Week 47: If only visas were sold at places like Bashundara City

47th-1st in Dhaka 7/23

Saw workers chip sealing parts of the roads today. The process was intense. Giant barrels over burning fires to heat the asphalt cement! The workers face some intense hot conditions! (pic: workers chip sealing a part of Sat Masjid Road by heating the asphalt cement over giant fires)
















Today I went to BUET to work, but found out the hard way that all the computer labs I use were restricted to only students registering for courses. In fact the computer labs are all reserved for registering students for the next 4 days! When I went by one time, it was empty, and still they wouldn’t let me in.
To kill the many hours until my evening meeting with Dr. Rahman, Shegufta and I went out and took the measurements of three buses that start nearby to BUET in Azimpur. She was bothered by the heat and the sun, but she was still a great sport and stuck with me the whole way.
I finally was told to go to a computer lab I’d never been in before, and had to ask the moderator there how to log in, as it’s a whole other system from the other labs I use (each lab seems to require its own log ins, no central network.) They just let me log in as an administrator after I complained saying I need to do some work today! (pics: myself in front of one of the buses I ride, my assistant Shegufta helping me collect data)





















Met with Dr. Rahman today about my paper. He had a few comments that I should make sure I clean up for the final submission. It was good to hear that he thought the paper was looking good, and that I should be proud to have it at the conference.

On the street today I found bite-size fuchka! This really excited me for some reason. (pic: bite size fuchka)















I sent an email to all the new Fulbrights letting them know I’m selling my furniture, and also to let them know about my flat in case they are interested in moving in.

Tonight my store owner and the guy who fed me jackfruit came by my place. The jackfruit guy wanted to check out my fridge. He also looked at my DVD player and my ceiling fan. He was very insulted that I wouldn’t just give them to him at whatever price he named. He complained that he’s a poor man and can’t afford so much, and I told him my prices stand as I like, and I’m not going to lose tons of money just because he wants to tell me he’s poor. He doesn’t have to own a DVD player. My store owner also guilt tripped me to try and give him my bed. Although I’m supposed to be getting 75% back for it from the store I bought it at, the store owner told me give it to him because he’s a friend and actually knows me. The cost of this friendship, 50% less for the bed! I wasn’t falling for these tricks.

47th-2nd in Dhaka 7/24

Recently I’ve also been plowing through the Southeast Asia guide book. That trip is one I’m very much less ready for, and don’t even know what I want to see and do. But the book is extremely helpful for helping me pick my highlights and my modes of transport.

Today was my first time collecting data on buses for a long time, and for my return I did a hard day of four local buses! By the end I didn’t want to be on them at all anymore! I rode the #13 route four times in a row, breaking for two tea breaks and a lunch break in between, none of which were very long. The buses all got very crowded, the last one the most because it was during the post-rush hour period. But it felt very good to accomplish so much. So many people talked to me today, and I realized if it wasn’t for these strangers, I might go all day without talking to someone.

No real highlights from the day’s work. One man stayed to talk to me after the route because he was so excited to meet a foreigner. I also had my photo snapped, and I walked up and asked him to see it, and his friends teased him.

47th-3rd in Dhaka 7/25

I visited Bashundara City with Santa for some lunch and shopping. The place was very empty. We had Taco Bell, which was the best Mexican food I’ve had in Bangladesh. Please take note that this is not a real Taco Bell, they just stole the name, menu, and pictures. They gave plenty of cheese and sour cream, and even gave it attractive displays for only being in a mall’s fast food court. Santa also liked it, it being her first time eating it. (pics: the best taco I've had in Bangladesh at the Taco Bell in Bashundara City, Santa eating her first ever Mexican food)
















We shopped at Bashundara for awhile looking at shoes. I ended up buying two new pairs, and even bargaining one down immensely. The other was from a fixed price shop with low prices. She bought two pairs of sandals. (pics: shopping at Bashundara City, buying shoes)
















Remembering the clothing under my bed, seeing the cockroaches in my boots a few weeks ago, and always seeing cockroaches scurrying for the safety to the nether regions of my bed, I decided it was time to check out what was under there. I looked through my things and checked for new cockroach civilizations. Well I pulled out a few bags of clothes, and although there was some cockroach poop here and there, nothing look infested. Then I came to the boxes of shoes. Well it seems cockroaches have their preferences when it comes to inhabiting things. One of the pairs of shoes I’d bought months ago had many cockroaches living inside. They were pretty good at finding the shoe, it was pretty buried in the stack and piles of things. After dumping them out, killing some, and sweeping the poop and eggs into the garbage, I put all the clean good stuff in my suitcase to stay safe from cockroaches (and the mold which seems to be getting everything.)

47th-4th in Dhaka 7/26

This morning I spent time trying to organize my trip to India. Choosing between airlines and trains, and when to actually take these between city trips. In my searching around at flights, I stumbled on that Air India Express has a flight form Dhaka to Bangkok, and its cheaper than what I bought on Best Air last week, although I’d have to quickly switch planes in Kolkata. $60 cheaper is a lot of money though.

Went to Bashundara City to meet with a girl who had contacted me through email and had wanted to know more about my work. She had found my blog from NC State Engineering’s main page, and contacted me to learn more about what I was doing here. She graduated from BUET earlier this year, and has since been working for an engineering design firm, but is thinking of switching careers to transportation from structures. We had a good conversation ranging from my work, transportation issues in Dhaka, traffic management ideas around the world, and the application process of American graduate schools.

After I went to New Market to get the last of clothing ordered. I bought the fabric for a camel sport coat, and three more shirts, two with French cuffs for the cuff links I just had ordered to be made. Will have all this finished in a few weeks. While leaving, I found a snack called pakora, which was fried balls of spinach. Was delicious and had gathered a huge crowd who were getting it while it was hot!

Tonight my mom called me to tell me that they had to put my cat Archie down this morning. Over the past week his health had deteriorated, and today it reached a point that was causing him immense pain. They made the choice to put him down. I cried when mom told me. Archie was only two years old, and very sweet, very friendly.
My boua came after mom called. She was telling me she was going back to her village for the week. Her sister is sick. She saw I was crying. Her advice to me, “Don’t cry. Pray to Allah and ask for good healthy and safety. He will provide. Don’t cry.” It was very sweet of her.

47th-5th in Dhaka 7/27

Today might have been my most successful day of bus riding. Although a new record for number of buses was not set, I rode a bus four times straight, with only a short break for a lunch and a quick hop off for a tea and an ice cream later. I rode the same bus all day long, so I was with the same group of employees for all four routes. Essentially, I got to see how life is like for them, as I was only taking the breaks they took. Well, they stayed on the bus except for the lunch break.
On one of the routes, I struck up a conversation with one of the workers. He told me about their work schedule, apparently it is a 24 hour work day, and they work alternating days. They have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner break, and then a four hour nap break from midnight to 4am when the buses don’t run. Otherwise, it is continuous work, at least 17 hours of actual work! Every other day.
The day was tiring, but I only dozed off shortly on the second bus ride. Was fine for the third and fourth. The guys were helpful, not annoying, and didn’t bother me when I was working. The routes were long. This is the most bus riding I’ve done in a period of time. In 9.5 hours I rode a bus for 8.5 hours. Rear end was sore at the end.

Apparently there was an earthquake last night. I can’t lie, I didn’t even know about it until I read about it in the news tonight at home on the internet. Apparently it was bad enough it shook people out of bed. I was to find out later that even some of my friends had felt it. I slept right through it I guess. I am also the boy who when I was younger slept through the smoke alarms in my house. However, I would still call myself a light sleeper, as I wake up several times every night.

