Ferrari of San Francisco and Muir Woods

Visit UCB, Ferrari of San Francisco, and Muir Woods

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

This morning we woke up early, showered, and went to the breakfast and had some good stuff. Our goal was to get to UCB campus by 9 AM. So we rushed back and picked the essentials and drove through US101 N and I-80 East and took the Ashby Street exit and via University avenue arrived at the Durrant Street Parking lot. 

We put our car there and went to the admissions seminar from 9 and 10 AM. Then we went to the campanili, paid $2+2+ 1 tickets went to the top of the tower. We saw the campus Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco and the Bay area.

From there we drove to the Mills Valley Ferrai dealership on Redwood Hwy. We saw both the Ferrari and Masterari cars and wanted to visit the Aston Martin dealership but missed our way and ended up in the Muir wood road. We took it and went up the hill and spent 2 hours on the Muir wood forest area.

Then we drove back to the Aston Martin dealership and spent about 15 minutes. Later we drove back home via the Golden Gate Bridge. Fortunately for us the bridge was covered in fog and we had a pleasant surprise. We stopped on top of the hill on the Sausalito side and took plenty of pictures and heard on ship whistle due to the fog. We drove through the fog and got tot the hotel.

 We put an load of laundry (detergent $1) , washing $2.50 and drying $2.00. While the washing was going on we went to Taco bell had dinner and came back and put the cloths for drying. We picked up the cloths and went to bed by 8:30 (I had a good shower)

Visit UCB an Stanford

Visit UCB (aka Cal) and Stanford

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Berkeley and Palo Alto, CA

We woke in the morning by 5:30 AM and had room coffee, shaved and showered then we all went to the hotel lobby to get morning breakfast. It was a good. 

Then by 7:45 AM we all got ready and headed out the door to UC Berkeley (also known as Cal). This time we followed the GPS directions and went over the bay via the Oakland Bridge to UCB. 

We arrived at 9:15 AM but missed the admissions meeting. We decided to attend that meeting tomorrow morning. We parked our car on a public place on Durrant and Telegraph avenues. The Berkeley tour started at 10 with Edgar and we went around the campus for 1 ½ hours visiting Life sciences building, Doe Library, Bancroft library and ending at the campanile.

We grabbed subs at the Sub-way and headed to Stanford University. We were worried at first since the tour was supposed to start at 1 PM and our GPS indicated we would arrive only at1:05 PM. But when VTS called they said the tour will start at 1:30.

We arrived at Galvez Street and joined the 1 hour lecture by a Stanford student about her experience at Standford. Then we went on a tour from 2:30 to till 4 PM by Victoria a science major. We went through libraries, Hoover tower, Main quad, Memorial church and ending up at the dorms.

Then we had coffee and bought some Stanford stuff at the book store and checked out the Med campus on car and drove back home.

We went to Napoli Italian place had dinner and went to bed by 8 PM

On-ward to San Francisco

Monday, March 19, 2012

Jacksonville, Atlanta, San Francisco

We woke up at Red Roof Inn in the morning and got ready by 5:10 AM and checked out of the hotel.

We dropped off the key cards at the front desk and drove toward the Economy Parking Lot Number 1 via Airport Road. We took the token for parking and and within 5 minutes we got a shuttle and got off at the second stop for AirTran and SouthWest at 5:25 AM.

The baggage checking-in was quick since there were not many people waiting and I had already paid for them $18 ($20/bag but they gave me $6 credit since I paid seat fees).  This took about 15 minutes and by the time we got into the gate area C it was almost 6:10 AM and they were already boarding and so got into the plane. We took off bit early at 6:30 AM from gate C6. Due to the early departure we arrived in Atlanta also 10 minutes early by 7:35 AM at D9 gate. So far I am impressed with Air Tran schedule and staff.

We took the train and there was a line for the escalator to go up to the concourse C (may be because it was Monday morning in ATL and it was 7:50 AM peak hour commute). Our gate was C21 and was next to the escalator and we didn’t have time to grab breakfast as AirTran started to board by 8:20 AM. We were airborne by 8:45 AM few minutes ahead of schedule. But the captain warned us that there was a rainstorm that they were trying to avoid and so we will go via Mobile and that would add few minutes delay to our trip. So getting off early was good.

Once we were airborne and climbed to 10,000 feet I opened my MacBook and found out the Gogoair.com onboard wi-fi service was only $4.95 for my 5 ½ h flight and so I bought the service. This allowed me to see where we were going in real time.

Trip to Jacksonville Hindu Temple

Sunday, March 18, 2012 3-8 PM

Tallahassee and Jacksonville, FL

This afternoon we packed and left home around 3 PM toward Jacksonville, FL. We took I-10 East and drove for about 90 minutes before stopping for a restroom break.

