See my guest post with Nimu Nepche on my visit to Kantipur FM at the Passage International Blog.

This blog was edited 2012-Jan-02 to correct a mistake about the upper and lower levels of terminal 3 and comment about the noise level.

Previously, in June/July 2009, when I traveled through India back and forth from the U.S. to Nepal, I had to wait several hours in a teeny-tiny, overcrowded, and stifling hot waiting room. This time, I was determined to find a more comfortable place to wait. I looked online at the Indira Gandhi Airport website, and found something called Sam's Snooze at My Space.

I was able to check my bags in the U.S. all the way to my final destination of Kathmandu, Nepal.  However, I was only able to print out boarding passes for my flights from the U.S. to France and from France to India.  (Possibly because I switched from a 'codeshare' airline to a more regional airline for my final flight from Delhi to Kathmandu?) Therefore I knew that, even if for some reason I could not get to Terminal 3 (where my pod was waiting to ease me into sweet dreams), I could still stretch out on the floor somewhere. By using my carry-on bag as a pillow I would not have to worry about someone rolling away with my luggage while I was unconscious.

Thankfully, after arriving in Delhi at 1130pm one night in early November 2011, I did NOT have to go through immigration or pick up my bags from baggage claim. Instead I waited at the transfer desk where airline staff from my codeshare flight processed me, printed my boarding pass, and had me wait while they confirmed that my checked baggage was where it needed to be.

After about an hour wait (1230am the next morning), I was able to go  into Terminal 3. Wow, what a beautiful space, the entrance passed through many duty free shops until you reach a two-level space with a food court, bookstores, a pharmacy, transit hotels, a bathroom and lounges; as you continue walking you reach a T-intersection with the long hallway of gates stretching to the left and right. When I asked some of the airport staff, they told me that this international terminal had been open for 2 years (so it must have been finishing up construction when I came through in 2009).

I followed signs for Sam's Snooze at My Space to Gate 17 and took out the printed copy of my receipt for my online reservation for 6 hours from 12am to 6am. After a few moments of organized confusion (apparently all of the pods just behind the desk were occupied), one of the two staff members at the desk escorted me to a golf cart for a free ride down the terminal to a different gate where I got my first look at the inside of a two bed 'pod' room. As we traveled we passed many people stretched out facing the windows with their backs to the large planters for support, or sleeping in the lounge chairs at various gates.

Inside the pod, I found the mattress comfortable and the fan useful (to circulate the air which was a little stale). The pod was located conveniently next to a women's restroom where I brushed my teeth and washed my face before taking a 5 hour nap. The noise level inside the pod was tolerable for a girl raised in a family of 6. However, the pods have no ceilings and the walls are probably not soundproofed, therefore I would recommend an eye mask and ear plugs for more rested sleep. Don't worry about not waking up -- the staff pounds on the door for your wake-up call 15 minutes before you need to leave the pod. When you wake up, you can eat cold leftovers from your food court meal out of the Pod's mini-fridge. As an alternative to sleeping, use the Pod to just relax in privacy with your own flatscreen T.V.

A staff member knocked on my door at 545am after I had already made a trip to the bathroom to wash up a little. With a new change of clothes I was ready for the final leg of my 3-day international flight.

Kevin has put together an awesome new site for the triple session that I co-organized with him, Tolu, and Denver at 4S. Use your smartphone with this QR code, or just follow this link to knowledgefromthemargins.org to check it out!

I am trying to figure out where we should eat at 4S 2011 which is in Cleveland Ohio from November 2nd through 5th.  My favorite pick from the locations surrounding the Cleveland City Centre Hotel at urbanspoon.com is Dim and Den Sum as I thought it would be a dim sum chinese restaurant.  Instead it is, apparently, a locally sourced taco truck that is closed because the owner/chef has been filming with his new food truck, Hodge Podge, for the Food Network. I'm guessing the likelihood of either of them being available in snowy November is low. Other potential lunch places that looked interesting are Teahouse Noodles (with daily specials that are $7) and Tomaydo Tomahhdo (might be good for a soup and sandwich).
Luckily, based on reviews that I found at cleveland.com, I believe that I will instead have the opportunity to eat locally sourced food at Pura Vida or the Greenhouse Tavern (GHT).  The first apparently specializes in American Cuisine and is located on Public Square, while the second specializes in French Cuisine and is located in the E. 4th St. district. Both Pura Vida and GHT believe in providing vegan/vegetarian options.  While I am not vegan/vegetarian, I like fresh local food and that often comes with the territory.  So I might actually check out the vegan deli/cafe Flaming Ice on Public Square while I am in Cleveland.
Finally, some other happy hour options recommended by cleveland.com (besides Pura Vida and GHT) might be Bar Louie in the warehouse district or Pickwick & Frolic (yes named for Dickens' novel) in the E. 4th St. district.
To keep this data together so that I do not have to look it all up again, I have put together a google map with these interesting restaurants on it.

The NSF Triple Helix project in the department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer has funding for new Graduate Fellows beginning in AY2012 (starting August 2012). Graduate funding (tuition and stipend) is guaranteed for a minimum of 4 years.

Graduate fellows accepted for the program will explore how cutting-edge science and technology research might be adapted to address the problems encountered by low-income communities (health, environment, poverty, crime, information access, etc.). They will also teach in inner city middle school classrooms to apply these social/technical connections to education in communities affected by these challenges. Additional travel funding will be available for fellows interested in extending this research to low-income communities in Africa or Latin America, or among U.S. Native American populations. The Fellow must be a US citizen or permanent resident.

Current grads in the program come from a variety of backgrounds, including sociology, media arts, and urban development. Their projects include the use of cell phones for low-income health information, working with software developers to create new culture-based educational technologies, and deploying pollution sensors for both rural and urban communities. For further information see the Triple Helix website.

To apply send email describing your interests to:

Dr. Ron Eglash, Professor
Science and Technology Studies
Sage Labs 5502, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
110 8th St, Troy, NY 12180-3590
[email protected] 
Work: 518-276-2048          Fax: 518-276-2659

Nineteen of the top 200 universities in the world (according to the Times Higher Education rankings) have Science and Technology Studies graduate programs!

Keep in mind that rankings are formulaic, formulas are made by people, and people are biased (see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post).

It was fabulous having the chance to catch-up with Dr. Marie Rarieya during one of her visits to Nairobi for a workshop! Marie graduated with a PhD from the Science and Technology Studies department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before going to Japan for the prestigious JSPS-UNU Postdoctoral Fellowship at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies.  Now she works at Agra-Alliance in Accra, Ghana.

Marie is originally from Nairobi and has previously worked in Gigiri for the World Agroforestry Centre; she gave me some helpful tips and recommendations before I came out to work in Gigiri at UNON.