47th-6th in Dhaka 7/28

I went to Gulshan today to pick up my visa from the Vietnam Embassy, but to also do work at the bus stops on Airport Road near Banani.
The working went fine. I found a good spot for observing where I could sit. I had to develop a new system for counting, as there were many buses passing by. In fact it was 350 per hour I’d found out! I resorted to only recording arrival and departure times for the buses on my research list, and simply counting the other buses as non-crowded or crowded, without recording their names. It worked out well, and I enjoyed it a lot. Glad to have a system for these busier stops established now. I collected at Kakoli in the AM peak period, and at Kakoli and Banani during the midday period. I meant to collect at night, but after the issue with my visa, see below, I decided to postpone for a day I wasn’t so frustrated.

In the morning I went with Farabi to Ferdous tailors, where he got a tuxedo made a while back. He was there to help me out, let me know what he chose, and to maybe ask about why the price was so much higher for me than him. It appears that prices had just gone up. They are one of the most renowned tailors in town, and they know people will pay for their work. But it wasn’t too high compared to other places I’d looked into, so I went ahead. We chose the fabric for the shirt and the tuxedo. I chose which details I wanted, declined a bowtie because they would only make it pre-tied, and I want to have one where I can tie it myself. But did get a cumberbund. I get to see the sample within the week. It’ll be nice to have my own tailored tuxedo. I’ll never have to pay expensive rental fees again, and never have to use a tuxedo that hundreds of other guys have worn before me. I even think the price to get this made is equal if not less than just one tuxedo rental in the US!

In the afternoon, Farabi was with me, and he came with me to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up my visa. I remember telling him beforehand, “I hope nothing is wrong, and I can just get it and go.” I think I say this little thought to myself every time I pick up something, from clothes to visas.
Well I got the visa after submitting my receipt, the guard brought it down from the Vietnamese Embassy (apartment) and I checked it out. It looked great, wait, no, the dates are wrong. They gave me all of September until October 1, but I’m traveling in October! Uh oh! I point out the mistake to the guard, and he looks at me and says this is what I receive. The only thing he would do for me is give me the phone number I can call to complain.
I called the number, and a nice woman picked it up, and I started describing my problem. She listened, and asked me to tell her again. After repeating, she asked who I was looking for. I said who is this? She told me it wasn’t an embassy, it was a home number.
I told the unhelping guard he’d given me the wrong number. He looked at the paper, and realized he’d written an “8” instead of a “4” somewhere in the number (despite my anger for wasting my time, I can’t blame him because a Bengali “4” looks like an English “8” and I’m sure that was the mistake he made in his head.)
Called the number, the ambassador himself picked up. I described the problem, and told him I was still downstairs. He told me I had asked for those dates, and that’s what he gave me. Said they even sent the application to Hanoi to verify everything. He then sent down my application to show to me that there had been confusion over what I wanted. I could tell why, because over the “10” I had written for October, a giant “9” was scribbled over it. I didn’t remember doing that, and can’t imagine why I would. I told the guard, who told me to call the number again, and explained it to the ambassador. I told him I didn’t do that, but he insisted I did…and I realized that no matter what I said, whether they did it or not, I was stuck. The “no I didn’t” “yes you did” would go on until I angered him. So instead I asked him what I had to do to get the dates I’d wanted, how we could change it. He said the only way was to buy a whole new visa, and re-apply with a new application. Luckily I didn’t have to submit all my bank statements and photos again.
During this whole time, Farabi was fighting with the guard about the application, fighting for me, saying this isn’t fair, you can’t just give an incorrect visa time and again just so you get more money.
I put in a new application. After waiting and waiting for the ambassador to get out of a meeting, the guard finally brought the application up. And came back down to collect my new visa fee, an additional Tk3700.

Here is how I broke down the situation, and why I did what I did. I had 3 choices.
Refuse to get a new visa and pay an additional visa fee. This means I would never travel to Vietnam as I would not be able to make it to Vietnam before the visa ended on October 1. I’d be out my first Tk3700. It’d be paying that much money to NOT travel there, seems pretty silly. Plus, Amy, my travel partner, already successful got her visa, and I couldn’t put her out like that.
Get very angry on the phone and fight with the ambassador about who really wrote the 9 over my 10. This would put me in bad favor, and he’d likely just say “don’t call again” and I’d never get a new visa, and I’d still be out my first Tk3700. And still put Amy in a bad situation.
I could just accept it and put in a new application and pay the additional Tk3700. At least I’d still get to go to Vietnam (pending approval of course)
Another way to reason it out was: pay Tk3700 to not go to Vietnam, or pay tk7400 to still get to go. This stuff happens, whether at my own fault or someone else’s. I’m not the only person ever to have these kinds of problems, so I’m just dealing with it. If you want to read about worse problems, my friends Jen and Ben have spent tons of money and lots of time trying to extend their visas to stay in Bangladesh.

47th-7th in Dhaka 7/29

I skyped with Sandee in the morning. Been a bit since I talked to her, and we had plenty to talk about.

Our area is without water today. They said with the heat we are having, the water lines are dry since everyone has used all the water up.

I met with Dr. Rahman, and we went over some graphs that I had produced recently. He provided comments, and we discussed what the results are saying. Before and after this I did curbside data collections at Kalabagan.

I also dropped by Aziz Super Market midday, and looked at the selection of Bengali t-shirts. Some have long poems on them, but others have short sayings, and I wanted to pick some up before I leave. This proved to be easier said than done. There was so many choices, and I couldn’t choose. I’ll have to come back, I only bought one today.

Week 41: Second cricket loss, first time trapped in an elevator, several disruptive power outages

41^st-1st in Dhaka 6/11

I’ve noticed that the midday highs and the nightly lows are now only separated by three to five degrees in the weather forecasts. It seems like the heat is trapped, and nights don’t really cool down anymore.

Took Ben to lunch to try some foods that, honestly, I don’t eat anymore here. At least one I used to love, biryani. The other, borhani, I’ve never liked the few times I’ve tried it.

After spending the morning at home, we went to New Market to pick up our clothing from the tailor. Everything fit very well, and we were happy with our results. Ben now has the task of bringing his stuff around the world. We also ordered some beach-like shirts, one for each of us, and went to a button store to choose what buttons we’d like. We walked around the market for awhile after looking for some items of interest.

We then headed to Gulshan for Aaron’s goodbye party. He leaves tomorrow morning. I’d never really been to any of the foreign clubs in Dhaka, and was amazed to see the luxury some people choose to enjoy. Tonight was their weekly cookout, with a variety of meats, including pig, which you never see in Bangladesh. I got chicken skewers, Ben got shrimp skewers. Lots of people came to bid their goodbyes to Aaron. The system they work on here for payment is through a complex booklet you have to buy of a set cost. As a result, Ben and I were left with $8.50 (yes dollars) of credit, so we bought a double cappuccino, a latte, and a slice of cheesecake.

41^st-2nd in Dhaka 6/12

Today is Ben’s last full day in Bangladesh. We were at home in the morning, Ben had to plan out a lot of things for his trip to India, and my slow internet makes that a long process. I went out and made some copies of things for him: maps, plane tickets, etc.

The day was centered around an international cricket match between Bangladesh and India at Mirpur Stadium. The game is the third One Day International match between the three nations in the Tri Nations Series: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Bangladesh had already lost to Pakistan, and India had beaten Pakistan, so things were not looking up for Bangladesh’s match versus India (well, honestly that is known weeks beforehand.)

I had to pick up tickets for Luke and his friend Stephanie who were coming later, so I told Ben and Ayon to go inside and I’d meet them there. The ticket counter had three windows, two for the cheap Gallery seats, and one for the Reserved and VVIP seats. Well despite the prices attached to those latter tickets, that particular line was the only one that went through a giant mud puddle. You had to walk along the bamboo handrails separating the lines to stay out of the puddle. There are always penalties for sitting in the better seats.

