UConn Husky

This week, we visited University of Connecticut, which is 6 1/2 hours drive away. This is our third trip to UConn. My wife and I spent three weeks there in the summer of 2006. Last month, on our way to Boston, we stopped overnight at UConn.

During this trip, we encountered problems with the car. Just before the start of our journey, we noticed a flat tyre on the front passenger side. After refilling the tyre, we took the risk and continued our journey north. Thankfully, we managed to reach UConn without any hiccups along the way. We immediately send the car to a garage and was told that the tyre was leaking air because of a nail. It costs US$ 10.60 to remove the nail and patch the tyre.

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We again encountered problem at the start of our return journey. The engine refused to wake-up in the cold early morning. Apparently, the battery went flat due to overnight frost. We eventually managed to get the hotel staff to help us jump start the car. Otherwise, the journey back was smooth.

Overall, this has been a busy, rewarding and enjoyable trip. During the day, I spent my most of the time discussing and working on several ongoing research projects with CF (the host) and Geoff, another well published real estate & economics professor from Georgia State University (extreme left in the photo below). So far, we have two publications, three working papers at different stages of completion. During this trip, we also managed to work out the outline for our sixth project.

In the evening, we chilled out at CF's house. The guys in one room, and the ladies & children in the adjacent room. Elaine and my wife, incredibly, watched different versions of Pride & Prejudice over three evenings. On the first night, it was the Hollywood version. The following night, it was the BBC version, and on the third night, it was the Bollywood version.

Husky, the mascot of UConn, came to our table whilst we were having lunch at the faculty club. Upon seeing that I had my camera, he gamely posed for me. We then jokingly shooed him away, saying that "no dogs are allowed in the restaurant!".

p/s - UConn's basketball team is one of the bests in the country at the college level. Note, in the US, college refers to university. Indeed, most use 'college" instead of "university".