Mohican State Park!

Dear You,

If there can be a place under the sun where a group of 15 made of Chinese, Koreans, Americans, Taiwanese and Indians live like brothers and form a very well knit group, then that place is University of Cincinnati and the group is my research group!And if such a group plans for a summer retreat, there cant be better fun!

On the 8th and 9th of August, we all had been to this place called Mohican State Park, one of the 78 state parks in the state of Ohio!As the other 14 are PhD students who have been here for well over 4 years here, its a rich group with many owning cars. Our professor, Chong Ahn also volunteered to pool-in his car. So, we had 5 cars for 15 people! Everyone prepared some food so that we can eat them at the camp. Beef from the Koreans, Crab and Oyster from the Chinese, Salsa and Hamburgers from the Americans, Tuna from the Taiwanese and Onion Sambar from me!! Quite a combination that was!!

As soon as we reached the park, that was lost in the woods deep in the Ohioan countryside with scenic surroundings, we were put up in a nice cozy cottage that sleeps all 15. We rested for a while and were on our way to Canoeing! We Canoed in 8 Canoes down the Mohican River for 8 long miles and 3 long hours! The 8th mile seemed like forever and we all were famished to death by the time we pulled in our Canoes. Then after the exotic food that we all pooled in (I cudnt eat much as I am a Vegetarian but the guys enjoyed every food that was brought), we sat down to watch the movie Incredibles. Then, we lit the camp fire in the middle of the forest and were sitting and talking with the professor like we were all old friends. He was telling us his story of becoming a professor. He was the son of a farmer and is from a small town 300 miles to the south of Seoul. The only one in his village to cross school education, our man went to study in the Seoul National Univesity and then did his PhD in Georgia Tech before becoming a professor at UC. All this talking and joking took us well past 3 am.

After a peaceful sleep, we were all at the Swimming pool by 10 am. We swam for about an hour, then found ourselves comfortably sitting in the Spa! Once we realized that the comfort was pulling us back to sleep, we pulled ourselves from the Spa and sat in the sun, talking for a while. Then, we started the hiking along the Lyon Falls Trail in the Mohical Hill. It was a 4 mile trail and it took us 3 hours! We again were hungry and were treated to a nice Chinese buffet by our professor before we drove our way back home.

All of us had a sore shoulder for a couple of days but the pleasant memories were too pleasant to drown it out. We are back at work now. With more energy. With more enthusiasm.

Definitely,

Me.