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I never understood many people’s need to see hunting as a sport or as an enjoyment/leasure activity to do. It’s just wrong. Here is another reason why you shouldn’t do it.

Many people have a fascination with trains. Well, probably not those who take the train to work everyday. In Sri Lanka, the rail track was about 300 meters away from my home and was 20 meters away from my school. I just love to watch the trains go by.

After coming to USA, I got to see the freight trains. Those are the ones that transport goods instead of people. They are also very, very, very long. Hundreds of carriages. I remember once during a road trip in Arizona, I saw a train far away in the desert, and it was as long as the entire horizon.

There are two rail tracks near my current apartment. One of them serves for Amtrak, and the other for freight trains. I think. The freight train track is in between my complex and the main road that I drive on. So, there are two stop lights for the main road (one for the road, one for the track). The frieght trains go near my apartment so infrequently; I have never witnessed it in the 9 months I have been living there. I hear it sometimes though.

Yesterday, I had to go to lab in the late evening for a brief period, so I came out of the complex. I could hear the train! I could even see it through the trees (well, it was getting dark, so not very clearly). I got in my car, and drove to the stop light (takes me about 2 min). The train was still going. This was the first time I had to stop for the train at this particular place (or anywhere else in Ann Arbor). It was nice.

During finals week, the university had many programs for students to participate for stress relief. Heather and I decided to check out one of them. Akash joined us.

It was held at the Michigan Union. When we entered the room, there were two tables with people working on different crafts. Snacks were provided as well. There was a person giving chair massages (you sit on a massage chair and the person massages your back) and three of us used that opportunity. It was very relaxing.

Then we had bath salts, little net bags and different scents on one table. We mixed the bath salts with the preffered scent, and then bagged them. It smells nice and we can use it in the shower/bath or put it in desk/cabinet/clothes drawers for the scents.

Here is a photo of us after making the sachet. I am not sure what Akash is thinking here, perhaps he didn’t want to show off his bath salt sachet making skills?

I was driving in my car with Karthik and Visha last weekend. After a little while, Karthik asked me if I have a white i-Pod. I didn’t understand why he asked that question since he knew I didn’t have an i-Pod. He was sitting in the back seat, and then he said that he found a white i-Pod in my car.

Still confused, I asked him to repeat himself. Visha was also confused (she was sitting in the front). Then Karthik handed Visha a big 20GB white i-Pod. I was baffled to see it since I wasn’t sure how it got in to my car. Karthik said he found it under my seat!

We were hypothesizing how the i-Pod ended up in my car. I don’t have any close friends who have a big white i-Pod. Since not very many acquaintances travel in my car, especially in the winter time, I was even more dumbfounded by the i-Pod.

We started to pick our brains and analyze how it ended up in my car. For a moment, I was concerned I was driving someone else’s car (well, not really, but it came across my mind). Karthik wanted to know if I got a special present when I bought the car (we ran out of real possibilities).

Karthik turned on the i-Pod and started reading the songs stored in it. He concluded that the songs are ‘girly’ and hence belonged to a girl. I thought we should listen to them in the car since we don’t know the owner of it anyway. Then Karthik found that the owner’s name was entered in the i-Pod under “personal information”.

It belonged to a colleague of mine.

This colleague had travelled in my car only twice. The last time was about a month earlier, when I gave her a ride home after a dinner we attended hosted by our department. Like I just mentioned, it was a MONTH earlier.

All three of us started to ponder. Does she know that her i-Pod is missing? Does she know when it went missing? Did she buy a new i-Pod? These cost about $250-350, so it’s not as if you lost your cap. She should be looking for it everywhere. Why didn’t she send an email to the lab?

If Karthik hadn’t found it, the i-Pod might ended up underneath my car seat for months to come. I am planning on detailing the car interior soon (give it for interior cleaning to a shop), and imagine the surprise I would have if the shop claimed they found an i-Pod inside my car!

We listened to some songs from the i-Pod for the rest of our journey.

I went to Gallup Park with Heather few days ago. Here are photos of birds that I stalked and two photos of Heather.

Blue Planet Run is an organization that is promoting and raising money to provide safe water to parts of Africa and Asia. Check out their website here. Blue Planet Run - Ann Arbor chapter organized a 6 kilometer run/walk to raise awareness and to fundraise for the organization. Six kilometers is the amount an average woman in Africa and Asia walk to get clean water. Three of us at Asha Ann Arbor decided to participate.

It is getting warmer and leaves are starting to come out in Ann Arbor. What we didn’t expect is the day to be 30 F and light rain/snow. The event was at Gallup Park. Three of us went around 9 am to the park and got our registration numbers pinned to our clothes. Unfortunately, instead of wearing a t-shirt and pants, I had to wear a winter coat, a scarf, headband/cap and gloves.

There were about hundred people gathered at the start line. There were people with babies in strollers (they would push the stroller while they are running) and dogs with number tags(!). At 10 am, we started the journey. Most people decided to run, while I started to walk.

After about ten minutes in to the walk, I was walking by a man with a yellow jacket. I decided to keep my pace as same as him which was fast, yet comfortable. We kept walking, walking and walking. All this time, we were about 2 meters apart. I was walking behind him. We never talked.

After about an hour, we saw our finish line (which was the same as the start line). Asha members Aruna and Shalene who participitated with me started cheering for me. They arrived earlier because they decided to run instead of walking. In the last 30-50 meters, they started yelling “Run, Run!”. Karthik was also there to cheer us up.

The man in the yellow jacket turned around and asked “Do you want to run?”. I said “yes”. Then we ran to the finish line. Our timing was 1:00:34 hours. That was the only time we interacted in the entire hour although we walked by each other.

It was a nice experience. I wish it had been a day with sun and warmth, although I was almost sweating by the time I crossed the finish line.

Photo courtesy: Karthik

Sights of Spring season on University of Michigan campus. Little ones, you have no idea how many people are ecstatic to see you.

Sunset in Ann Arbor.