My 32 hour odyssey to land in Toledo, although long and exhausting, was not distressing. It was not the case with my landing in my new hometown in Southern Illinois.
I came to the US with 2 pieces of luggage, a backpack and a handbag. I had to leave behind almost my entire library and my rich collection of music which I had accumulated over years. And I admit that I'm much into books and music. Over my time in Toledo, I gathered a whole lot of books, a big chunk of them came from the library of late Professor McGuire (who dedicated all his books to students). I had to leave most of my new belongings in Toledo to move to Carbondale.
Now, I had the same 2 pieces of luggage, backpack and handbag. And as I had showed some patriotism over my time in Toledo (buying some clothes that I didn't have to buy, but bought because they were on sale), I had to carry another backpack and also a handbag (for last minute items that I had not been able to push into any of those bags or luggage). And unlike my journey from Iran to the US, this expanded collection of belongings gave me a hard time.
Back then, I just took a taxi from my parents' home to the airport. And I had nothing to do with my luggage over my 32 hour journey despite boarding 4 flights. When I landed in Toledo, a van from the Office of International Student Services picked me up at the airport and took me and my stuff directly to Horton International House to stay there temporarily while looking for a home. It didn't go so smoothly over this 12 hour trip from Toledo to Carbondale.
I had arranged with one of my friends to take me to the bus stop to go to Chicago and from there to Carbondale (by train). I also needed his help to move some of the stuff that I couldn't take with me to Carbondale (like my bed, bookshelf and books). By some miscommunication, he had assumed that I no longer needed his help. And my calls and voice-messages remained unanswered (he called 2 days later to ask what's going on in Carbondale). The same happened when I tried to catch my other friends. Eventually, I resorted to one of my pastor friends who had offered to sell some of my stuff for me. I called to ask him to complete his kindness and move my stuff as well.
He's a conservative Southern Baptist pastor (a few years older than me). Doesn't it sound a bit odd for a conservative Shia Muslim being friend with such a pastor? Nothing should come out of a friendship between such 2 people, while one firmly preaches guaranteed salvation and the other one firmly disagrees (note: there's no reference to him in this post; what I've written is generally what I believe about this doctrine in general).
But seriously, he's a nice guy and does his best to help international students; in his own word, to show them the love of Jesus. This is a much more efficient way of evangelism than what some evangelicals try to do by simply pushing their pestering advertisement on people. I love this quote attributed to my favorite saint: "Preach the Gospel always and if necessary, use words". Even if this quote not be actually his, we have the same concept in early Islamic teachings: "Be preachers to people without using your tongues". Although my evangelical pastor friend has not stopped short at preaching just by actions; he's given me a Persian translation of the Bible (he seems to be well-resourced for various people).
Anyway, ardent and passionate as both of us are about our own beliefs, whenever we are together, we spend almost our entire time discussing (and sometimes debating) religion. And this time was no exception. And at times, he would be surprised to know about some theological views in Islam that sounded new to him; like when I told him that whenever our Prophet talks about Jesus, he refers to him as "my brother, Jesus".
And I made it clear that in Islamic theology, there isn't any conflict between different prophets; if there is a conflict, it is between people who call themselves followers of those prophets. And I explained to him that the verses I was referring from Quran about other prophets (Jesus included) were just that: verses of Quran, plain and simple, not a matter of interpretation by this denomination or that school of thought. And if any Muslim (or non-Muslim) is unaware about what is plainly written in the Book, that's simply their ignorance, not a matter of Islamic beliefs. I have written in more detail at the end of this post on so many religions.
Eventually, by the time we were about to leave each other, he concluded that "we tend to disagree, otherwise we would have been of the same religion" and we agreed that we have to wait for Jesus to come back and resolve all the misunderstandings. And yet, he offered to give me a ride to the bus stop if required. I declined, assuming I can catch my friend for my departure.
And it turned out that I couldn't get hold of my aforementioned friend and other friends the next day either and had to call him again at the last moment in despair. He was in a meeting in Maumee when I called him and eventually, he dispatched his wife to take me and my stuff to the bus stop. I've always tried to help people as much as I can. But this was too much even by my standards of kindness.
