I went to a meeting today regarding the Mumbai blasts and later I had a conversation with my Writing Professor. 

I have not edited anything and I am assuming that you guys can fill in the details yourself.

ME:

WE HAD FIRST OUR SNOW TODAY!!!

a proper snow as in, one that stuck to the ground and could be picked up and thrown around.. and since it is tradition, a Dartmouth tradition, that on the night of the first snow fall everybody comes on the Green and there is a humongous snow ball fight, so obviously people poured in.. 

Me was coming back from Collis where I had gone to meet a few people (wont call em friends since I dont really like them that much but that is besides the point), after i had spent the whole day in Sanborn reading and listening to Mangal Panday for the umpteenth time. I was reading about the rise of Hindu nationalism against the missionary activity in the British Raj and trying to make some sort of connection with it and the people involved.. couldnt really figure one out and so came back to my favorite back up.. calling gucci apa (my cousin for those who dont know) who proceeded to first disagree with my idea and then gave me another way to look at it which i will do tommorow since it is like 3 am here.. but it should be fun.. i like history.. it is nice..much more fun to write a paper about than philosophy but sometimes i think i should take a risk and tackle something that i havent thought about before. but right now i think  i would play it safe..

Anyhoo, coming back from Collis (the only place on campus with good hot chocolate plus the freshest baked goodies are available at midnight, so it is an obvious choice for snacking) and was about to go back and do some more reading (bio this time), when i saw the number of people on the Green and so i told gucci apa to stop giving me her ideas and proceeded to the Green where we had a HUGE snow ball fight.. crazy amount of fun.. with friends and everything.. we then sled down the Dartmouth hill, it is actually like a bump in the ground but who cares really, we call it a hill and that is that... then i dropped a friend of mine back to her place which is like the end of campus and then came back to my room.. and now WARM CLOTHES feel so GOOD!!

ok so when i came back, David asked me if i could play the song that i play all the time.. and guess which song is it??  its Desi Girl.. he seems to love it since i play it every morning when i get ready and according to him it helps him wake up.. 

oo i sorta figured out where i am going wrong in my writing class.. ok so i was cleaning my room today.. yea sort of a rare occassion.. anyhow i saw that i had like 10 drafts of the Gospel paper, TEN!!!, that is insane but I got a B- on that paper which is a really good grade for this class.. so it seems that this is what this class needs.. a crazy amount of work.. unfortunately my Nietzsche paper has been submitted and i dint work that much on it and i think it shows.., lets see how it comes back.. but that is it.. i need to work hard.. thrash the bajeezes out of every paper before i submit it.. o and my TA called me lazy on the Nietzsche paper, according to her i have good ideas, i am just too lazy to write them down.. and i said well i spent 4 hours on a one page paper to which she responded. "um well you should spend more, that is too less" to which i said, " dude, there are like 24 hours in a day." to which she dint respond.. i forgot that happened... 

Anyways.. Nikhil blitzed me today ( I refuse to explain what a blitz is), he dint get the Rhodes Scholarship, this other girl from Dartmouth got it.. and he said that he is going to screen Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham tommorow.. So excited.. so so so excited.. I dont care what anyone says, it is possible for that movie to define who i am and it does, it completely does.. 

o and the next Secretary of Treasury is a Dartmouth grad.. just like the last one who unfortunately is considered responsible for the mess the economy is in today..just thought you guys would like to know.. 

Cheers, 

Zain

Back from Villanova. When we are getting back, and were a mile away from school I could see the weather vane on top of Baker Tower and I thought, "I am back, home sweet home". I came in my dorm, was hugged and welcomed back and went to recount the details which I will share now with you guys.

Well the trip there was amazing, we talked a lot about completely random things yet managed to get alot of work done. Nikhil could actually be one of the coolest people I have ever, ever, ever met. Triple major (Maths, Econ and Physics), track team, perfect student (nominated for Rhodes Scholarship by the school), witty, perfect son, perfect grandson (plans to work in Gwalior to take care of his grandparents when he graduates) and he actually means that unlike *some* other people we know (inside joke, hopefully Shahni apa and Zehra will get it), has the ability to hold an argument in pretty much everything, spouts random facts all the time which I checked and they turn out to be correct, and tells quite funny stories. Yes, I was completely awed by the guy, and was thinking "Dude, isnt there a single flaw? How can anyone be just so plain flawless?" I am still looking for one and I think I will be obscenely happy the day I find one. 