I met up with everyone inside, already there along with Ben and Ayon were Hridoy (Ayon and Jayita’s cousin), Jayita, and her fiancée Apurba. Later Opu would arrive, and then finally Luke and Stephanie later on. (pic: Hridoy/Opu/Ayon/Ben at the match having a serious discussion on the state of Bangladeshi cricket)

Bangladesh had chosen to bat first, and the inning went well, they scored 222 runs and lost their last wicket in the final over. It looked like Bangladesh could have a fighting chance if they played well defensively in the second inning. The game was quite warm, and the sun blared on us for about an hour, causing people around to shield themselves with whatever they had around (flags, hats, bookbags.) We had several bottles of cold beverages and two ice creams to keep cool. (pics: India bowls to Bangladesh in the Tri-Nations Series, Ben/Opu/Hridoy/Jayita watch the match, Bangladeshi cricket supporters waving the national flag, blocking out the sun by whatever way possible)

During the innings break, a friend of Jayita’s found us. He works for the Bangladesh Cricket Board, and insisted that he bring us to the VVIP section to sit. He didn’t need to twist our arms. We arrived at this section by actually leaving the stadium and then coming back in through several security checks. But once inside, we had incredible field-side seats.

From our excellent seating position, however, we watched as Bangladesh got dismantled by India. India scored runs at a run rate of over 7.0, a high pace. The game felt a bit slower as we watched Bangladesh lose. At one point Ben and I found some excellent game food beyond the ice cream, samosas, chingaras, soda, and chips that were being sold in the stands. A meal of a chicken cutlet, two spring rolls, and an excellent bread roll. Our friends left slowly, Jayita and Apurba first, Luke and Stephanie next. At the end of the match, only Ayon, Opu, Hridoy, Ben and I were left to cheer on two end-game wickets collected by Bangladesh. (pics: Ben/myself in our new seats, field view from the new seats)

Upon coming home, Ben wanted to update his blog one last time, and get packed. Meanwhile we also watched the movie Darjeeling Limited. A perfect fit since Ben is about to go across India.

41^st-3rd in Dhaka 6/13

Got up very early and brought Ben to the bus counter to leave for Kolkata. No issues, he boarded, and is now on his next leg of his world tour: India for three days before heading to Sweden to meet with his family.

Spent the middle part of the day updating the blog, posting photos, and applying for jobs. Also caught up on all the blogs I read, as I’d stopped reading when Ben was here.

Moweena didn’t show up, so I didn’t have a fresh breakfast. This resulted in me not eating much today. I finally got lunch around 4pm, and it was just then that Jen and Ben called to invite me over for dinner at their place tonight. Good thing I didn’t order too much.

Before heading over to their place for dinner, a group of Muslim men came to my door. I answered, and they asked if there were any Muslims at home. They said they had come straight from mosque and they wanted to share a prayer. Finding it was only me, they proceeded to other doors. But when they came back downstairs from the floors above, I intercepted them, and inquired about what they wanted to share, and why today. It turned out that today was a great day of prayer at the mosque, and they wanted to share what they were feeling with others who had not come. They were reminding other Muslims how great it is to be a Muslim, and how great Allah is. It was neat to hear about the passion they had felt inspired to go out as groups and share. Although I didn’t get to share a prayer with them since I don’t prayers in the Koran, I was glad to be an audience to them and to hear the messages they had come to talk about.

Dinner at Jen and Ben’s was fun. Luke and Sam showed up as well, both were students with Jen last year in AIBS. Jen and Ben cooked tortillas and the appropriate fillings. It was delicious, and I ate a lot. Jen and Ben’s friends came over, two Bangladeshi girls, and this instantly changed the language of the evening to Bengali. Although they didn’t like the tortillas, we had a fun time talking with them for the hour or so they stayed.

A story I wrote for Fulbright when they requested stories from Fulbrighters got posted on the front page of their website. See the link here and in the sidebar.

41^st-4th in Dhaka 6/14

Today I really got back to work. I finished the pre-processing of all my buses I had collected data on, and then processed two of those. I did this all in two different restaurants, just to get out of the house.

I had been at home all morning, doing photo stuff, getting things done online. I joined a website that allows you to find travel partners. Ever since Landon got word from his company that he can’t come with me to Southeast Asia, I’ve had a feeling of doom that I’ll be traveling alone. So I joined travelchums.com and a few others. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

But I was also feeling real sick today for some reason. After being out working, I was feeling exhausted. Beat down. Weak. Worn out. I put a movie on and sat and enjoyed, didn’t feel like moving. After the movie was over, I just shut my eyes and slept right where I was. I was too tired to get up to brush my teeth or shower. Finally around 1AM, I woke up, showered, and went to my real bed.

41^st-5th in Dhaka 6/15

Woke up feeling very refreshed. Got a reply on travelchums from someone wanting to travel. That was great! Hope more show up. Signed up for a bunch more travel buddy websites, and posted on a few message boards. Hope some of these are effective. I would think people who post on there, or are active, are actually wanting to make something of their time there.

Talked to Dad since it was Father’s Day. That was very nice. Would be great to be at home sharing it with him, would be a real treat.

Processed three buses today. Local buses take longer to process than ticket buses because there are more stops, and more boards and alights per stop, and the stops are longer. This all adds up to what feels like less productivity. I don’t get as frequent feelings of completion because I go through stops and buses so slowly.

Felt very sick again at night. Couldn’t take my cold shower. Wore a shirt to bed for the first time since winter. Then woke up middle of the night sweating. Was up for awhile lying in bed.

41^st-6th in Dhaka 6/16

Today Shegufta had promised to start working with me on a more regular basis. We planned to meet in BUET’s computer lab at 10. I gave her the bus stop data to process. Although this takes a longer amount of time, I felt because it involved less types of data to work with while still requiring a fairly active regiment of work, as compared to uploading information to the database, it was fit best for her. As well, since it takes longer than the database entry, daily I can enter what she does the day before into the database quickly, and then move onto analyzing, which I haven’t done enough of yet.

Currently I’m learning visual basic and how to write macros and seeing how I can apply this to my project. This also involves making decisions on how I want to manage my data, and in what programs to analyze, and which to store.

Only hiccup of the day was when Shegufta lost all the work she’d done over 1.5 hours. I had warned her to save often because of the computer lab’s eventual power outage, and of course she didn’t save at all, and lost all her work when we lost power.

After she left, I stayed a bit longer working, and then headed out. I got in the elevator, and its doors closed, and just then the power went out. I was stuck. Then it came on, and the doors opened, and I decided it’d be smart to get out before the power goes off again, but before I could get out, the elevator reshut its doors (it seemed to be restarting a routine) and started going down. Just as we were going down the power went out again. I sat there wondering what happens when you’re stuck in an elevator when the power is out. Power went back on again, and the elevator started moving again, and reached the bottom floor, but the doors wouldn’t open. I was there for 10 minutes with some man outside telling me to “wait.” Then magically the doors opened, and he wasn’t even standing there, and I left the building.

I came home and spent a lot of time working on visual basic, learning more of what it can do and practicing writing small programs with my excel tables. I enjoy learning new programs, even though I don’t pursue new ones actively.

It got windy this evening, and a fluorescent light bulb that’d just been leaning on my balcony (Mohan left it here) got blown over and crashed, scattering glass everywhere. Had to clean that up.

41^st-7th in Dhaka 6/17

Another day feeling a bit weak and tired. Not sure what’s wrong.

At BUET Shegufta processed two buses for me, while I databased two, and then spent some writing, cleaning my data in the database, and fumbling around trying to get my Visual Basic operations to work.

Spending this time at BUET with Shegufta has allowed me to ask her what the giant bell is that rings at times throughout the day. She explained the bell announces exam times during the exam period, two hours left, one hour left, finish time. Heard all over campus. A neat idea that can stay a tradition for sure.