But the hardest part had yet to come in Chicago. There was nobody to help me there. I had to carry all those stuff from the bus stop to the Union Station. And it was a hot muggy afternoon even without carrying all those stuff. And to make it even worse, there were enough inconsiderate people who wouldn't give way to me and expected me to give way to them. And maneuvering in a busy narrow sidewalk around such people with all that luggage while two heavy backpacks and a shoulderbag are hanging from you is not an easy job. That short distance (about half a block) between the bus stop and the Union Station seemed like an eternity in hell. After feeling at home in the US for nearly 2 years, as described in my Adios Toledo post, I began to feel like a stranger in the worst place on earth.
Fortunately, when I would arrive in Carbondale late night, my hardship would be over. A friend of mine would pick me up at the Amtrak station and would take me and my stuff to my apartment (which I had already reserved). He has been very kind to me. Over my second trip to Carbondale in June (to look for apartments) he lent me his bike and I could get around the town and visit places.
While I was waiting in front of the Amtrak station, waiting for him, I could get a sense of my new hometown and what it means to be in Carbondale at Friday night; right across from me, there were bars with loud live rock music. Carbondale still has kept its bad reputation as a wild-party college town; although alcohol-inspired celebrations are not as wild and out of control as before. Read here for more.
My previous visits to Carbondale had somehow made me acquainted to my new hometown. As it was raining all day long over my first visit in December, I was confined to my hotel for most of my stay and was not able to see much of the city. And when my advisor took me directly to the Giant City State Park, I guess he did so because he'd probably figured out there wasn't much in the city to attract me. My second visit (which I spent entirely surveying the city and its neighborhoods looking for apartments) confirmed this. It appears that I have to get used to a few things.
When I landed in Toledo, although it looked like a village compared to Tehran, I managed to go beyond the negativism spread by some unhappy souls and began to appreciate the amenities available to me. But when I visited Carbondale, I realized that even if Toledo looked like a village compared to Tehran, it was definitely a paradise compared to this small town.
When I set out to explore the city, one of the students gave me some information and directions to find places around (including stores). At the end of my survey, she asked me about my opinion about the city. And I said, the only thing I like about Carbondale was Schnuck's (a grocery store chain similar to Giant Eagle in Ohio, though smaller, where I enjoyed shopping for grocery in Toledo).
No misunderstanding. I'm not one of those fans of size and glamor to appreciate a city. I've visited cities even smaller than Toledo and liked them even more, just because they looked more urban. And by that, I mean urban setting, not merely tall buildings and nice stores. I must feel like walking in a city. And I couldn't feel like that here.
Another thing that I have to get along with is the price of stuff in the state of Illinois. Over my first tour of Midwest, I got an impression about prices in this state. And over my second visit, I got a better picture. And I found that prices are way higher than Ohio. Everything. Even in a small town like Carbondale. And that you have to pay higher taxes here. And that you have to pay tax even for foodstuff. Most of my friends here are surprised when I tell them about no-food-tax in Ohio. Sometimes you take things for granted.
Just to give a glimpse, without making an extensive list. When my friend picked me up at the train station, I asked him to take me to Schnuck's to buy some foodstuff before taking me to my apartment. While we were walking around the produce section (my favorite in any store), he showed me the strawberries which were on sale for $2.50/pound and exclaimed: great price. I told him that in Toledo, I wouldn't even think about buying strawberries at anything over $2. The usual sale price was about $1.50 (and sometimes lower, as low as $1.20).
Or when we arrived at the dairy line, we saw half a gallon of milk for $2.50. And again, that was considered sale here. I told him that in Toledo, you can hardly find any store (except for convenience stores who sell everything at an inflated price) selling half a gallon of milk higher than $2 or so. That was the normal price of milk in Toledo. There, $2.50 is the sale price for a gallon.
And things at Wal-Mart or Kroger or other stores are not much better. Over my first days of shopping here, I visited almost all major stores here and looked at the prices of all items that I used to buy in Toledo. Everything is way higher. And there isn't even a Meijer (where you could get the best price for fruits and grocery, compared to all other stores in Toledo).
But these things are minor. After all, as a PhD student, I can manage my budget somehow easier compared to my time in Toledo. And this reminds me of my former advisor's joke about my downward social mobility, from a middle-class engineer to a poor-class student. Although I'm still a poor-class student, far behind how I used to live as an engineer in Iran, I've made some progress. As a PhD student, I've come a little bit over federal poverty line. That is some upward social mobility, albeit small.