However the road trip wasnt just a discussion about best fast food restaurants, or Nikhil's explanation of quantam mechanics to me and Matt, or merits of Bollywood actresses compared to Giselle or whether Urdu as a language would actually die in the next 100 years. These were just a few topics played around, there was much much more that I cannot remember. Me and Matt felt bad about taking frivolous classes after listening to Nikhils description of Finance and Mathematics or Quantam mechanics that now we both feel that we should never take a Film class. Sad, I know. 

But we actually got work done on the trip which goes on to show something that I have learnt here. It is possible to get quite some stuff done if you just sit down and FOCUS. Fine, we wasted quite some time but we all presented our cases, prepared them because even in the car we had not mastered all our cases. I certainly had to develop a presentation for one of them, and we did that all in the car with everybody's help. 

Came to the hotel, chilled for some time, had food, talked about politics, I regaled them with stories of random things I did in Pakistan. We got done with food, happy and relaxed, joking around thinking about the awesome beds waiting for us upstairs when Nikhil suddenly went into slave driver mode. 

We got 20 minutes for all our cases, to write down our arguments condensed into three points, and present them after that. We were all so tired but we sat down and got that done and then Nikhil went to completely blast until he felt that we got everything done. 

Ok sorry guys but more details later since I have to go for class. 

Today has been along day, and it is going to get longer still.. had a midterm, classes and now I have to go and watch a movie for class and then hopefully go to sleep and get up tomorrow to work on my paper for Writing as well as the Ethics bowl which has shifted to priority one now that the midterm and the paper are semi out of the way.

Hah.. ok so first of all I really like the people around here.. i kid you not.. yesterday i was working in the common room, and this girl who i dont even know that well, walks in and was telling me how she is going to the CO-OP (the only grocery store on campus), and I said that i wanted to go but i dint have any time. so she she asked me if i wanted anything and i said that i needed some fruit. when i came back from the library last night, she had bought some fruit for me and since i wasnt in the room she just put it on the bed. Pretty nice, right? same way somebdoy gave me their ticket for the performance by the Gospel choir which was pretty good.. i mean not as good as this other concert i went to but nice and dignified in a solemn way...and then there is Farzeen who lives above me who wakes my up for Fajr by jumping up and down on her floor which is my roof.. pretty cool people..

Moms was here for two days. which was awesome.. i took her around the campus even went to some places that i had not been to before.. she took my friends out for dinner. when the bill came they al reached in their pockets to pay cept ama took the check and paid for it. They were quite impressed by that and thought that my mom was so cool. as a result of mom's generousity my friend is going to pay for my Thanksgiving khana.. then the next day i had to go to class and so i left moms on the Green and said i would come back in an hour cept that when i got back moms wasnt there.. yea i was confused and looked all over campus for her.. it turns out that she had walked all the way to the COOP and gotten some dal and some chawal and other stuff and then she made dal and chawal and i called all my friends up and we all had this impromptu dinner after we got done with homework and all.. so much fun.. i took some pictures and i guess i will upload them next weekend now.. or maybe this Thrusday if i get the time.. Regardless it was awesome hanging out in the common room as mom made food and i did homework, felt just like home.. while she as doing work kids kept coming in and and asking her questions and offering to help out and what not.even my friends really liked her, and she herslef went to make quite a lot of friends that day.. nice trip..

well i should get back to my work.. should do what i can before i go watch the film... wish me luck everybody...

Bye

So I get like ten minutes after food to chill a bit and then work on my quiz that is on thursday so i just thought i would blog a bit and let people know keh what is happening. 

1:- had my first freak out episode yesterday when i thought i was too stupid to do the Writing paper.. really.. i was about to email(blitz as it is known here) the prof that i couldnt do it. Even now i really dont know what i was supposed to write and what i actually wrote but that is another story. i wrote four drafts for this paper and i was sick of it and today i just worked on the draft i had prepared and submitted. that was a bad time, i was thinking that how i was the only one in the class who just couldnt get it and dint deserve to be in the class. then i thought i should go for the easier class and talk to my advisor about switching and drop this class. Yes, i do love it really it is one of the best classes ever but the work was getting on my nerves. But then i talked to a few people adn this is how the convos worked. 

