Friday, February 11, 2005

A Brit On Campus ??

I was sitting as usual doing my duty as a Help Lab Assistant. Basically I have to just sit in the lab and do my own work. Occasionally people come over for help but most of the times the question is "What is the name of this printer ? ". Easy as that. "301" I answer and get back to work. "And yes, you have to out your own paper". I add. At times there are people who do not know how to compile a C file; worse some do not know how to use an editor - and I need to help out patiently. But sometimes people put before me some JAVA code and expect me to let them know by taking a glance at their printout why their program is buggy.

Today however was different. The question had something to do with certain paths and some variables and I had a vague idea it was something to do with OS Programming Assignments. But I could not gather the gist of the question because I was quite suddenly stunned. The voice I heard was not the "Oh Man ..." tiring American accent but an extremely sphisticated and clear British one. I had to ask the guy to repeat the question a couple of times not because I could not understand him but because I took so much time to get used to the fact that I had actually met and conversed with a Brit in person for the first time. (I hope that is the case and that he is not just an American trying to ape a British accent. I mean - if it is he was really good at it but that would be pathetic - after all having a British accent is the easiest way for American guys to impress women). After all why would a Brit want to leave his country and come to Iowa of all places to study CS is a mystery to me.

I wish to get to know this guy better and hopefully make friends with him. It would be great to have a British friend to talk to - about Cricket and Football - about PG Wodehouse and Harry Potter - about the lovely British countryside and the fickle weather !!!

3 comments:

Atul said...

See if there is any Scotsman around.. you'll enjoy the Scottish accent even better (although, for a while, you'll be completely lost figuring out even what he is talking about, more so if he from near Glasgow :))

M said...

yeah and if he is really brit, ask him his opinion about the stories of "sherlock holmes" and the ones by "agatha christie"
n do lemme know ;-) i am doing a kinda survey

Anonymous said...

Hey Gau,
So did u finally met up with this brit guy ?? But more than that I am more curious abt the question he asked. I hope u took "lagaan" from him when u answered him ;-)