Besides the ridiculous amount of coding that I had to do tonight (yes, I know I'm a computer science major, and it comes with the territory), I got the chance to stretch my inter-college connections and attend a formal dinner for Dr. Sam Mannan at Texas A&M. Though I didn't get a chance to talk with the guest of honour, my tablemates and I talked to Jim, a Exxon-Mobil employee who works on their "cave", a 3-D modelling space for process safety in their plants. He did mention environments that they can create, such as a roller coaster and outer space, that don't quite fall into that category but sounded fun. His open invitation might just be something I take him up on.
Speaking of free food, I also had lunch on the International Education division. The exchange students (that could show up) talked about our "first" impressions. The few that stuck out are the group love of shwarma, the attraction to the locals and their openness, and the mentality of always being served (thus never having to clean-up after oneself). The good news is the my passport is back in my possession, so I can travel!
So, on these days that my day doesn't have a great excitement in it, I turn a little more introspective (or at least tell you the things I'm thinking about). There is a group of exchange students that are planning a trip to Egypt during Spring Break. Since I sadly got rejected from the CMU-Q Singapore trip, I have a week to burn. However, the group is looking at spending up to $2000 on the trip.
Now, when it comes to travel, I am more willing to say yes to spending money; however, I spent five weeks in Europe for that amount. I am much more of the hostelling type, and I've heard good things about couch-surfing as well, though have never been brave enough to try.
Between this and my dearest love for $20 Rick Steves' books instead of expensive tour guides, I feel like this trip might not be for me.
On the other hand, Egypt is a very hard place to travel alone. I'm just leaning toward finding less tourist-y destinations while I'm close to this part of the world.
There is the fact that flights to Mumbai, India are less than $300 round-trip...
(No pictures of today, but I'll give you one of my recent favourites that had gotten cut previously. It is one of the many, many trees that is planted inside the CMU-Q building.)
I really enjoyed reading your post. So you enjoyed your free food on the International Education division. Yes, there is the fact that flights to Mumbai, India are less than $300 round-trip. So you must plan a trip to this Bollywood city of India.
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