Ole Miss - My Alma Matter

I visited Ole Miss (University of Mississippi), my Alma Matter, while travelling south and enjoyed visiting the beautiful campus and remembering the good times I have had there. 

Many people ask me why did I choose Mississippi out of everywhere else in the US when I came for my studies. Well, I did not know better at that time. I did not know East, West, North and Southern parts of the US were all so different. In fact, I picked the Peterson's college guide, picked only one school and sent only one application and that was to University of Mississippi. I manage to somehow get a scholarship and thus had begun my 5 year Mississippi adventure. I loved my time at Ole Miss and all the great people I've met and great adventures I've had.

Many things have remained the same on campus, same building names, even some of the same people working in some places, same watching sorority girls walking in their short shorts all over campus even though it's cold, but many things have changed too - a few coffee shops on campus itself (we had none in my days), Bus service in Oxford (we had no means of public transportation at all) and more buildings being built on campus. Even though it's still a bit of winter and flowers are yet to bloom and grass yet to be green-ed, the campus was beautiful and active as ever !

I went to visit my old department - School of Computer Science and it was great to bump into my graduate school advisor Dr.Maginnis and catch up with him. Another day, while at a coffee shop, another teacher bumped into me and I even met some friends who are still in Oxford from the good old days, at random.

I enjoyed the short visit there and remembering the good old days and friends !

Filed under  //  mississippi   olemiss   oxford   travel   university   us travels   usa  
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Memphis,TN

Memphis is the city where I had my first  job in America. After finishing graduate school at Ole Miss, I had gotten my first job at the St Jude Children Research Hospital, in the BioInformatics group. Lived 3 years in Memphis (in Midtown), before moving to California to come work for Yahoo!.

Before actually starting my long travel adventure to South America, I am doing a little mini-retrospective tour within the US and Memphis is one of the stops.

Memphis had not changed much and Beale street was as good an attraction as it used to be before and the Mississippi river awesome and majestic as ever. I met up with some friends and had some good fun checking out the same good old sights in the place where I once upon a time called home.

Filed under  //  memphis   tennesse   travel   us travels   usa  
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I-69

There have been plans to build an interstate highway from Canada to Mexico - the I-69 and while it's not expected to be done in many many years from now, Memphis already had a little bit of the highway done. I can only imagine the numerous jokes that I69 will have to go through. They could not have picked a better name for it :)

Filed under  //  tennesse   travel   us travels   usa  
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La Jolla, California

On my way back from Los Angeles to San Franciso, on Priscille's advice, I took the exit for La Jolla Beach and it was so worth it. Wonderful beaches, wild sea lions and numerous varieties of wild birds. It was among the most beautiful beaches and scenery I've been to in California.

Filed under  //  beach   blue   california   lajolla   travel   us travels   usa  
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Monterrey Bay Aquarium !

Couple of weeks ago, on my way to Los Angeles last week to get my Argentina visa, I stopped by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium as I had a free ticket for it. I had never been there and I always heard it was one of the nation's best aquarium. It was indeed very nice and they had a special "The life of seahorses" exhibit which was the highlight !


Filed under  //  aquarium   aquatic life   california   fish   monterrey   travel   us travels   usa  
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