There is something that sounds more difficult to get along with. As I've explained in my Adios Toledo post, people in Northern states are not necessarily as cold as their weather. At least, my experience in Toledo proved otherwise. And although we cannot have an ideal system, in a good system, signal-to-noise ratio is high enough to render the noise practically negligible. So, that somehow shattered one side of the North vs South myths. But maybe I have to reconsider the other side of the myth as well; i.e. Southerners are said to be a bunch of friendly warm people with whom you feel like old buddies immediately. Maybe not. Or maybe not necessarily in this part of the South.
Since I've landed here, I'm beginning to feel somehow self-conscious and stranger. And this after feeling at home in the US for nearly 2 years since my first day. There are many friendly people here as well (like any other place in the world). Over my short time here, I've seen people who come out of their way to help or guide me. But the number of unfriendly looks or attitudes is not negligible also. And it's not just about looks.
There was something that didn't take me long to notice after arriving in Toledo. And I quote it from that early post here: "People are or (at least) appear warm, even in a cold area like OH. Smiling (even if you don't mean it) is part of American culture. It's common for strangers to say hi to each other for no special reason. As somebody hailing from Shiraz, I find it pleasant. Maybe that's one of the reasons I feel at home here".
Well, it appears that saying hi for no specific reason is not as common here. And I'm not talking about strangers in the street (who used to greet you up there). I'm talking about store associates who are generally trained to greet customers (and Wal-Mart even asks you about that before you touch the LCD for confirmation of your credit-card payment). In this supposedly warm area, even returning a greeting sounds too much an effort to some people. Here, when you say hello to people, they would either stare at you or if they choose to say anything in reply, that would be something like "yes?" or "how can I help you?". And they don't even make an effort to appear friendly. And the number of such people, although not a majority, is not negligible.
Another thing that apparently is not a myth is paperwork. Long before coming to the US, I knew that one of the similarities between Iran and the US is their ultimate dedication to stalemate bureaucracy. I've written about that in the post: And Now, You're a Free Man. Whenever I went to any office, I felt myself still in Iran. But it appears that we have bad and worse. I'd heard about Southern bureaucracy. I got a chance to experience it in person here. Or maybe even before coming here.
When I accepted the admission offer from the University of Toledo in early 2006, I did nothing specific about that. I just informed my graduate director of my consent and then simply received my I-20 along with some other relevant papers in my mailbox sometime at the end of May (or maybe early June). They even sent me my Network ID and password. And I didn't even have my visa yet. But I could use all online resources as if I were one of their students in the US. My future personal experience with the grad school at UT would be far from perfect (something of that still-in-Iran feeling). But still, that was far better than here.
When I accepted the admission offer here at the end of April, I faced a myriad of fault-finding with my documents at various stages and in various intervals all over May and June. And I had faced none of these problems when I was applying to grad schools for the first time while I was still in Iran. Back then, I was under the impression that getting my Master's in the US and being in the US would ease some of the hurdles when I apply for my PhD. It appears that I was wrong. In 2008, after nearly having completed a graduate degree in a school in the US and being already in the US, the treatment I received by the grad school in Southern Illinois was not even the same as 2005. Whatever problem arising with my paperwork, the first reaction I received was something like: do this or you won't be admitted.
And when I landed in Carbondale in August, THREE months after I had accepted their admission and had called off all my other options to maintain my F-1 status (don't forget about my single-entry visa and all its pertinent problems), I got to know that my I-20 had not been issued yet. And that's while I had finished the paperwork for the transfer of my files from Toledo in July. And that's not all.
When I landed in Toledo, I had to go over a myriad of paperwork hurdles, with getting my SSN being the biggest headache of it all. And after 2 weeks, my paperwork was finished. Here, I even didn't need to go through SSN paperwork as I already had it. But still after 2 weeks, my Graduate Assistantship paperwork is not processed.
And now to the good stuff. As a cyclist, I had 2 pet-peeves in Toledo, abundance of roadkill and also broken glass. Here, I don't see that much of broken glass over sidewalks; although Illinois law prohibits grownup cyclists (like me) from riding in sidewalks. And the amount of roadkill is not as disgusting as in Toledo. I can see some squirrels here and there. But that 's about it. Oddly enough, most of the roadkill that I see are butterflies. Very nice butterflies. And also grasshoppers and locusts (I don't know how farmers do with these). And I wonder how these insects end up on the road and more so, how come they have such a higher casualty rate compared to squirrels.
