Fighting loneliness

I have been eating out too much the past week or so. We went to this restaurant called Jeff Ruby's steakhouse last week and I think it is the best restaurant I had ever been to. The ambience was too good. The funny part is that it was decorated with colors that I least like, yet it seemed so good. The prices were equally exorbitant but since my employer was the one who was paying, I didn't mind it a bit! I tried out oysters and they were pretty good. I don't mind trying out any meat/sea-food. Not frogs or snakes but any thing other than that. Just when I thought I had heard of all the weird animals people eat, my Brazilian Indian friend who studied in France (and works with me in the US - talk about diversity) tells me that the French eat horses and the Brazilian eat donkeys! I feel like an animal rights activist right now. How can some one eat a horse? It's the most beautiful animal. But then again, I guess that's a racist point of view, cos if you believe in treating every one the same, you should also treat all the animals the same. Which means eating a chicken is the same thing as eating a horse. I find it tough to accept it though. Last night, we went to a Japanese restaurant. I hadn't been to one before. I went to sushi places and ate Japanese food, but I had never been to an exclusively Japanese restaurant. It was fun to watch the guy prepare the food. I could never do what he did. You know, stuff like throwing an egg in the air and catching it with the spoon. Being on that table felt like being at a blackjack table cos you have to share the table with other parties as well, unless you have one large enough to occupy the whole table. It also occurred to me that it wasn't too long ago that these two countries bombed the heck out of each other! Talk about patching up your differences.

I got my first glimpse of snow fall last Thursday. It looks good as long as you are not driving! The weather was miserable on Thursday and Friday. So much so that when it was 32 on Saturday (0 deg C), it felt like heaven. The monkey cap (aka ski cap) becomes the most important possession at times like these. Who ever invented the monkey cap should be given a noble prize! Personally, I feel like my nose and ears are the most delicate to the cold, may be cos of their big size, so the monkey cap works great for me. But there are two problems with this. One - you can't apply hair gel. Two - you risk being stopped on the road by a cop if you are the only one wearing it and you are carrying a tennis bag, which makes you look like some one carrying a gun.

The other day, one of my friends was asking me how I was fighting loneliness here. One of the good things about NOT having any one you know in a place is that you get a chance to try out new things. And you are forced to find new friends. I made some good friends with a few colleagues from work and we go out every weekend some where or the other. To be honest, after the initial home sickness, there hasn’t been a day that I got bored here, despite the cold. Monday and Wednesday, I have the dance classes to keep me occupied. And even though I have no idea what I am doing, it’s fun. Actually, I’m not doing that bad. I am ok as long as I am in the class. I forget the steps by the next class and have to wait for the instructor to show them again. I want to take private lessons but I’m having a tough time deciding between the blonde and the brunette instructors. May be I will just flip a coin and choose one. Anyway, I joined the tennis club about 2 weeks ago. It's pretty good. I am playing almost every day now. It’s great to play indoors cos there’s no wind what so ever and what’s even better is that I’m playing with guys that are better than me. We just hit and don’t play any games. The ONLY bad thing about tennis is that since it’s a one on one game, your level has to match pretty evenly with your opponent’s to enjoy a match; otherwise it becomes one sided one way or the other. Some of you might know this already - there are ratings to determine the level of a player. I am a marginal 4. To move to the next level (4.5) takes a lot. When I play a 4.5 level player, I can compete but there is very little chance of me winning. Likewise, when I am playing some one from 3.5 or lower, I know I could half sleep and still beat them easy. So that takes out the competition out of the game. Anyway, I have been stuck at this level for a while now since I have always been playing with guys at the same level and also cos we never practice strokes as such. We just go and play games. So there is very little scope for improvement. Now that I have joined this club, my goal for the next 3 months is to move a level higher.

At first I was hesitant to join the club cos of the membership fee. I thought it was ridiculous to pay so much just to be able to enjoy a sport. But then an inner voice asked, "Your cousin spent $500 for 6 sessions of facials, can't you do it for 3 months of tennis?" I had sudden enlightenment and immediately swiped my almost full credit card. You know what’s even funnier about the facials? It was originally supposed to be 5 sessions but they gave her a discount/bonus and made it 6. And she was thrilled about it! I probably shouldn’t say it’s funny, cos she can look at me and say, “look at this guy, he paid so much for a silly game!” As a popular Telugu saying goes (one that my mom uses all the time in reference to me), "evari pichi vallaki anandam". I won't even bother translating it cos it's hard to get the exact impact in English, but if any of you can, feel free to do so.