Summer 2008 Student Blogs

Well, we are closing in on month two in India and it feels like it has flown by. We have less than two weeks left at IIT and I think it is going to fly by. We booked our tickets for our travels at the end and it is going to be an adventure. We will be traveling to seven cities in 15 days and staying in accommod

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

O the voyage outward! Setting sail before dawn on our locomotive ship, its noise and power shatters the calm morning.  By day the trains are swallowed by the hum of the busy streets. At dawn the city comes alive, as we sail on we watch it wake. The lives of the people along the rail are a constant show.  Our

Posted by: Mikey
Categories:

We had an excellent celebration here! Thursday night we went to the Hard Rock in Mumbai and had an excellent meal and got to hear a live band. We were amazed that even though they were playing American music and they were from India, there was not a trace of accent. They were really good and we really enjoyed liste

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

We do love biscuits. You may think of them as cookies, but we call them biscuits here in India. Perfect for snacking on a train, dipping in afternoon tea, inhaling on top of a mountain, or standing in for breakfast after sleeping in, biscuits are the way to go. Some quality choices: Good Day biscuits (in a sweet

Posted by: Aleah
Categories: IIT Bombay

We have now been in India for just over a month and a half and we are thoroughly enjoying the experience as I am sure you have read. All of the initial adjustments have long since faded into the past and in case you haven’t noticed we really do feel like this is our second home. We actually can’t imagine that w

Posted by: Eastman Landry
Categories: IIT Bombay

Somehow everything this week has worked in our favor so it has been a very good week. We got all of our visa issues solved so now we will be able to leave the country! It rains every once in awhile, but still nothing like when we first got here. We had another calm week. Friday Aleah and I went to see Sex and the

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

This past week wasn’t too eventful. I spent the first part of the week recovering from a cold and then before we knew it, it was the weekend again. It didn’t rain much at all, just a few small showers here and there, so we have decided that the monsoon doesn’t actually exist and is just a lie they tell tourists. We had

Posted by: Ann Lugg
Categories: IIT Bombay

Due to popular demand, I’ll describe some of the project work I am doing at IITB. My supervisor is Professor BVS Viswanadham in the Civil Engineering department, specifically geotechnical engineering. I am doing research on the stability of geotextile-reinforced slopes.         So far, I have done analysis on a dry sa

Posted by: Aleah
Categories: IIT Bombay

We spent the weekend in Goa, a beachy area south of Mumbai. It was our first venture out of the city, and turned out to be a perfect adventure. The train rides there & back (Friday, Monday) were each about 12.5 hours, so those were long days, but the train was a good experience. Wallahs walk up & down the aisl

Posted by: Aleah
Categories: IIT Bombay

Another long post is on the way, but in the meantime I thought I would share with you a webpage I ran across with a listing of all International IIT Bombay students past and present. http://www.ir.iitb.ac.in/int_students.asp Enjoy

Posted by: Eastman Landry
Categories: IIT Bombay

The four of us took Friday and Monday off this week and took a trip down to Goa for the weekend. Goa is the tourist spot of India because it has a bunch of beaches, so people go there to party. Since we went during the monsoon season, there weren’t really many tourists, but it made it so much better because

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

It seems like every time I mean to write something in this blog I am presented with a choice: sit here in my 8ft by 12ft single room cooled by a whirring ceiling fan and write about what I have done OR go out into India and keep experiencing new things. Up to this point I am sure that you can observe I have been c

Posted by: Eastman Landry
Categories: IIT Bombay

The smells in India are worth writing home about. Walking along the streets of Colaba, in South Mumbai, threading your way past flocks of colorful sari & salwar kameez-covered women, dodging rickshaws & taxis & handcarts, side-stepping to avoid a dog or beggar lying on the curb, you step in & out of distinct smell-

Posted by: Aleah
Categories: IIT Bombay

Written 5/24/08 So this week hasn’t been too eventful. I got my project work started. I am working on tuned mass dampers with multiple TMDs. It is kind of interesting. I am trying to optimize the displacement at the highest number of frequencies. This is for use in skyscrapers and tall buildings to keep them f

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

Written 5/17/08 Everything has been going well so far and we are getting a hang of things. We finally got all of our stuff taken care of so we have been getting used to campus now. We found toilet paper, so all is well! Last night we went out to dinner and then out to a little restaurant for some drinks afterward

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay

Written 5/15/08 (Day 1 in India) I think my first reaction to India was man, it really is hot. By the time we got out of the airport we were drenched in sweat and still sweating and it was midnight. The guy who was supposed to drive us to Mumbai didn't speak any english which was not good since we had no clue w

Posted by: Kristen
Categories: IIT Bombay