Working in the lab more often now has allowed me to discover some of the annoyances. For one, the computers won’t allow me to run macros or visual basic operations. I don’t understand how an engineering university’s computers aren’t allowed to do this. I understand the worry that students might make harmful macros, but other universities worldwide seem to figure a way out around this.
Like many offices and schools, certain words are blocked from being to be searched through a search engine. I’ve discovered one of those words at BUET is “analysis”, a word which I think could be useful for people in the fields of science and math.
The last and most significant are the power outages. Since we are all on PCs, when the power goes out, all the PCs turn off. BUET does have a generator, but nothing more, so although power comes back quick, we lose anything that hasn’t been saved. And since the power outages come randomly, you have to save all the time. Not usually a big problem, but because the computers are slow, and my files are large, saving takes about fifteen seconds each time. This adds up and slows down productivity. Today, in five hours, we had six losses of power, one for about ten minutes. We just sit there in the dark.

I've started to learn to read Hindi in preparation for traveling to India. It's not hard now that I already read Bengali with ease. I'm using an internet website that has simple pages with the characters on them and does it's best to make lessons

Week 31: Despite their creativity, BUET Civil students wouldn't have been able to design a prettier Parliament

31^st-1st in Dhaka 4/2

Today was the Civil Festival at BUET. Each faculty has a festival like this, full of music, entertainment, lectures, and panels. Last month I noticed signs for the Mechanical Festival. I’m sure there’s an Electrical Festival and an Architectural Festival as well. But as I’m a civil engineering student, the Civil Festival is the one I care about! After experiencing it all, I have to say I wish my university back in the US did this. It’s a great way for a department’s students to interact. Of course in the US there are a lot more clubs and events on campus, so the success of an event like this probably wouldn’t be on such a large scale.
Arrived at BUET and headed to the auditorium where the festivities would take place over the next two days. Around midday today the event was to have a rally, a kickoff event. There was a small 4 piece band dressed in old guard wear with a horse and cart, and they paraded around the campus with students following behind cheering. Couldn’t imagine something like that for an event like this at NCSU. (pics: BUET auditorium and cafeteria on a typical day, Civil Festival banner and the kickoff event band and horse cart)

Met some of Arjun’s friends, and picked up my t-shirt for the event. It was free! Wish I could get a shirt that just said BUET, but that kind of school apparel like we have the US doesn’t exist at all here (it was at least available, although not worn by the South African students, at the University of Cape Town.) Some of his friends were telling me all about their research projects, as they were all transportation students. I offered any help I could. (pics: myself/Arjun flanked by his friends)

I went up to the computer lab in the meantime until the evening when the rest of the activities were. Worked very quickly on my data processing.

The BUET auditorium is impressive, with balcony seating. The seating arrangement was enforced: civil engineering students ONLY in the orchestra seating section and the balcony was for all other faculties (mechanical, electrical, architecture, etc.)
This created quite a dichotomous atmosphere. As I’ve mentioned before, the Bangladeshi way of booing is a chant of “Boo-Wah”, and it’s very piercing and quite catchy for anyone jumping on the booing bandwagon. Well the balcony, being non-civil engineers and looking for anyway to jest their rival engineers were quite liberal with their Boo-Wahs. When the sound cut out, Boo-Wah. When something wasn’t funny enough, Boo-Wah. When the dancing was a bit off, Boo-Wah. When the air was feeling stuffy, Boo-Wah. When the clock struck a new hour, Boo-Wah. When it just felt good to say it, Boo-Wah.
In response, the civil engineers seated below would all stand up, turn back, and start yelling at the groups up in the balcony section. Or they’d start chanting louder for their fellow students on stage by cheering “Hey-Hey” in the same pattern as the “Boo-Wah.”
The rowdy atmosphere made the whole evening a blast, never lulling. The whole 3 hour performance was full of cheers, screams, rants, and raves. Although it could be considered rude, all the boos from the balcony, I think it only adds to the performance, as the students below were die hard supporters of their classmates in their faculty.

The sponsor of the tonight’s event was Seven Rings Cement. An appropriate choice for the Civil Festival. I thought that was slightly amusing. Towards the end of the evening there was a short PowerPoint slideshow presentation from Seven Rings Cement about what they do here in Bangladesh. Despite it being a bit dry, all the students paid respective attention.

There was also a speech from a professor who was teaching his last year at BUET, and is a real favorite of the civil students. They were adoring and attentive during his talk. He broke down into tears when talking about it being his last year.

The performance and evening was great in itself, one of the best I’d seen in Bangladesh for an evening of performances. I understood a lot of the sketches and songs. And a lot of the acts had me laughing harder than I have in a long time.

The show opened with two guys wailing on guitars in a dramatic fashion, and as they parted, several guy dancers came out and did a rock dance bit. It had the audience cheering mad.

Next up was a “fashion show” civil engineering style. Wearing their most fashionable clothes the students came down the catwalk carrying civil engineering related things.
One group of three students, two guys and a girl, came up carrying soil sifting pans. They waved them like tambourines, then put them one on top of each other like you would for actually sifting soil, and they shook them. They all then looked inside at the “dirt” which had fallen through the sieves, and the guy holding the bottom pan gave a fist pump because he “got” all the soil.
Another group came out carrying rulers and drafting T-squares and took them out like swords. Another group came out with two girls carrying out cinder blocks and then two more guys with sledgehammers. They then proceeded to pose and model them and pretend to smash the cinder blocks. Another group showed up carrying rebar, and stood mid-stage twirling around the poles. The last group I can recall was a transportation one. Two guys came out wearing bright orange vests. Then two girls with rolling electronic measuring devices. Then two more guys came out from side stage as pedestrians, one was one-legged and the other was on a scooter. It was hilarious. I was buckled over in laughter. The guys in the vests then had the pedestrians cross as they timed them!
This is definitely in the top 5 funniest things I’ve seen performed. A “hey hey” to the students. So creative and well pulled off, complete with a catchy techno soundtrack. (pics: Civil fashion show: models with sieves, models with rulers and T-squares, models with rebar, models with safety vests and electronic measuring devices and pedestrians)

The rest of the night was musical performances, skits, and dances, all were great. Some had me laughing hard. My research assistant Shegufta performed a song. (pics: Shegufta singing, Civil students performing a hip-hop act sporting US college basketball team jerseys)

Ben bought his plane ticket to come to Dhaka! He’s confirmed to come May 30!

31^st-2nd in Dhaka 4/3

On bus to BUET several other riders wanted to ask me questions, including which country I liked better: US or Bangladesh. I asked them sincerely if they liked their home village better than Dhaka, and they all said yes. Using that as a reference, I told them I liked the US more, as that is my home country. Explained that of course I love Bangladesh, a very beautiful and welcoming place, but I’m not going to say I like it more than my home. They agreed that this was acceptable.

Went to BUET midday. This morning for the Civil Festival there was a series of presentations, 3 hours long. I came near the end and caught the last presentation about Sidr disaster relief. The guy said BUET and the government made colorful short books for people in the affected areas on how to build homes that stand up to cyclone winds. Very little text, and mostly pictures, for people who likely have a low literacy rate (41% in Bangladesh.) It showed simple things like cross bracing and roof pitching in pictorial form so a person can understand and build. Creative and context sensitive!

Two short films produced by students in the Civil Engineering faculty. Before each short film there was a 2 minute clip about Holcim Cement. Again, an appropriate sponsor!
The two films were decent. I had a hard time understanding the second, as the scratchiness of the track made the Bengali really hard for me. Both were funny at points, and strangely both ended on down notes. They also both were about students of the university dealing with education, girls, and friends.

After this, the final event was a panel discussion between students, professors, and people in industry. Arjun said the topics covered are the same year after year so he wasn’t going. And since it was going to be career advice mostly in Bengali, I decided to skip too.

