a good time in champaign

chicago skyline

After a hiatus, here i am back. This one is about my time in Champaign, US.

I went to Champaign in june end on yet another site trip. this being a new city and after spending 6 months in cyprus, i was excited and looking forward to this trip. and i had a nice time indeed.

as usual, i have some or the other minor annoying experiences while traveling and it had to happen here as well. onwards from ny to detroit, i got delayed and delayed and more delayed that finally i missed my connection flight to champaign and reached there a day later.

on reaching there, i was kind of taken aback in the hotel when i found out that almost 80 % of the rooms are occupied by people on site there mostly from india. didnt look like i was much away from india.

hoping to find some good company, i was happy to see my colleague and friend ayu there and more happy when later his stay got extended and would be leaving with me. 

and now onto describing champaign. was totally different from what i would have thought it would be. i was in us earlier in seattle and champaign was nowhere close to what one would think of a major us metropolitan city. it was a beautiful small town, not cramped by skyscrapers around, lot of greenery and nice weather. it was very welcoming place indeed.

a good thing was i got a car for the whole trip and since i love driving so much, its no surprise that i drove close to 1500 miles in 2 months of which 500 in a day when we went to chicago. the trip to chicago was amazing and more amazing was the return drive where we got lost and lost and lost. indeed driving without a gps may not appeal to all but the experience of finding the route and getting back on track without technology but relying on people and your instincts is amazing and worth it !

i was there during the 4th july weekend and got to see some spectacular fireworks. also didnt expect but ended up watching 4 movies in theaters. 

being the lazy butt that i am, thank goodness my friend ayu was there else would have been sitting and lazying around the whole trip in the confines of the hotel.

all in all, i had a good time in champaign, not much work pressure, good company, car for the whole trip, fireworks, 500 mile drive in a day, shopping, and munching on some great cuisines. 

hope the next trip whereever would be turns out as good as this one ! rumours are flying in the air about a possible travel to an exotic never heard of place. hope to write another exciting post soon :)

Seattle & Singapore

As a software engg, most of us have the inherent desire to have a site trip and go onshore after we have established ourselves. From my perception, this usually comes after 2-3 years of rigorous hard work and getting noticed in the boss's eyes. At my place, i was lucky to have 2 trips in 15 months. So here i go about describing my experience of the so-called "most sought after" thing in the IT industry  - the onshore trip.

Seattle - I went to Seattle, US in Aug 2009, less than a year since joining amdocs. Was very excited to go to the "land of opportunities" the US. Seattle is a nice city near the western coast. Tall buildings, shopping complexes, great road network, variety of people and restaurants, this city seemed to have it all. The famous space needle was just a min's walk from the hotel i was put up in. The office was right in the downtown area. Although the office was about half an hours' walk, walking in the cool atmosphere and lively city was kind of nice. On the weekends, there was plenty of stuff to enjoy, like the shopping complex, the downtown area, the ferry ride,  Seattle Pier.

One of the weekends, we rented a car and drove about 200 miles to Mount Rainier. The drive was beautiful all the more for me, since i  love driving. Mount Rainier is a beautiful natural park with snow covered mountains in the winter, paradise lake, amazing waterfalls, a very scenic picturesque place indeed.

I was in Seattle for about 45 days. Though i admit that the work days were very very demanding and most of the days, i would be in office till late nights, but i enjoyed the time i had there. I learnt many new things from this trip and would always remember the trip to Seattle. Truly as the movie name goes - Sleepless in Seattle.

Singapore - In december 2009, i got the opportunity to travel to Singapore and i grabbed it with both hands. Though i had a trouble time getting the visa which even delayed the travel but in the end i flew to singapore on boxing day 26th dec. Singapore is small but developed and by developed i mean its no less than any of the western developed powers. Huge buildings, roads, transport, infrastructure, food, entertainment, you name it this city has it. Recently it opened its own version of the london eye - the singapore flyer - a huge ferris wheel showing you the skyline of the city. I also got a chance to catch the magnificient new years eve and fireworks show on the marina bay. It was awesome. The sky lit up with dazzling fireworks at the Marina Bay. Also visited a great bird sanctuary and nigh life safari. Though there was a hard time finding vegetarian food near the office but other than that everything else was great. I had a great 2 weeks of Uniquely Singapore !

So that was it. Experience of my 2 trips i have had till date. Hopefully many more to come to places in between Seattle and Singapore :)