we headed back to the apartment to pile the rest of the stuff on the truck for the second trip.

The moment we drove out of the apartment with the second load, it started pouring rain, harder than before. Not wanting to risk damaging our belongings, we parked in the nearest covered space, the East Parking Deck at UNC Charlotte and waited till the rain subsided. Luckily it was over in about 30 minutes and we set off again. Obviously, it started raining again, and we were forced to park in the nearest gas station. This time the rain lasted about an hour and we ate chips and dip (delicious) while we watched the downpour.

Once we had put the rest of my stuff in the storage unit, Dan and I headed towards his parents place to put his stuff. On the way there, we were chatting, when I suddenly felt a sharp stabbing pain in my back. Thinking it was a muscle spasm I reached behind to massage the spot, and as I was pulling my hand away, I felt the same intense pain in two different spots in my palm. I looked down and was shocked to see a gigantic bee nestling in my palm, quivering in his last moments, as he died in his last act of defiance. I shook my hand instinctively, knocking over my sweet tea all over my lap in the process.

By this point, I wasn't surprised at the shitty way the day had been going so I just expected more to happen. Fortunately, I didn't die, which was logically the next step of this torturous process, and here I am writing about it, barely able to move my thumb because the bee managed to get his way.

Conclusion: I ******* hate moving.

Pasan goes to A-Town

My girlfriend and I embarked on an adventure recently and yes, as the title suggests, we went to Atlanta!! Well, it was mainly because we needed to go to the French Consulate in Atlanta to get our student visas for next year. In case I haven't mentioned before, the two of us are studying in Lyon, France for a year.

Since we had to be at the Consulate by 10 am, we decided to leave around 3 am the previous night. I couldn't get any sleep, mostly because I was restless, partly because I was trying to figure out why I lost the game of Apples to Apples that we played. I swear that game was mine. So to bed at 1:45 am, awake at 3 am. Grrr! I hate sleepless nights. And then off it was, to A-Town.

I'm going to be very brief about the experience at the French Consulate because I'm still mad. This is the second time I've had to go to there for a visa and since the first time was pretty flawless I expected it to be the same. Not so much. And if you're reading this and thinking oh he's complaining because he didn't follow the visa process properly, nope, that's not the case. I've done this, especially student visas, a trillion times almost, and I followed their directions to the letter. I go there and the representative at the consulate (there happens to be only one person helping like 10 visa applicants) gives me different directions than that listed on the website. I didn't get my visa process sorted out so I was pretty bummed out for the day.

Anyway, dejected, we headed off towards the Georgia Aquarium, apparently the biggest in the world (I love disputing these facts for no reason) to marvel at the wonders it held. And wonders it did hold! My spirits were lifted instantly. From eels, to beluga whales and otters. Not to mention the assortment of sharks they have swimming around. The Georgia Aquarium is a must visit!

Unfortunately we were way too tired to take the tour of the Coca Cola Factory, but we did visit the store. The store itself is pretty interesting, with Coke memorabilia in all forms, shapes and sizes.

We planned on visiting the Varsity but with only an hour of sleep between us, we could barely stand up. And so our day trip to Atlanta ended with the 4 hour drive back to Charlotte. There was a lot more to see, but like we said (we being my girlfriend and I), Atlanta will be there when we get back in a year.

Grilling on a Summer Evening

When I made the decision to move to America for college, naturally, I went over the changes I would make in my life. Obviously, the bigger things came to mind - how easy would it be to adapt to an American school, would I fit in, would I fare well in school and so on. I gave little thought to what I would eat in America and how I would survive on a daily basis. In the months that led to my departure, I frequently ignored my mom's warnings that I needed to learn to cook more than the basic things I knew. Now, living on Ramen noodles, Taco Bell and McDonalds, I wish I had listened.

So it was a joyous occasion when my uncle invited us over to his place on a summery Charlotte evening to grill out. When I grill out, on rare occasions, I think of thick meat patties and sizzling hot dogs, dripping cheese and ice cold cokes. My uncle likes to approach it from a more cultured direction, opting for marinated chicken, cantaloupes wrapped in prosciutto and red wine.

The day was brilliantly sunny filled with wonderful friends, good food and great conversation.

Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

So I've become rather occupied as of late, focusing on writing my book and so this blog has been neglected unfortunately. Nonetheless, I am back.

It's funny how I've lived in Charlotte for about 3 years and I did not think to explore much outside the university area until now, when I'm about to leave the city for a year. Charlotte has much to offer actually. It is one of those cities where events aren't really publicized all over the place and you have to go looking for fun things to do.

On the 21st of June, a friend of mine asked me to join her and her friends at an outdoor music event. With nothing to do on that Sunday, I agreed to go not knowing what it was.

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra was an outdoor symphony orchestra held at the Symphony Park in South Charlotte. I was surprised at the large crowds it drew; I had no idea we had such a cultured population in Charlotte. The Symphony was conducted by a little man who sounded like one of those Disney announcers with the raspy voice.

Unfortunately, we arrived there after it started and were relegated to sit behind a bush, which obscured most of our view of the stage. The stage itself, set in the middle of the lake, was a marvelous sight, the fading twilight and the low visibility it created adding to its beauty.

It was a nice event, with good music, great people and best of all it's free. They do ask for donations and you should donate to keep this great tradition going! Looking forward to the next one next summer!!