Wind started picking up later, just as I was heading out to pick up my suit and shirt from the tailor. Got my clothing, and it all fit nicely. Paid and took a rickshaw back to meet up with Diya at Rifles Square. It started raining on the rickshaw ride, and luckily I had the clothing in a waterproof bag they gave me and I used that to cover me in the rickshaw.
At rifles square Diya and I just walked around, I bought two Bangladeshi DVDs, Nirontor and Matir Moyna, that I’d been meaning to watch. Had some fuchka at Dhaba in the mall.

31^st-3rd in Dhaka 4/4

Got an itinerary from STA for my flight home, and sent it off to Fulbright for approval.

Met up with the newest, and last Fulbright to come to Bangladesh. Her name is Kasey and she’s been living in India for 2 years and will now do her Fulbright here in Bangladesh. I met her and another of her friends at Café Mango and we talked for a long while. To my calculations she makes the 8^th Fulbright to Bangladesh this year. She wanted to know about all of them, how often we meet, where we all live, etc.

After meeting for coffee, she and her friend wanted to explore Old Dhaka. We took a rickshaws down to Chawk Bazaar, which is actually quite a ways when riding 3 people in a rickshaw. This actually was probably my record for longest distance traveled with 3 people in a rickshaw! My legs were so cramped by the end.
We just meandered through Old Dhaka with no direction in mind. Somehow we ended up by the river, which always just seems to happen. And we jumped in a boat to do a little cruise upriver. Went farther upstream than I’ve gone before.

They then left by rickshaw, Kasey had to get back for a dinner. I stood around for a bit, ended up having some tea with a store owner who wanted to talk with me. Then I decided to take a new way home by jumping onto a tempo and seeing how far it would go. Took it all the way to Nawabganj on the west side of Dhaka as it followed the river embankment.

From there I thought I’d try and find Mamun’s, Mohan’s brother-in-law, college where he is studying leather technology. I knew it had to be in the area because I knew what part of town I was in. Walked for about 20 minutes in the direction I thought it might be, and while asking 2 guys on the way if I was right, ended up there. Gave Mamun a call and actually woke him up from a nap. When he met me he said he was actually getting ready for an exam tomorrow. I told him I was sorry for surprising him like this, and he said it was okay. Still, our hanging out time was only twenty minutes. After showing me his dorm room he said he had to go study, and told me to hang out with his roommate, Poddo. Although it seemed a bit odd to tell me to hang out with someone I didn’t know, we did hang out for two hours, even going to Dhanmondi to walk the streets for a bit.

31^st-4th in Dhaka 4/5

Today is 7 months!

And today I got to see Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, the National Parliament building. The building has been closed since last January when the caretaker government took control, and deposed leaders were jailed. The building was designed by the famous architect Louis Kahn. It was commissioned by the West Pakistani government in 1961, and our tour guide called it “the only good thing West Pakistan ever did for us [Bangladeshis]”

The building really is spectacular from close up and, from what I’ve only seen previously, from far away. It looks to be only two floors from a distance, due to the way the building is structured and “windows” built, but it’s actually ten stories tall.

The gates to get in are well guarded, as they likely usually are, but now it’s to keep almost everyone out. An ex-pat woman here helped arrange the tour, and through a local tour company, we (ten foreigners) were able to get permission to enter and tour the building. Well she and three others backed out at the last second, so it was a much smaller group who went. My friend Ben went too.
We had to wait outside the gate on the driveway for some time as our permission was verified. From there we got to pull up to the building’s entry tunnel, and enter the building at the ground floor. I had always imagined the building completely empty these days, but there were still plenty of cleaning woman, men repairing, guards, and army officers. We were accompanied on our tour by the main security officer of the building and two guards.

Parts of the building were off limits on the day we went. For example the large library on the ground floor was closed. We were forbidden from taking photos inside the building, which was understandable, but also sad since it’s such a gorgeous building.

The tour was very lax. They would take us to a part of the building, and we’d meander around looking at things on our own free will. If we wanted to know something, we had to ask. The best was when we were brought into the main assembly. It felt like a playground the way we were able to explore it freely, everyone going their own ways.
The assembly was incredible. It’s eight stories up to an umbrella looking roof made out of concrete. Neat to see the seats that Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina sit in when they were actually in power. Got to go into the back chambers where decisions are actually made.

The whole place seemed to be covered in a bit of dust due to the lack of use. Interesting to see a big pile of rubble in the corner of a part of the buildings. It seems a lot of the marble along the walls has fallen off over time. Ben spent the entire visit pondering why this would happen.

They took us into the mosque, which is still in use for some workers, on the south side of the building. Rare to be able to enter a mosque, and this one is a unique since it is for only the members of parliament. They also took us into the cafeteria.

Got to walk around the outside of the building , see the moat surrounding the building up close. Walk up the steps at the front of the building (there are 46…if there were 47 I’d say it was intentional as that was they year Pakistan gained independence, and this project was funded by Pakistan. Ben and I counted twice just to make sure.) (I'm an engineer so I take lots of building pics: our tour group walking around the outside of Jatiyo Sangshad, cafeteria's balcony and a good representation of what the interior of the building looks similar to, the building is surrounded by water which comes right to the building, using security officer who escorted us to show the scale of the building, back side of Jatiyo Sangshad where the President and Prime Minister are supposed to enter, looking into the interior, Ben/myself in front of Jatiyo Sangshad, using Ben to show the scale of the building just before we ran twice up and down the steps Rocky-style counting them.)

After Ben and I went back to his and Jen’s home and picked her up. Ben and I discussed how some of our cane furniture has termites, and little piles of dust are always seen around it.

Went to lunch at a place that had Mexican food. It was expensive, and wasn’t that great. Lots of cheese was nice, but wish the Mexican food was better. Will definitely enjoy Mexican food upon coming back to the US.

Later we browsed the store downstairs which had lots of books to browse. Always sad to see USA travel books that are inches thick but only have four pages on New Jersey, mostly talking about Atlantic City and Cape May.

Got some coffee at Coffee World and talked for awhile. Then Ragini showed up. She was a friend of a friend of a friend and we got connected on facebook before she came to Bangladesh through one of those friends. She’s currently having problems arranging her housing as she just arrived. Jen and Ben left after chatting for awhile, then Ragini and I sat for about an hour more and talked. Then dropped her back off at her nearby current home with a family.

31^st-5th in Dhaka 4/6

Took the Dibanishi route and collected data on the way to Banani. Picked up mail at American Center. Got a package from parents, a postcard from Ben, and my Krispy Kreme Challenge 2008 t-shirt!

Dropped by Nafisa’s Aunt Sylvi’s home in Baridhara where I’ve been meaning to swing by to for months just to say hello and to see Ishfaq and Ishraq. She fed me some snacks while I was there and showed me the photos from Nafisa’s engagement last week. Ishfaq woke up later, he’s been sick. Wasn’t very talkative. She told me how they are in the end of getting their visas to the US.

Took the Winner bus back home. A few good stories on the bus tonight, besides the fact that the bus got really crowded halfway through and people were unable to board at the stops.