Speaking of biking, there is something interesting about here. Over my second tour in June, I saw so many bike shops near downtown (if you can call that area downtown). That was surprising for a small town like this. And it gave me a hint that it must be a bike-friendly city.
Back in Toledo, everybody preferred to get around in their own cars. And that despite all the efforts that the City put into promoting biking as a green way of transportation. We had plenty of bike routes and trails. Toledo was more or less a bike-friendly city (at least its western parts). See this TMACOG page for more details. And people not only did not appreciate such amenities to save gas (and also to get in shape; obesity is a serious problem in Midwest), but also kept nagging about the money wasted on bike trails and routes. And people like me constituted an outstanding minority. Maybe that's why it occurred a lot to me to see police officers waving for me from within their cars.
But bike routes here are far from satisfactory. Haphazard I would say. You are driving on a bike route along a street were speed limit is 40 mph (or more) and suddenly you get a sweet surprise, a green sign telling you: Bike Route Ends. So what? What are you supposed to do? fly into the air on the spot? or veer into the sidewalk (which is prohibited under Illinois law)? Just like Toledo, there should be some provision to allow bicycles to ride on sidewalks wherever speed limit is 35 mph or higher; although cyclists should be courteous to pedestrians while riding on the sidewalk.
And interestingly, the city bike maps are as inconsistent as bike routes. For example, you see the entire US Route 51 marked as unsafe for bikes. That's while you have a very wide shoulder for bikes on parts of it. The shoulder is wide enough for 2 bikes to ride side by side, safely and easily. I would say a bike highway rather than just a bike shoulder.
And drivers are generally mindful for bikes. It's occurred to me time and again to reach a red light and stop. Still, drivers who have the right of way, wave for me to go on. Yet, there are some jerks who swish past bikes on the right lane. And sadly, such jerks appear to be mostly students (on campus or off-campus).
But anyway, Carbondale is a place for bikes. This could be seen clearly on campus by the huge number of bike-racks everywhere. And those bike-racks have got bikes on them. This may have a practical reason. The streets in (and around) campus are so badly designed and parking lots are so undercapacitated and scattered that it's a real pain in somewhere to have a car. Even with a bike, I find it a challenge to get around campus without taking shortcuts here and there. But anyway, it's good to be in a city where you are not part of a small minority as a cyclist.
I came to the US with 2 pieces of luggage, a backpack and a handbag. I had to leave behind almost my entire library and my rich collection of music which I had accumulated over years. And I admit that I'm much into books and music. Over my time in Toledo, I gathered a whole lot of books, a big chunk of them came from the library of late Professor McGuire (who dedicated all his books to students). I had to leave most of my new belongings in Toledo to move to Carbondale.
Now, I had the same 2 pieces of luggage, backpack and handbag. And as I had showed some patriotism over my time in Toledo (buying some clothes that I didn't have to buy, but bought because they were on sale), I had to carry another backpack and also a handbag (for last minute items that I had not been able to push into any of those bags or luggage). And unlike my journey from Iran to the US, this expanded collection of belongings gave me a hard time.
Back then, I just took a taxi from my parents' home to the airport. And I had nothing to do with my luggage over my 32 hour journey despite boarding 4 flights. When I landed in Toledo, a van from the Office of International Student Services picked me up at the airport and took me and my stuff directly to Horton International House to stay there temporarily while looking for a home. It didn't go so smoothly over this 12 hour trip from Toledo to Carbondale.
I had arranged with one of my friends to take me to the bus stop to go to Chicago and from there to Carbondale (by train). I also needed his help to move some of the stuff that I couldn't take with me to Carbondale (like my bed, bookshelf and books). By some miscommunication, he had assumed that I no longer needed his help. And my calls and voice-messages remained unanswered (he called 2 days later to ask what's going on in Carbondale). The same happened when I tried to catch my other friends. Eventually, I resorted to one of my pastor friends who had offered to sell some of my stuff for me. I called to ask him to complete his kindness and move my stuff as well.
He's a conservative Southern Baptist pastor (a few years older than me). Doesn't it sound a bit odd for a conservative Shia Muslim being friend with such a pastor? Nothing should come out of a friendship between such 2 people, while one firmly preaches guaranteed salvation and the other one firmly disagrees (note: there's no reference to him in this post; what I've written is generally what I believe about this doctrine in general).