ME:I am in Karens class

Person: Are you dying?

ME:- I am losing my mind.

Person:Then its ok, if you arent going insane then you are going to fail the class. Just hang in there she knows whats it about. 

Me: I have other classes.

Person. Well we all did and we made it, you will too. 

Another convo:-

Person:- Zain, remember two things about this class, first you will never be happy with your paper, second prof Karen will never be happy and thirdly you will never get more than a B plus in this class. 

And then i thought well you know it is an amazing class, i mean the writing program here is awesome and this prof chooses all of her students and she chose me even though i just blitzed her twice about the class. so maybe she sees something (she constantly refers to that btw, how she chose us all and how she knows we wil all pull through). Only one kid has dropped her class ever..and yesterday i was thinking about being the second person, but now i think ill pull through it. needless to say there will be many more tears to come magar if it helps me to be a better writer it is worth it. 

2:- Yea i stopped eating alot. Not because i think Hot chocolate with poppyseed and orange muffins is bad at midnight but because my Dining Balance account (DBA) is crashing fast. My scholarship covers certian expenditure for my food, if i exceed that i pay for it myself. I however would rather not do that since food is obscenely expensive and now I just eat less forced to do so . Today i just had a coffee, soup and tuna sandwhich, the whole freaking day. 

I will miss the Pavillion cookies, God's gift to all of us who made it to Dartmouth. I kid you not, those things are divine.

On that note i end this, yes it has no personal observations but i dont have time, maybe next time. 

Wish me love and pray I live through this class. 

Last night I went out with a few friends to get pizza, and it was pretty interesting how the entire thing worked out in the restaurant. So when you got in they displayed all the pizza and you were supposed to choose slice of what you wanted, ( that is how a lot of things work out here, you pay for what YOU want and not anybody else, I like it). At one end of the display cabinet was the cashier and at the other end a small counter, after placing your order you were supposed to wait at the counter and pick up your pizza. Then, you walked to the cashier at the other end of the room and paid the bill for your pizza.

Interesting arrangement, right? 

A place like this could never survive in Pakistan, ever, people would just walk to the counter pick up the pizza walk to their chairs eat it and not pay. But no one did that, well no one except for one guy who got confused and came back with out paying, but then he went back and paid the bill at the end. 

The level of trust is something that I find really interesting and is something that you see reflected everywhere. The place is pretty popular, has been there for a long time and is obviously doing well because no body stands up and tries to cheat the owners even though there are so many opportunities for them to do so, no body does it. Ofcourse I an not suggesting that no one does that and obviously people break laws over here, but the thing to focus is that when given the option to swindle a majority of them do not. 

This extends to nearly every circles, especially but not limited to Dartmouth. One thing that has been grilled into our heads every day we have been here is the Dartmouth Academic Honor Code which covers topics like plagarism and qouting sources which we have to do no matter what even if we quote a friend in our paper! It is understood that we will always do that and always respect the ownership of any property, intellectual or physical. It is also understood that if we are given a paper we will not cheat, even if the professor leaves the class(which they often do) no body will look at answers or even peek at the book lying just next to him/her. Of course if some one does so, who cares? No body and he will most certainly not get caught becuase no body will tell on anyone as well, but even with that security no body cheats or even thinks about it, because we have all been told that now we have the responsibility that hundreds of thousands have had before, to maintain the policies of Dartmouth and ensure it continues to have its high standing. Dartmouth is immensely proud of the fact that it is a honor school, that a degree from Dartmouth means more than the major you took and instead  is also a reflection of your personality and your integrity. To borrow from the speech we got from an officer with the Honor code department, the class of 2008 has gone places with this degree and now it us the class of 2012 who has to ensure that this piece of paper continues to not just mean what it does but rather much much more. 

That is my thought for today, I have to sleep now since I have to get up early tommorow because I want to be done with all my work before I go to watch Wall E in the evening,

Forgive the spelling errors since I wrote this in the dark and my Mac's screen doesnt even give enough light to illuminate even my keyboard.

And the next post will hopefully also be more coherent. 

BYE..