My skying trip for the evening had been postponed. So, I rather collected the keys to my new office from the department. There were two of them. One was to open any of Sweeney Hall's outer doors. The other could open up rooms numbered 1322 and R1143. With some anxiety, I walked off towards Sweeney hall at 6 PM.
Sweeney hall is actually dedicated mostly to Chemistry department but it sometimes host a few Computer Science classes. So well, my office as a grad student working on supercomputers and clusters had to be slightly misplaced. What the hell, I didn't care! The weather was light and so was my mood and so I strolled down the length of the first floor of Sweeney Hall. I couldn't locate either of the rooms! So, I strolled back. No they were not there! I walked out of the building and rechecked whether I was really in Sweeney Hall. Yes I was!
I was looking through the directory of rooms at the entrance, when I heard a female voice from behind, "What are you looking for!". I showed her the room numbers I was looking for and she had no clue either. She said that she knew that most of the graduate students had their offices on the third floor and that's where I should be searching. However, both of us were sure that no room on the third floor would start with 1. So we both started looking once more! Finally, we found R1143 and burst out into peels of laughter. It was the girls' restroom on the first floor!!! So I have the permission to go into the lady's restroom in Sweeney (Well I have to check that tomorrow).
After that laugh, I bid farewell to my new friend and started looking for room no. 1322 on my own. I started walking around the building and found out a small wing running between the Sweeney parking and the Durham Centre! It sure looked rickety. Hmmm! So I opened the door. It was dark unlike Coover, Durham, Hoover and the Nuclear Engineering buildings around. A chemical smell hung in the air. Through a second door I could see the new PriSUM car of ISU. Well just in case that you were wondering what I am speaking about, PriSUM is the famous solar car of ISU which has won many competitions and yes it looks very much like the ones you have seen on Discovery Channel! So this was a garage I was in. Through the light coming in through the door I could see that there was yet another door to my right and the door number read '1322'. I had found my new office! Almost in a garage and whose entrance was not even lit! I used the light from my cell phone to open the lock and I went in and trned on the lights.
It was indeed a large room as Dr. Leucke had promised with many table and chairs. and just 3 computers. Two of them were taken! So the third must be mine! there are two large windows near the place I woud sit. One of them opens towards Durham Centre and the other towards the main building of Sweeney Hall! And yes it has a barbeque grill and a printer side by side :). So that is it! thats going to be my second house for atleast an year to come and to tell you frankly, I queerly liked it!
I wanted to check the rest of building especially the restrooms nearby. So I got out of my office and locked it shut. This time I entered the door behind which the PriSUM car was standing. I walked passed it and its office where a guy was reading some magazine! I looked around for the rest room and I found amongst a set of lockers. It was small and I think it is a common bathroom for both men and women. Now, I have never seen that in ISU! Trying to understand the buzz in my mind, I moved around a bit more and lo! There a glass blowing workshop and a heavily bearded grey professor was teaching his students. So that was the source of the stench! However, it was beautiful from inside. with red hot furnaces and colourful glass figures all around them. I will surely go there with my camera some day and get you all some good pictures!
My phone buzzed. I realized it was already 7:25 and it was Yuzhu on the call! I had promised her a movie today. Actually she had seen 'Yesman' recently and she felt that I was, in nature, just like the protagonist. So she wanted to show me the movie! Who says no to a free movie :). Definitely, not a 'Yesman' think-alike :). So I walked out through the other side of the wing which I had entered about half an hour ago. The garage gate there led me straight into Sweeney's parking where I waited for Yuzhu.
The breeze outside had become chillier and it ruffled through my hair. I really felt very light and I don't know why. Was it because my search for my office was over! Or because it was such a search! Or because I had such a setting for my office, weird but romantic (in my sense)! Or was it because I always wanted to join th ePriSUM team, but it never materialised and perhaps this is going to be a good reckoning! I don't know. But I was surely smiling at a silly thought in my mind! It was the thought, that most big companies today started off when university graduates started working in a garage!
Sweeney hall is actually dedicated mostly to Chemistry department but it sometimes host a few Computer Science classes. So well, my office as a grad student working on supercomputers and clusters had to be slightly misplaced. What the hell, I didn't care! The weather was light and so was my mood and so I strolled down the length of the first floor of Sweeney Hall. I couldn't locate either of the rooms! So, I strolled back. No they were not there! I walked out of the building and rechecked whether I was really in Sweeney Hall. Yes I was!
I was looking through the directory of rooms at the entrance, when I heard a female voice from behind, "What are you looking for!". I showed her the room numbers I was looking for and she had no clue either. She said that she knew that most of the graduate students had their offices on the third floor and that's where I should be searching. However, both of us were sure that no room on the third floor would start with 1. So we both started looking once more! Finally, we found R1143 and burst out into peels of laughter. It was the girls' restroom on the first floor!!! So I have the permission to go into the lady's restroom in Sweeney (Well I have to check that tomorrow).
After that laugh, I bid farewell to my new friend and started looking for room no. 1322 on my own. I started walking around the building and found out a small wing running between the Sweeney parking and the Durham Centre! It sure looked rickety. Hmmm! So I opened the door. It was dark unlike Coover, Durham, Hoover and the Nuclear Engineering buildings around. A chemical smell hung in the air. Through a second door I could see the new PriSUM car of ISU. Well just in case that you were wondering what I am speaking about, PriSUM is the famous solar car of ISU which has won many competitions and yes it looks very much like the ones you have seen on Discovery Channel! So this was a garage I was in. Through the light coming in through the door I could see that there was yet another door to my right and the door number read '1322'. I had found my new office! Almost in a garage and whose entrance was not even lit! I used the light from my cell phone to open the lock and I went in and trned on the lights.
It was indeed a large room as Dr. Leucke had promised with many table and chairs. and just 3 computers. Two of them were taken! So the third must be mine! there are two large windows near the place I woud sit. One of them opens towards Durham Centre and the other towards the main building of Sweeney Hall! And yes it has a barbeque grill and a printer side by side :). So that is it! thats going to be my second house for atleast an year to come and to tell you frankly, I queerly liked it!
I wanted to check the rest of building especially the restrooms nearby. So I got out of my office and locked it shut. This time I entered the door behind which the PriSUM car was standing. I walked passed it and its office where a guy was reading some magazine! I looked around for the rest room and I found amongst a set of lockers. It was small and I think it is a common bathroom for both men and women. Now, I have never seen that in ISU! Trying to understand the buzz in my mind, I moved around a bit more and lo! There a glass blowing workshop and a heavily bearded grey professor was teaching his students. So that was the source of the stench! However, it was beautiful from inside. with red hot furnaces and colourful glass figures all around them. I will surely go there with my camera some day and get you all some good pictures!
My phone buzzed. I realized it was already 7:25 and it was Yuzhu on the call! I had promised her a movie today. Actually she had seen 'Yesman' recently and she felt that I was, in nature, just like the protagonist. So she wanted to show me the movie! Who says no to a free movie :). Definitely, not a 'Yesman' think-alike :). So I walked out through the other side of the wing which I had entered about half an hour ago. The garage gate there led me straight into Sweeney's parking where I waited for Yuzhu.
The breeze outside had become chillier and it ruffled through my hair. I really felt very light and I don't know why. Was it because my search for my office was over! Or because it was such a search! Or because I had such a setting for my office, weird but romantic (in my sense)! Or was it because I always wanted to join th ePriSUM team, but it never materialised and perhaps this is going to be a good reckoning! I don't know. But I was surely smiling at a silly thought in my mind! It was the thought, that most big companies today started off when university graduates started working in a garage!
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