But seriously, he's a nice guy and does his best to help international students; in his own word, to show them the love of Jesus. This is a much more efficient way of evangelism than what some evangelicals try to do by simply pushing their pestering advertisement on people. I love this quote attributed to my favorite saint: "Preach the Gospel always and if necessary, use words". Even if this quote not be actually his, we have the same concept in early Islamic teachings: "Be preachers to people without using your tongues". Although my evangelical pastor friend has not stopped short at preaching just by actions; he's given me a Persian translation of the Bible (he seems to be well-resourced for various people).
Anyway, ardent and passionate as both of us are about our own beliefs, whenever we are together, we spend almost our entire time discussing (and sometimes debating) religion. And this time was no exception. And at times, he would be surprised to know about some theological views in Islam that sounded new to him; like when I told him that whenever our Prophet talks about Jesus, he refers to him as "my brother, Jesus".
And I made it clear that in Islamic theology, there isn't any conflict between different prophets; if there is a conflict, it is between people who call themselves followers of those prophets. And I explained to him that the verses I was referring from Quran about other prophets (Jesus included) were just that: verses of Quran, plain and simple, not a matter of interpretation by this denomination or that school of thought. And if any Muslim (or non-Muslim) is unaware about what is plainly written in the Book, that's simply their ignorance, not a matter of Islamic beliefs. I have written in more detail at the end of this post on so many religions.
Eventually, by the time we were about to leave each other, he concluded that "we tend to disagree, otherwise we would have been of the same religion" and we agreed that we have to wait for Jesus to come back and resolve all the misunderstandings. And yet, he offered to give me a ride to the bus stop if required. I declined, assuming I can catch my friend for my departure.
And it turned out that I couldn't get hold of my aforementioned friend and other friends the next day either and had to call him again at the last moment in despair. He was in a meeting in Maumee when I called him and eventually, he dispatched his wife to take me and my stuff to the bus stop. I've always tried to help people as much as I can. But this was too much even by my standards of kindness.
But the hardest part had yet to come in Chicago. There was nobody to help me there. I had to carry all those stuff from the bus stop to the Union Station. And it was a hot muggy afternoon even without carrying all those stuff. And to make it even worse, there were enough inconsiderate people who wouldn't give way to me and expected me to give way to them. And maneuvering in a busy narrow sidewalk around such people with all that luggage while two heavy backpacks and a shoulderbag are hanging from you is not an easy job. That short distance (about half a block) between the bus stop and the Union Station seemed like an eternity in hell. After feeling at home in the US for nearly 2 years, as described in my Adios Toledo post, I began to feel like a stranger in the worst place on earth.
Fortunately, when I would arrive in Carbondale late night, my hardship would be over. A friend of mine would pick me up at the Amtrak station and would take me and my stuff to my apartment (which I had already reserved). He has been very kind to me. Over my second trip to Carbondale in June (to look for apartments) he lent me his bike and I could get around the town and visit places.
While I was waiting in front of the Amtrak station, waiting for him, I could get a sense of my new hometown and what it means to be in Carbondale at Friday night; right across from me, there were bars with loud live rock music. Carbondale still has kept its bad reputation as a wild-party college town; although alcohol-inspired celebrations are not as wild and out of control as before. Read here for more.
My previous visits to Carbondale had somehow made me acquainted to my new hometown. As it was raining all day long over my first visit in December, I was confined to my hotel for most of my stay and was not able to see much of the city. And when my advisor took me directly to the Giant City State Park, I guess he did so because he'd probably figured out there wasn't much in the city to attract me. My second visit (which I spent entirely surveying the city and its neighborhoods looking for apartments) confirmed this. It appears that I have to get used to a few things.
When I landed in Toledo, although it looked like a village compared to Tehran, I managed to go beyond the negativism spread by some unhappy souls and began to appreciate the amenities available to me. But when I visited Carbondale, I realized that even if Toledo looked like a village compared to Tehran, it was definitely a paradise compared to this small town.
When I set out to explore the city, one of the students gave me some information and directions to find places around (including stores). At the end of my survey, she asked me about my opinion about the city. And I said, the only thing I like about Carbondale was Schnuck's (a grocery store chain similar to Giant Eagle in Ohio, though smaller, where I enjoyed shopping for grocery in Toledo).
No misunderstanding. I'm not one of those fans of size and glamor to appreciate a city. I've visited cities even smaller than Toledo and liked them even more, just because they looked more urban. And by that, I mean urban setting, not merely tall buildings and nice stores. I must feel like walking in a city. And I couldn't feel like that here.