1. At some point we were sitting in traffic and all of a sudden there was a woman laying in my lap. It seemed like she’d collapsed onto me. Fainted. Her eyes were blank staring up at the ceiling of the bus. I had no clue what to do. The guy next to me, whose lap she also had fallen onto (I had the head and shoulders, he had the torso) wasn’t saying anything either. And everyone on the bus around us wasn’t saying or doing anything. It felt like ten seconds in which it was silent. Maybe people were shocked, maybe this was normal. What was I to do? I tried lifting her a bit but I couldn’t, she was lying on me too oddly. Finally the guy next to me was yelling at her to get up. Could she on her own effort? Then someone picked her up, yelling ensued, and they sat her down in someone else’s seat. Maybe she passed out from the heat, maybe hunger. She looked like she works real hard, probably in a garment factory, and looked like she hadn’t eaten all day. I was really nervous, scared. What if she was dying on my lap? I was so tense for about two minutes. Didn’t know what to do or say. Everyone was acting like nothing had just happened. It was so strange. So silent. No one seemed to think it was out of the ordinary, or it was so bizarre we were all just stunned.
2. Saw a snowman. It was plastic, and large, and was being carried down the street on some man’s head. Saw it just after the woman fell on me. We were going so slow it passed us. We then passed it as traffic broke, and we drove about a quarter of a mile. But then we got stuck again. And it passed us again. Then traffic moved another quarter of a mile, and then it passed us again. It was funny. Surely no one has ever built a snowman in Bangladesh, yet here is this man carrying it down the street, on his head, so that it’s popping six feet out above the rest of the crowd. Where is he taking it? What will it do?
3. Some guy got off the bus while it was moving, nothing and unusual and you just have to jog until you slow down. Well the bus was going a bit too fast for him, and the guy was going so fast he couldn’t control his direction and ran smack into an oncoming rickshaw. He apologized profusely as he held his stomach.

Tried going to get some fish and cereal but the nice supermarket was closed. Oh well. Came home, ate dinner, and wanted to shower but water in the building was gone. I waited until 12:30 to shower when the water came back on.

Also started working on my Fulbright midterm report. It’s not too lengthy, but does require a bit of thought and evaluation of my time here. I read the requirement for each question as 1500 words maximum. So I started writing away in Microsoft Word to copy it in later. Then I copied it in. Tried to save but got an error message. Maximum 1500 CHARACTERS! Dang. Had to go back and delete about 75% of what I wrote. But at least I didn’t write up every question first! I would’ve spent a lot of time deleting.

31^st-6th in Dhaka 4/7

Moweena came really early today, at 6:20. At first I didn’t realize it was that early. I read in bed and tried to nap, then checked to see what time it was. It was only a little past 7:00, meaning she’d been there for at least 40 minutes judging at where she was in the cooking. I was a bit perplexed why she would come so early.

Spent morning working on my Fulbright midterm report, and processing some bus data.

Today I did 4 routes. I took Falgun up to Uttara, then Shakti down to Postogola. Ate lunch in Postogola, and then took the same buses back in reverse to where I started in Azimpur. Was almost continuous in my bus riding, took very little breaks, and despite the five hours of sleep I got last night, didn’t feel tired at all.

Fulbright hadn’t liked my initial flight plan home, not enough US carrier flights. Finally might have a flight ready to be booked. STA sent me an itinerary which looks good, and follows the Fly America rules, but is the wrong dates. I also found a Delta flight which is cheaper. If when he changes the dates, the flight is cheaper, I’ll go through STA, otherwise I’ll book Delta. Nice to know I’m close.

Watched Knocked Up today. First half in the morning, second half at night. Was thinking about it all day, wanting to know what would happen. Really liked it.

31^st-7th in Dhaka 4/8

Moweena again came really early today at 6:30. I brought it up and asked her to not come until 7:00. Told her I can’t sleep once she arrives, and I don’t need her that early anyway. But for once I ended up actually falling back asleep after she left, was definitely some well needed rest.

Went by Farhan’s for lunch and there we discussed Fantasy Kingdom this weekend, our birthday next week, and the trip we want to go on. I think we might go to Rangamati instead of St. Martin’s because his parents won’t let him go. That provides its own difficulties as foreigners need to get special permission to enter that district.

At BUET, did lots of data processing with the time I had left in the day. Didn’t get as much done as I’d like. It really is a hard process to get through!
Wondering how much of my project I’m going to finish. Thinking more and more that I’ll only be slightly close to finishing the analysis of the data. Might not happen until I’m back in the USA. A bit disconcerted. It takes so much time to process the data, and of course collecting.

Emily got her visa for Bangladesh back. It's good until 2013!! Five years and she's only staying less than a week! It's funny because another girl I know coming her for 3 months got a visa which expired before she was supposed to leave the country!

I bought fish for the first time on the street today from a guy with a big bowl of fish.

Summer fruits are on their way. I’m seeing lots of new things at the fruit stands, and it makes me happy. Watermelon has been out for about three weeks now, I’ve only bought one though. jackfruit, the national fruit of Bangladesh is starting to grow on trees all over, and some ripe ones are now out on the stands. They are the largest tree grown fruit in the world. And lastly, the first mangoes have just started to come to fruit stands!

Week 22: Sonargaon was the capital before Dhaka even knew how to spell "government"

22^nd-1st in Dhaka 1/30

Woke up and throat wasn’t much better. Gargled with some warm salt water for the third time. Then drank some warm water, easier to go down. Changed and went to the hospital. Bundled up in warm clothes.

The hospital wasn’t as clean or state-of-the-art as US hospitals. Diya and Farhanaz’s mom, the doctor with whom I was meeting with, told me it is because this hospital is kept affordable for middle class families. I met her in her office, the pathology dept, and she took me upstairs to a throat doctor. He took a look down my throat, said I had an infection, and prescribed me four pills to take (one antibody, two painkillers, and one antacid.) She got me some hot coffee and told me to drink it. Also gave me soup to bring home. Only warm liquid foods today. Told me to keep gargling salt water

Saw that the NY Mets are getting Johan Santana from the Twins. What an awesome deal. Looks like we’ll be contenders again and hopefully won’t have another end of season crash-and-burn.

Watched Philadelphia, staring Tom Hanks. It’s one of those movies I remember my parents watching when I was little, but I never actually watched, but still knew what it was about. I really liked it. I especially liked how the movie skipped big chunks of time at once. It gave you the impression of time flying by. And as he has AIDS, you get the feeling that his life is running out of time quickly. Makes you realize how little time he has to live. Helped the movie feel real to the viewer.

Dip came over later so i could go over his essay with him. I was reviewing some of his college essays that he's using for the slew of US schools he's applying to. Giving advice on how to make them stronger.

22^nd-2nd in Dhaka 1/31

I woke up feeling a lot better. Had kichuri and egg for breakfast, along with hot water to sooth my throat.

Went to BUET. Ok, so the university has a really weird schedule. Its weekend is not typical, even for Bangladesh: Thursday and Friday. The whole country is off on the holy day of Friday, but usually Saturday is the day taken to make a two day weekend. Well BUET decided to go Saturday through Wednesday. It would be like a US university having class Tuesday through Saturday. Of course, some universities, such as the famous Dhaka University, go six days a week, Saturday through Thursday. I showed up today and the computer lab I have permission to use was closed. I was directed to go to the central library. Getting in there without a student ID was a hassle.
Central library computer lab has 42 computers...some Dells, some HP. All are running Linux.

One thing I kept meaning to mention was something I read in the Dhaka’s STP. It is that there isn't much parking in Dhaka, and its because the need isn't recognized by those important enough to be doing the planning. Because people have private drivers, the lack of a parking spot doesn’t really occur to them, or get mentioned enough to make it an issue. It is not a perceived issue. Plus, a private driver stays in the car, so a parking lot can be real dense since the drivers can always move when needed to let another car out.

Came home and bought some fruit from the streets. Oranges, apples, and for the first time pomegranates. Thought they’d be good for eating with my cereal. Gave them to Moweena, our boua, to cut open and seed for me. She was glad to. I had kept reading people rave about them on NCSU’s student message board, and since they were so cheap here, decided to purchase.

Saw a bunch of people staring at something. Huge crowd…what could it be!? Oh, it was just a construction site. Everything here gathers an enormous crowd. Our bus got pulled over by a cop the other day, and I counted 13 people on the sidewalk who stopped to watch the cop talk to our bus for the entire duration of the conversation, about 5 minutes. (pic: a large crowd of about 20 people gather around a nighttime construction site to watch)

The girl whose Fulbright essays I helped review, Samantha Huq, made it to the next round of Fulbright. Very proud of her. Glad she moved along. Would be neat to actually meet her after talking online so much.