Then as we reached the outskirts of Jacksonville we stopped and took a coffee and donut break at a local Dunkin Donuts. Then we drove to Jacksonville Hindu temple (Hindu Society of Northeast Florida’s Ganesh temple). By the time we arrived at the temple, its had been open only few minutes earlier (the time on Sundays are 6-8:30 PM).

We spent sometime praying and took some prasadam. We also met the senior priest we had seen earlier during previous trips.

From there we took I-295 South to I-95 North to our hotel Ref Roof Inn on Duval Road near the airport. We checked into our room and immediately went to see the economy parking  lot where we will park our car tomorrow.

Once that was finished we drove back to have dinner at a Taco Bell and went back to the hotel. I checked the e-mail and went to bed around  9PM.

Graduate and Post-doc Institution Fair

Graduate and Post-doc Institution Fair

56th Biophysical Society Meeting

San Diego Convention Center, 111 W Harbor Drive

San Diego, CA 92101

Sunday, Feb 26, 2012

I registered at the 56th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting in San Diego, CA and also for the Graduate and Post-doc Institution Fair. I arrived at 12:15 PM and set-up the table in the Hall FGH around 300 aisle on position six. The Fair was set-up in the same hall where commercial vendors were situated.

I put up the MOB brochures, pens, flyers, and graduate program information. Soon many students (under graduates, post-docs, faculty) stopped by and inquired about our program. There were many senior under graduates also inquired about the program.

Soon Claude came and helped me put the table cloth and as the two hours time went by many more people stopped by and took the information. Our own MOB students also came to the table.

Trip to San Diego

I left Tallahassee on DL5047 around 1:25 PM (instead of 12:35 PM) due to a weather related delay for the flight DL5047 from Atlanta to Tallahassee (CRJ 200) and it reached Tallahassee at 12:55 PM.

Then I arrived in Atlanta in a slightly bumpy ride due to cloudy weather. There was no rain in Tallahassee or in Atlanta while I left or landed but it had rained in ATL before and rained in TLH while I was in ATL. I arrived 2:20 PM on concourse D 28.

My connecting flight to San Diego was in Concourse A19 and it was 4:25 PM. So I went to Concourse A and grabbed some pizza and coffee and waited to board the flight. There was free Wifi at TLH but not in ATL. 

I boarded the flight. My DL 1467 flight to San Diego took off around 4:35 PM. It was about five hour flight. We went over AL, LA, TX, NM, AZ, and CA. Half-way through the flight around Dallas they served some cold drinks and peanuts. I was able to watch some free TV shows like TBS, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and CBS. But all the interesting things to watch need to be purchased ranging in price from $2 to $6. Nothing was worth that price. Then approximately 45 min before landing they served coffee and peanuts. Fortunately, we landed 10 min early at 6:25 PM.

Even though I arrived in time, my checked luggage didn't make it. So I filled paper work for luggage to be delivered home.

University of Florida

University of Florida (Gator Nation)

Gainesville, FL 32611 

Day trip

Saturday, March 18, 2012

VTS and I made a one day trip  University of Florida, Gainesville to be part of the visitors of freshman class. This was our first Recruitment Conference visit to UF. We left last evening (Friday) around 6 PM. It was a cloudy day and there were few drizzles on the way (mostly cloudy while at I-10 and drizzled while at I-75). We just stopped once at a rest stop.

We arrived at VB's Springs Dorm around 8:40 PM. We all three then headed to Kabab House for dinner at the intersection of W University Drive and 12th SW Street. Then we dropped off VB and went to the motel. Our directions were completely wrong. Then we looked for accommodation in two overbooked hotels. Finally we arrived at one place that had a room but happened to be next to the one we had reserved. So we asked the front desk person to hold that room and found our own reservation. Interesting and long evening.

In the morning we checked out of motel and headed to J. Wayne Reitz Union via the Museum Road. We parked the car and went to the registration. There were long lines and literally hundreds of people (even 8th graders attended the recruitment). The following was the schedule for the day:

9:00am-10:00am     Registration/Campus Resource Fair

10:00am-10:20am   Open and Welcome

10:25am-11:40am   Academic Advising Sessions 1 & 2 

11:40am-12:00pm   Lunch (provided)

12:00pm-12:45pm   Breakout Sessions by Grade

12:50pm-1:30pm     Parent/Student Panel

1:35pm-2:00pm       Scholarship Information

2:00pm                    Program Close

Then at 2 PM we started to drive towards our home. In Alachua we stopped and picked up our lunch. The rest of the day was cloudy and we arrived home around 5:10 PM.