The setting - On a visit to my cousin's place in Columbus, Ohio. He has some work in the university and I decided to tag along. While he is busy with his work I am just loitering around.
The
pictures I have are neither good shots nor shots clicked with any
particular reason in mind. Just some pics to put up and write about
more than anything else and so I shall straightaway jump into the details of the couple
of hours I spent walking around in the vastness that is OSU.
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| The only bit of inclined terrain that I came across during my two hour walk in the campus |
As
opposed to The University of Cincinnati Campus, two things stand out
at OSU - The sheer size of the campus and the flatness of the
terrain. The vastness and the flatness can be quite disorienting
sometimes, making you feel as if you are in the middle of nowhere (The feeling becomes
more profound considering the fact that population density is considerably on the
lower side here in US compared to back home).
As
is the norm with most US universities OSU has an animal associated with it
too - its the Ohio State Buckeyes. The name Buckeyes is probably a apt one too for the largest campus in the state of Ohio (second largest campus in the country) as the State of Ohio is also called The Buckeye State. The epithet is because of the abundance of the Buckeye tree in Ohio rather than anything to do with Bucks as I had initially thought. My misconception was mainly because of the fact that it is pretty common to sight a buck in Ohio. So common that one can spot a buck even in the park next door, which is Burnet Woods in my case, pretty frequently too.
Another
thing one finds very commonly in Burnet woods, I am told, are
muggers, especially if one ventures into it after the sunlight
decides to call it a day. Fortunately sunlight has longer working
hours here in US, thus letting most people enjoy the quiet woods in the form a nice
walk a good jog or even fishing.
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| The Buckeye Stadium (A corner of it) |
Coming
back to OSU campus, Its a nice saturday evening and the campus is
buzzing (atleast the tiny portion of the campus I managed to see) as
the weekend football match had just got over. By football I mean
american football, much different from the comparatively mellow sport
of 'Soccer' that we call football back home. College level sports are
a big deal in US with them being the stepping stones for most professional athletes. In fact, these universities are the nurturing
ground for sportsmen of all shape and size (the sizes do not
include small however, as people in this part of the world are generally a bigger species of human beings) including olympians. Bigger universities (I am
sure OSU has a couple too) have olympic gold medallists even in their
ranks as students.
The mood throughout the campus was generally upbeat with music playing and all the pubs in the campus running on full load. I am told that the Buckeyes had just won a close match. I walked past the stadium
where it all happened and it was huge and majestic. Across the stadium
there came a piece of flat land which had around twenty odd tennis
courts arranged on it. On the other side of it there were a couple of
grounds for Soccer complete with lush green grass and goal posts and all. Further ahead there was a river running. I am
guessing its the River Ohio since I was in the state of ohio. There
was no one around to ask and no sign boards in the near vicinity. I
could have and should have asked my cousin I guess, but happily
forgot about it till now. Over the river there was a bridge and as I
walked down the bridge I encountered a large bunch of joggers.
Jogging is a very common exercise here. Most people go jogging and
they take it up whenever they get time. By 'whenever they get time' I
mean literally anytime of the day. It could be 8 in the morning, 12 in the
afternoon, 3 like a matinee show, 7 in the evening just after supper
or heck even 11 in the night.
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| The River view from where I was |
I
decided to stop walking now, not because I was tired or bored but
because I started getting a feeling that I had gotten lost. It took a
good part of the next hour for me to find my way back to the building into
which my cousin had gone in. I decided to wait in the lush green
lawns in front of the building where some chairs had been placed very
conveniently.
(Coming soon - A glimpse of the Bearcat. A little bit about the place I stay in!)