22^nd-3rd in Dhaka 2/1

Watched NCSU blow it against Duke this morning. So upsetting. Up by 9 at the half, only to lose by 20!!! GRRRRRR.

It’s the first of the month. What does that mean? It means everyone is moving! Like I should’ve been, but oh well. Every apartment rental starts from the first of the month, so on the street today were many rickshaw vans taking around people’s furniture. Big stacks of furniture, chairs, and household items. Sometimes the owner rides on top. (pics: two shots of different furniture moving by rickshaw van)

Talking about moving, moving big stuff in Bangladesh is always interesting. Whether you have product for your store, or a big bundle of things you bought, or delivering something for a business, there seems to be a large upper limit to what a rickshaw, rickshaw van, or hand cart can carry. Long things, fat things, tall things, or stacks of many things. It’s great when the owner rides with it, and especially on top. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Some stuff looks real heavy to carry. Sometimes the hand carts have extra pushers to move items like steel or cement. I like the rickshaws full of bags of items the best. Oh and the big stack of metal containers which always towers over the driver. Also am impressed by the bravery of the people who carry new computer towers in their laps on rickshaws! Eek!! (pics: steel rebar being transported by hand cart with pushers helping, transporting lots of stuff on top of a rickshaw van and holding tight to that TV, transporting 2 chairs by rickshaw van and taking a seat while riding (this picture keeps making me crack up...just sitting in his chair as he gets driven around), bravely transporting your computer in your lap on a rickshaw, transporting big sacks of something by rickshaw and taking the top seat, typically the biggest thing stacked I see on the streets: metal pots in giant sacks piled on top of rickshaw van)

Went to lunch with Lauren clay and some of her friends at Café Mango. They had just gotten back form Nepal and China, so heard her friends’ stories. After meeting there, went to Lauren’s to take the TV and DVD player I said I’d buy. Well the TV was smaller than she had advertised, so decided not to take it. Only took DVD player. Will take fridge at a later date.
Dropped DVD player off at home then met the girls at new market. Bought another scarf while there. Went cloth shopping with Lauren, in real tight quarters. She was buying for her bed back home, when she goes back. During this process we decided I would buy her cloth she’s using as window drapes for my place before she leaves. Found out I can make them into permanent drapes for Tk30 each piece.

Painters coming tomorrow said the landlord. I’m excited because I’ll have nice walls when the place becomes mine. She told us to lock up our valuables just in case, that you never can trust people coming into your place to work. Spent part of the evening getting things safe for their arrival, putting all electronics in my suitcase in preparation to lock it on the veranda. Also cleaning up lose items so they couldn’t find or drip paint on them.

When I went out to the shop in front of my apartment to buy some goods, the shopboy, who I’ll guess is 12 years old, asked me if I wanted to play badminton in the street. He’s always playing with his friends there and always sees me with my racket. So I said sure, and we hit it around, no net, just back and forth in our thin street for about 20 minutes. Kept having to pause to let walkers pass, and when customers came to his shop.

Spent time researching University of Texas tonight. 2 grad schools down, 9 to go.

22^nd-4th in Sonargaon 2/2

Woke up and headed out to Gulistan to meet with Megan. Before leaving, finished preparing the room for the painters. Wanted to make sure nothing could get dripped on, and all expensive things were packed and stored. Mohan said he might try and get the painting date changed so one of us could be home.

Ride out from Gulistan was uneventful minus having to keep changing seats on the bus because some were near broken. We found a bus that was express to Sonargaon, so that was convenient. When we got down from the bus, rickshaws were just waiting to take us to the tourist sites (every time I read that sentence I think of the line “They’re just waiting to give you your money!” spoken by Alec Baldwin’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross, one of my favorite speeches that I enjoy watching anytime…watch it here, and if you don't like swear words, the quote I'm referring to is at 3:55…of course its also funny because the rickshaw drivers are thinking exactly what Baldwin says!) They know why we’ve all come. So we just jumped on one, and he started pedaling us to the historical area.

A bit of history on Sonargaon, because I found it quite interesting (adapted from Lonely Planet’s guide to Bangladesh.) It was the capital of Bengal, and during the 13^th century it was the Hindu seat of power for the region. It became the Islamic capital of the region when it was taken by a sultan in 1280. In the 1300s, the first official sultan of Bengal established his capital there. It was the capital of east Bengal for 270 years, until the Mughals invaded and got rid of the sultans. They thought Sonargaon was too exposed since it was close to the Meghna river, and they moved the capital to Dhaka. Not much remains of the original city, except for some mosques, tombs, and stupas. Most of the architecture we saw there were from the Mughal period and later, and was mostly built in the late 1800s.

The first stop was Sadarbari, which was built in 1901 and was a rajbari for the area (a royal family’s home.) It houses a folk art museum but has beautiful architecture in two facades. We skipped it first and headed to the newer museum, with the intent to save the best for last. Newer museum in a modern building was definitely not the main attraction at this place. People seemed to just walk in, do a quick loop, and come quickly out.

Roamed the grounds. Took a ride on a ferris wheel. If you remember from one of my earlier posts, these things are made of wood, very rickety, and are spun by men pulling on each cart as it passes. Megan and I decided to try it. The operators always need to ensure the whole thing is balanced properly, so they give specific instructions on where to sit. Some of the extra operators took seats in other cars to make sure it was balanced. It was wild, stomach plummeted on each spin. Crazy to be on it when they’re spinning it with their hands. (pics: ferris wheel which is hand spun by its operators, operator hand spinning the ferris wheel by pulling down on one of the cars)

Finally came back to Sadarbari proper, and went inside the folk art museum/beautiful building. I took a lot of photos of the architectural details. While walking around the place, two guys started talking to us. They offered to take our photos for us and helped lead us around, and were being generally helpful. Names were Abusaleh and Ashraful. We were asking them questions too. They lived nearby and kept asking us to come see their home after we saw all the sites. We went outside and took pictures out front of the exterior. Then walked the grounds to the northern exit of the huge garden complex. (pics: front courtyard in Sadarbari, myself/Megan in rear courtyard of Sadarbari, Abusaleh/crazy looking stuffed person/Ashraful in folk museum, myself/Megan in front of Sadarbari)

Next stop was to see another rajbari. This area we went to was called Painam Nagar. You ride in on rickshaw through tons of old Hindu merchant’s mansions, very ghost town like. People don’t live there anymore. This whole area was built between 1895 and 1905 on top of the old capital city. The last one we got to was the rajbari. It’s being refurbished by two Chinese architects. Walking around the rajbari was neat. It was being repaired at points, made me wonder how stable it was. Told Megan that this is where I’m certain musical artist Habib’s music video for “Krisno”, which my friend Ishita played a part in (the building and her first show up at 1:45, Ishita is the one in the red saree..) Told the guys this, and they instantly recognized it and agreed. I knew it was in Sonargaon just didn’t know which old building. Wanted to go to the second floor, but stairs were clearly out of repair…as in they had collapsed. (pics: rajbari with man bathing in pond in front, Abusaleh/Megan/Ashraful inside rajbari where music video was shot)

We then walked back through Painam Nagar, looking at all the old mansions, taking photos of the ghost town. I couldn’t get over this single street lined with old homes. Some awesomely decorated but boarded up. Some locals had taken up temporary residence as squatters. Local kids were playing amongst the buildings. (pics: the ghost town which is now Painam Nagar, century old Hindu mansion in Painam Nagar, myself standing in Painam Nagar, myself/Megan standing in the entry of one of the mansions)