Another thing that I have to get along with is the price of stuff in the state of Illinois. Over my first tour of Midwest, I got an impression about prices in this state. And over my second visit, I got a better picture. And I found that prices are way higher than Ohio. Everything. Even in a small town like Carbondale. And that you have to pay higher taxes here. And that you have to pay tax even for foodstuff. Most of my friends here are surprised when I tell them about no-food-tax in Ohio. Sometimes you take things for granted.
Just to give a glimpse, without making an extensive list. When my friend picked me up at the train station, I asked him to take me to Schnuck's to buy some foodstuff before taking me to my apartment. While we were walking around the produce section (my favorite in any store), he showed me the strawberries which were on sale for $2.50/pound and exclaimed: great price. I told him that in Toledo, I wouldn't even think about buying strawberries at anything over $2. The usual sale price was about $1.50 (and sometimes lower, as low as $1.20).
Or when we arrived at the dairy line, we saw half a gallon of milk for $2.50. And again, that was considered sale here. I told him that in Toledo, you can hardly find any store (except for convenience stores who sell everything at an inflated price) selling half a gallon of milk higher than $2 or so. That was the normal price of milk in Toledo. There, $2.50 is the sale price for a gallon.
And things at Wal-Mart or Kroger or other stores are not much better. Over my first days of shopping here, I visited almost all major stores here and looked at the prices of all items that I used to buy in Toledo. Everything is way higher. And there isn't even a Meijer (where you could get the best price for fruits and grocery, compared to all other stores in Toledo).
But these things are minor. After all, as a PhD student, I can manage my budget somehow easier compared to my time in Toledo. And this reminds me of my former advisor's joke about my downward social mobility, from a middle-class engineer to a poor-class student. Although I'm still a poor-class student, far behind how I used to live as an engineer in Iran, I've made some progress. As a PhD student, I've come a little bit over federal poverty line. That is some upward social mobility, albeit small.
There is something that sounds more difficult to get along with. As I've explained in my Adios Toledo post, people in Northern states are not necessarily as cold as their weather. At least, my experience in Toledo proved otherwise. And although we cannot have an ideal system, in a good system, signal-to-noise ratio is high enough to render the noise practically negligible. So, that somehow shattered one side of the North vs South myths. But maybe I have to reconsider the other side of the myth as well; i.e. Southerners are said to be a bunch of friendly warm people with whom you feel like old buddies immediately. Maybe not. Or maybe not necessarily in this part of the South.
Since I've landed here, I'm beginning to feel somehow self-conscious and stranger. And this after feeling at home in the US for nearly 2 years since my first day. There are many friendly people here as well (like any other place in the world). Over my short time here, I've seen people who come out of their way to help or guide me. But the number of unfriendly looks or attitudes is not negligible also. And it's not just about looks.
There was something that didn't take me long to notice after arriving in Toledo. And I quote it from that early post here: "People are or (at least) appear warm, even in a cold area like OH. Smiling (even if you don't mean it) is part of American culture. It's common for strangers to say hi to each other for no special reason. As somebody hailing from Shiraz, I find it pleasant. Maybe that's one of the reasons I feel at home here".
Well, it appears that saying hi for no specific reason is not as common here. And I'm not talking about strangers in the street (who used to greet you up there). I'm talking about store associates who are generally trained to greet customers (and Wal-Mart even asks you about that before you touch the LCD for confirmation of your credit-card payment). In this supposedly warm area, even returning a greeting sounds too much an effort to some people. Here, when you say hello to people, they would either stare at you or if they choose to say anything in reply, that would be something like "yes?" or "how can I help you?". And they don't even make an effort to appear friendly. And the number of such people, although not a majority, is not negligible.
Another thing that apparently is not a myth is paperwork. Long before coming to the US, I knew that one of the similarities between Iran and the US is their ultimate dedication to stalemate bureaucracy. I've written about that in the post: And Now, You're a Free Man. Whenever I went to any office, I felt myself still in Iran. But it appears that we have bad and worse. I'd heard about Southern bureaucracy. I got a chance to experience it in person here. Or maybe even before coming here.
