Journey to the battlefield

My grad school is situated at TROY. And I refuse to believe that the name is a mere coincidence. The future designs of the creator are difficult to decipher, and if there is no creator, its even more difficult.

But the journey to the battlefield was totally different than expected. No signs of impending battle.

1. I was well-fed in flight to Amsterdam and then to Boston. In fact, the food was too good compared to the horrible stories I had heard from people. Unfortunately I caught cold in the strong AC in the flight to Amsterdam so couldn't watch movies on the videoscreen provided in front of each seat. I missed a golden chance of watching Sherlock Holmes, The Hurt Locker and Alice in Wonderland in a single night. The plane from Boston to Troy looked more like a plane in Talespin cartoon series and was the only cause of worry.
2. A young lady tried to decipher the phone calling system for me at the Boston airport. When she couldn't do it, she made the phone call from her own cellphone. (She was real pretty and charming! You see a lot of pretty girls on airports but she did belong to a different class altogether.)
3. The security guards and the shopkeepers not only told the directions clearly but at times came along for some distance to guide to the destination.
4. At Mumbai airport, I could not immediately see public phones after I did complete security check. I wanted to see if I could make a phone call after checking in at Boston. The following exchange then took place at Boston airport -
Myself - Can I make a phone call after security check-in or should I do it before?
Security - (With a chuckle) That depends on how you like it, before or after.
5. At Boston airport, after making the famous call in point no. 1, I suddenly came across my friend at IISc - Nishanth Nair. To call it pleasant surprise would be an understatement, it was a shock. Killing four hours at Boston was a non-issue then.

The final flight kept both my bags at Boston. And my close friend Nikhil, who received it at Schenectedy is going to take all the pains to deliver those bags to me driving some 60 miles in total. Fortunately I had kept a spare set of clothes in my hand-bag. In fact, here it is possible to survive on only two sets of clothes for few days - the driers here dry out the clothes completely. It was known to me, but to actually experience it with only two sets of clothes available is more than a relief !

The details of the battlefield itself will be in the next post. At present, the graduate student's forum at RPI, Troy has provided a week of free accommodation near RPI. So the coming week will be spent battling for finding out accommodation. Oh while writing the last sentence, the hourly church bell sound echoed through the environment. The sound feels real good in this environment.