Megan had really wanted to see Goaldi mosque, one of the few buildings in the area actually from when it was the old capital. We had to ask around on where to find it, and we got rickshaw drivers who did. Guys took one rickshaw, we took another. This mosque was built before the Mughals arrived, and is a single domed mosque, and smaller than what we saw in Tangail. Apparently in 1700s it was falling apart, so they built a newer mosque across the street in the Mughal style. Now they are both there and only the newer one is in use. I enjoy seeing all these mosques, as it is one of my favorite architectural forms. And especially the craft that goes into detailing. (pics: Goaldi mosque with Abusaleh and Ashraful in front, Goaldi mosque on the left built in 1519 and the newer Mughal style mosque in the back left built in 1705)

After this, Abusaleh and Ashraful begged us to come back to see their village. Even though we knew we had to be back for pizza at 5pm with Diya, we thought we could make it since they said their home was really close, 10 minutes away, and we had 2.5 hours until we had to meet. From the bus stop, however, the bus took about 20-25 minutes, and then of course there is the 5 minute walk to their home from the bus stop. So total, that adds about 50 minutes onto the trip just with the going there and back. There was still a chance we could make it on time if traffic was as smooth as this morning, and we didn’t stay too long.
But we did stay too long. I was still glad we went, despite that we were now going to be late. We were given snacks and had to wait for Abusaleh’s mom and dad to come home to meet them. Abusaleh showed me his cucumber field, his main crop. Gave me some fresh picked ones. When his mom finally came home, we said hello and then said we really had to leave. Told them we’ll come back, which is true, probably in a month. (pics: Abusaleh showing us his cow, standing in Abusaleh's cucumber field, Megan and Ashraful in Abusaleh's home, Megan holding up traffic on the bridge out of Abusaleh's village)

Bus got stuck in some traffic. Then getting a bus to Jigatola from Saidabad station was easier said then done. Showed up at Pizza Hut 55 minutes late. Luckily Diya was there with her friends, so she wasn’t bored. They had already eaten a full pizza. I apologized for my poor judgment in arriving on time. We ordered another pizza and Megan and I ate that one primarily. This Pizza Hut just opened a few days ago, the second in Dhaka, third in Bangladesh. It was gorgeous, two stories, and delicious. Ice cream was amazing too. Might be a place I’ll go to too often.

22^nd-5th in Dhaka 2/3

Worked on fixing up my notes and ideas about data collection. I’d been writing them by hand, but needed to get them into a word document to arrange them coherently. See what my thoughts are.

Met with Dr. Rahman after lunch in his office. Brought my letter from Fulbright, but he said he won’t be able to get me a university ID since I’m not a student or staff. But he said he’ll get me a letter on university paper and signatures. I will show that to people who hassle me about using things. That’ll be good.
Told him about my progress on the project, how I was happy with my pace, and that I enjoyed the literature review. Told him about my data collection ideas, and how I knew I’ll definitely need two people at all times during data collection to do things correctly.
In the office as well was one of his senior students. He said I’ll get to meet all of them next week, but this one, Arjun, was especially interested in my project. I asked about these seniors, and tried to gauge what their senior projects were like, how much time they are supposed to devote to it, and how much time I should ask of them if they help. Didn’t want to overwork or expect too much of anyone.

After the three of us met, Arjun and I went outside and chatted. Learned about each other. Told him about the project. Asked him more in depth questions about the senior project process. Appears that for senior projects, the teacher highly recommends what they do, but they have the option to design and do their own project. He could jump on with me and make his research topic close to mine. Also found out that senior projects are not a class, but just an outside thing, meeting only with professors weekly and working independently. They get their advisors by picking professors’ names out of a hat from a certain discipline…so he picked Dr. Rahman’s name out of the transportation topic hat.

He showed me his dorm room too. He lives in the all-Hindu dorm. All the other dorms are all-Muslim dorms. And then there’s one girl dorm. Three students to a room, which is a bit bigger than what I lived in one other student at NCSU. Each student gets a table, chair, and bed. All rooms face outside.

Went to dinner with Jen and Ben. Hadn’t seen my old roommates in a long time. On the way over my tempo had a flat tire. More than half the people said screw it and went to find another vehicle, but I stuck with the poor guys. Didn’t mind a 4 minute wait. They had it replaced real quick and we were on our way. Conductor was laughing how this was probably the least profitable trip he’s ever had.

Found Jen and Ben’s place….enormous but the price isn’t too high. We walked to road 27 and got some Chinese food. My stomach was on edge a bit, possibly from some tea I took from a tea shack earlier, but I felt great after eating.

22^nd-6th in Dhaka 2/4

Woke to see that NCSU had beaten Wake Forest. It was a pretty bad game for us as we trailed for most. But we came back to tie on a 17-7 run, and then took the lead into the end. We were up by 2, and J.J. Hickson had a chance to seal the deal with two free throws but couldn’t. Wake Forest then scored 2 points with 3 seconds left to tie it. We had once last chance to prevent it from going to overtime. Ben McCauley inbounded it to Gavin Grant at half court. They were all expecting him to drive the lane, but instead he put up a 3! It bounced off the rim, but what happened next was incredible. Ben McCauley, comes out of nowhere, across the entire court, and dunks the shot back in! Incredible. Watch the video, it still gives me chills. What an awesome way to go out.

If it wasn’t for the giants beating the patriots in the Super Bowl that would’ve been all over ESPN’s Sportscenter top 10.

Sitting outside in warm sun to do some of my work. Inside the CE building it’s surprisingly cold. And the warm sun after lunch was very soothing. Today was going over some of the tougher questions I needed to consider about the data collection. For example, if a bus is stuck in traffic, and people are getting on and off as it sits there, how do you classify those movements in terms of stops on the route? Those kinds of questions needed to be answered.

Met up with Santa at Sonargaon Rd and Elephant Rd. We had talked about a trip to Rajshahi this weekend, because I’ve been thinking about going. We made our plans on times and such, and then went to the bus ticket office to book tickets for Thursday. Will be neat to get out of town and see a calmer place.

I was going out to buy things after dinner and Mohan asked me to bring back “ek hali dim”…which I thought was a type of egg. Told the guy at the store I wanted those types of eggs, and said I wanted 4. When I got home I assed mohan what type of egg that was, “ek hali.” And he said 1 hali is equal to four of something, just like one dozen is equal to twelve of something. Had no clue about this. This changes my life because “four” is the hardest number for me to say. People always confuse my “four” for a “six” (4 = “char” 6 = “choy” and my “r” isn’t very hard) but now I can just “hali” from now on if I want four of something…makes it so easy!

22^nd-7th in Dhaka 2/5

Spent a little bit of time researching MIT this morning. The third school I’ve randomly chosen from the eleven schools to research.

Had lunch with Naira. We went to the restaurant I’ve been frequenting, and had soup and noodles. Afterwards we walked around BUET’s campus, obviously not her first time, but her first time in the CE building.

Avian flu has come to Bangladesh. Very scary. Don’t think I’ve ever been that scared of a disease before. The fact that you have such a short time to find out if it’s a cold or avian flu if you have symptoms is scary. They had to kill thousands of poultry in northern Bangladesh. Luckily no human cases yet. Luckily the disease is inefficient and doesn’t transmit very well.

More on that New Zealand rowing rivalry. This past weekend Drysdale beat out Waddell in their most recent head-to-head matchup, but only by half a boat length. They’ll face off one more time at the Natl. Championships before the Olympic Trials in March.

After leaving campus I went to Naira’s place to play badminton. She invited me to play at her neighbor’s house where I played once earlier. The bus ride took 1.5 hour to get there. And was exhausting as I was standing the whole time. There were tons of people at badminton, and thus in the entire night I only got to play two games in 2.5 hours of being there.

Faisal, Naira, and I went to Bella Italia after. Bella Italia is apparently the best Italian restaurant in Dhaka, and it definitely lived up to its reputation. Pizza, two pastas, and tiramisu were all well done. They were nice enough to drop me off at home in Dhanmondi.