When I accepted the admission offer from the University of Toledo in early 2006, I did nothing specific about that. I just informed my graduate director of my consent and then simply received my I-20 along with some other relevant papers in my mailbox sometime at the end of May (or maybe early June). They even sent me my Network ID and password. And I didn't even have my visa yet. But I could use all online resources as if I were one of their students in the US. My future personal experience with the grad school at UT would be far from perfect (something of that still-in-Iran feeling). But still, that was far better than here.
When I accepted the admission offer here at the end of April, I faced a myriad of fault-finding with my documents at various stages and in various intervals all over May and June. And I had faced none of these problems when I was applying to grad schools for the first time while I was still in Iran. Back then, I was under the impression that getting my Master's in the US and being in the US would ease some of the hurdles when I apply for my PhD. It appears that I was wrong. In 2008, after nearly having completed a graduate degree in a school in the US and being already in the US, the treatment I received by the grad school in Southern Illinois was not even the same as 2005. Whatever problem arising with my paperwork, the first reaction I received was something like: do this or you won't be admitted.
And when I landed in Carbondale in August, THREE months after I had accepted their admission and had called off all my other options to maintain my F-1 status (don't forget about my single-entry visa and all its pertinent problems), I got to know that my I-20 had not been issued yet. And that's while I had finished the paperwork for the transfer of my files from Toledo in July. And that's not all.
When I landed in Toledo, I had to go over a myriad of paperwork hurdles, with getting my SSN being the biggest headache of it all. And after 2 weeks, my paperwork was finished. Here, I even didn't need to go through SSN paperwork as I already had it. But still after 2 weeks, my Graduate Assistantship paperwork is not processed.
And now to the good stuff. As a cyclist, I had 2 pet-peeves in Toledo, abundance of roadkill and also broken glass. Here, I don't see that much of broken glass over sidewalks; although Illinois law prohibits grownup cyclists (like me) from riding in sidewalks. And the amount of roadkill is not as disgusting as in Toledo. I can see some squirrels here and there. But that 's about it. Oddly enough, most of the roadkill that I see are butterflies. Very nice butterflies. And also grasshoppers and locusts (I don't know how farmers do with these). And I wonder how these insects end up on the road and more so, how come they have such a higher casualty rate compared to squirrels.
Speaking of biking, there is something interesting about here. Over my second tour in June, I saw so many bike shops near downtown (if you can call that area downtown). That was surprising for a small town like this. And it gave me a hint that it must be a bike-friendly city.
Back in Toledo, everybody preferred to get around in their own cars. And that despite all the efforts that the City put into promoting biking as a green way of transportation. We had plenty of bike routes and trails. Toledo was more or less a bike-friendly city (at least its western parts). See this TMACOG page for more details. And people not only did not appreciate such amenities to save gas (and also to get in shape; obesity is a serious problem in Midwest), but also kept nagging about the money wasted on bike trails and routes. And people like me constituted an outstanding minority. Maybe that's why it occurred a lot to me to see police officers waving for me from within their cars.
But bike routes here are far from satisfactory. Haphazard I would say. You are driving on a bike route along a street were speed limit is 40 mph (or more) and suddenly you get a sweet surprise, a green sign telling you: Bike Route Ends. So what? What are you supposed to do? fly into the air on the spot? or veer into the sidewalk (which is prohibited under Illinois law)? Just like Toledo, there should be some provision to allow bicycles to ride on sidewalks wherever speed limit is 35 mph or higher; although cyclists should be courteous to pedestrians while riding on the sidewalk.
And interestingly, the city bike maps are as inconsistent as bike routes. For example, you see the entire US Route 51 marked as unsafe for bikes. That's while you have a very wide shoulder for bikes on parts of it. The shoulder is wide enough for 2 bikes to ride side by side, safely and easily. I would say a bike highway rather than just a bike shoulder.
And drivers are generally mindful for bikes. It's occurred to me time and again to reach a red light and stop. Still, drivers who have the right of way, wave for me to go on. Yet, there are some jerks who swish past bikes on the right lane. And sadly, such jerks appear to be mostly students (on campus or off-campus).
But anyway, Carbondale is a place for bikes. This could be seen clearly on campus by the huge number of bike-racks everywhere. And those bike-racks have got bikes on them. This may have a practical reason. The streets in (and around) campus are so badly designed and parking lots are so undercapacitated and scattered that it's a real pain in somewhere to have a car. Even with a bike, I find it a challenge to get around campus without taking shortcuts here and there. But anyway, it's good to be in a city where you are not part of a small minority as a cyclist.
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