2008: The Year That Was (In Life of S for Me and C for Crazy)

2008 was an interesting year; I guess a year of changes; personal, professional and spatial changes. Here's a quick recap.

• January
  

Celebrated New Year at Kika's and spent most of January in nomadic style with days (starting at 3:00 AM) in lab and nights at Vasant's place (as Altra was in India those days). Busy writing dissertation, sipping coffee and yes with no actual address of my own. By the end of Januray, I has shifted my temporary base from Vasant's place to Shrikant's SC 903 apt, where I sort of remained till I finally moved out of Cinci.

• February
  

Feb started and ended on fabulous notes. Annual IMAC trip involved driving the 10 seater Chevy all the way from Cinci to Orlando, enjoying Jacksonville beach and Daytona beach on the way. IMAC was, as usual, fun and then we rounded it off by visiting Key West. Snorkeling, para sailing and cruise in Key West were followed by an afternoon on Miami beach during the return dash to Cinci. Forgot to mention the evening in Cocoa beach spent right after IMAC concluded. By the way, we were six in total, Wanchang, Ryota and his Japanese Friend, Bala, Batman and myself.
28th of Feb was when it finally ended, I mean my doctoral studies reached satisfactory conclusions. 45 min talk, few questions and photographs, round of hand shakes, congratulations; that is what four years of work/studies culminated into :)

• March

March was a busy month; lot of people to meet and treat, finalizing stuff in Denmark and the memorable farewell at Myrtle Beach. PF Chang, Teak Thai, The Thai place near Sippy's house, Amma's Kitchen, Party at Morgens, The Chinese Place in Downtown and the usual suspects, Krishna, Chipotle, Cilantro, King Wok, hmmmmmm March was the month of Restaurants and Parties.
I made a quick trip to Copenhagen and finalized the apartment where I currently reside. Myrtle beach trip followed soon after. Four memorable days, spent amongst friends, My Cinci family. We celebrated Daksh's b'day and time was spent gossiping, dozing around the oceanfront house; and of course there was holi on the beach :)

• April

No tears shed this farewell and I moved from one part of the world to another. April passed figuring out the new surroundings and lifestyle; getting used to the fact that reliance on public transport is the way to be, shops closing down around 6:00 in the evening, paying for water you drink at the restaurants, paying for the carry bags at grocery stores, cola refills don't come free, etc. etc.

• May

May was the month of spring and thus traveling and exploring Sjaelland part of the country. This has started in April itself, but almost all the weekends in May were devoted to this activity. Helsingor Castle, Hillerod Castle, Rosenborg, Fredensberg, Radhuspladsen, Walking Street, Roskilde and many others. I guess I finished my Denmark darshan in May itself :)

• June

June started with a cruise to Oslo, Norway with Sumit who took a Detour to Denmark during his trip to Germany. We came back from Oslo and headed straight to USA for my graduation ceremony. It was sort of reuniting with Cinci family and other friends at University of Cincinnati. Even got to meet Anshul who drove all the way from Maryland and also Utkarsh. Met Goutham and Ananta, met Bala bros, met folks from AID, met Srikant and Sushant, met my Profs, met ........

• July

July was more about moving around Copenhagen, enjoying the summer and 20 hrs of daylight. There was one particular weekend a 16 Km trek to Stevn's Klint proposed/forced by me which obviously wasn't liked by most. It was indeed tiring but still quite enjoyable, especially the limestone cliffs.

• August

Short trip to India for business purposes. Raghavendra coming to Denmark for his interview with Vestas at Aarhus but could not take him around as I was down with flu. That's pretty much it. It was good for a change that there wasn't much worth mentioning in August.

• September

Trip to Belgium for ISMA. Ate crazy sea food, took a pic and sent it to my parents. As I look at that picture now, my mother's shock on seeing me eat not so friendly looking creatures seems very justified.

• October

Copenhagen Culture Night, My Day of Birth and sad news right before Diwali (My Grandmother expired).

• November

November wasn't a friendly month. I made a quick trip to India for attending my Grandmother's tehrawi. What happened on 26/11 in Mumbai is known to all. November started and ended on sad note.

• December

Trip to Frankfurt, Germany to meet Sumit alongwith Raghavendra. Plenty of vacations starting 21st. We discovered a cinema hall in CPH that exclusively shows Bollwood movies and ended up watching RNBDT and Ghajini. Christmas eve was spent in Malmo, Sweden and New Year witnessing one of the best celebrations of the day, fire crackers bursting all around the lake on the clear night. It was like witnessing Diwali, just that it was -2 deg outside and yes almost everyone was drunk, except me ;)
December went down nicely, except that I lost my S5 IS Camera
:(
par chalta hai, as they say 'Everything need not be perfect'
:)

Wishing all a very happy 2009, I hope it unfolds all things nice and fine for everyone, including me.