shankar2k's Journal: My Parents vs. Champaign-Urbana

After almost three years of slogging in the snow-covered trenches, my parents finally decided to come out to Urbana and visit me last weekend. My aunt and uncle also decided to tag along.

• First stop was my lovely coop. They were somewhat impressed with how much stuff I have going on here, but though they didn't say it in as many words, they still thought it was pretty ghetto. I asked my mom "What do you think of my coop?", and she said "... It's a coop.". Seeing my disappointment, she clarified, "No, no ... it's fine for university students". My dad was a little more blunt, saying that it was "a little rundown". Ah well, you can't win them all.
• Next I gave them a tour of downtown Champaign. It took all of five minutes before I realized that there isn't really all that much to show people of my parent's generation. Sample conversation:

  "What's that over there, Shankar?"
  "Oh, that's a bar, Ma."
  "What about that place?"
  "That's also a bar."

  Yeah. So we quickly finished up there and had dinner at Fiesta Cafe. Desperate to find something for them to do, I took them out to see The Lady Killers. My family enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if it was worthy of a review from me. Maybe if I have time. Unfortunately, after the movie, the tour ceased to be a non-Meijer tour of Urbana and Champaign, as my father desperately needed botlled water, and Meijer was the only place open after midnight. Grrrr.

• The next day I gave them a tour of my campus. This is, I suppose, the whole purpose of them coming out to visit me, you know, to make sure that I wasn't panhandling or something, so they were suitably impressed. I think I made them walk about five miles while we zigzagged all over campus. They managed to meet both of my professors, and see all of my various labs and offices. I took them for lunch to the Red Herring and for dinner to Radio Maria. I think they enjoyed both places.
• On the last day, we hit up the Original Pancake House, aka OHOP, for breakfast and then drove out to Bloomington-Normal to visit my cousin Sesha. The tour of his campus took all of a half an hour. We had a late lunch at the Taj Mahal, and then my family took off for the Chicago suburbs.

I'd like to think my parents and my aunt and uncle had a good time when they came out to visit me. It is a reminder to me that the life I live out here is very different than the one I left in California.