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The choking, thick smog and the seemingly endless slums welcomed her into the new country for a University study abroad trip, but by her departure, it was the individual connections she remembered.

“When your plane lands, you see these slums that just go on forever and ever,” Gregory, a junior geography major from Nashville, Tenn., said.

India, a land with over a billion people and has its share of problems, but for students studying there, it is a life changing experience. Courtesy Camille Gregory

During her three weeks in India, she faced countless new and exciting experiences, among them meeting a famous Bollywood star, calling the dawgs on a national radio station and receiving private tours from friends of the trips well-connected directors, Farley Richmond of the theater department and Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, associate director of UGA Global Programs in Sustainability Discover Abroad office.

Both directors boast much experience in the country, which drove them to develop the new program in India. Efforts with this program and others have won the University an honorable mention in the 11th annual Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education.

Raychaudhuri said the India program began because of how different the region is from other countries. As of today, this program is the only University-sponsored study abroad program in India, he said.

“I knew India would be very different from our other programs,” he said. “Culturally, this is as diverse as it can get for them.”

Raychaudhuri called the program “a leap of faith” for students and said they were “wide-eyed” throughout the trip because of the stark cultural differences between the United States and India.

“Just looking at India as this emerging 21 century global force, as this rising economic power, so much history is associated with India and there are so many Indians now in America,” he said. “It is very, very important.”

Gregory, who studied abroad in Oxford previously, said the trip was different than others because it was travel-centered — students visited many different parts ofIndia, sometimes staying for only a night.

“It was a totally different experience,” Gregory said. “I loved getting to meet so many different people in India from different areas.”

She said the connections from Raychaudhuri and Richmond allowed the group easy access to performances, holy sites and the country’s famous citizens who would be otherwise off-limits.

“He could call a friend of a friend and get us into things,” Gregory said. “A famous film director just came by to hang out with us. It was things like that the whole trip.”

Gregory said the most difficult part of the trip was being away from her family during the holidays. Instead of having a traditional dinner on Christmas Day, she visited a tiger reserve in India and saw wild elephants.

After traveling to India, Gregory hopes to return as a Fulbright scholar, staying for a longer time to experience more of the country and its people. Raychaudhuri said other students plan to return as well.

“They can continue this journey beyond the three weeks that they spent there,” he said. “They were just amazed at how life moves for a billion people.”

And although I didn’t have a head full of MDMA, I still found Steve Aoki’s first studio album to be extremely addictive.

'Wonderland'

There’s a cohesive link from one song to the next – mainly, the tempo and meter are relatively the same – keeping up an aggressive and in-your-face dance feel.

It took Aoki three years to produce this album — and it shows through the production: he took his time to add every single sound that is interwoven into each track — from each drumbeat to the synth sounds that are sometimes subtly in the background. And being an artist that is known for his remixes of other artists’ work, it only makes sense that Aoki had a wide range of musicians and artists collaborate on each track.

The eclectic range of artists he chose – namely Lil Jon, Kid Cudi, Travis Barker and Polina – is evident in why the musical styles of this electronic dance album have nuances of hip-hop, punk rock, dubstep and electro-house.

Personally, the song that grabbed me was, “Cudi the Kid,” featuring Kid Cudi and Travis Barker. It starts off with an ethereal, spacey melody. And then, a minute into the song, you can feel the tension build up until it explodes with a dubstep-inspired grinding bass before repeating the same progression.

Blending all of these genres together is something Aoki was striving for — and he did it right, even if it did take him three years.

But to anyone who listens to the album, I recommend being mobile. You won’t want to just sit and tap your feet.

Feature on Steve Aoki

The scintillating hurdle over a Central Michigan defender.

The way he snapped up and ran to the huddle after every play.

Knowshon Moreno

The “Soulja Boy” dance.

Now, unfortunately, he may come to be known as SAUCED.

Moreno, now a running back with the Denver Broncos, was pulled over on Feb. 1 for speeding through a construction zone in his Bentley convertible.

Despite reportedly treating police offers courteously and with respect, Moreno was arrested for DUI, failing to have insurance, and careless driving after failing roadside sobriety tests.

Not helping his case, certainly, was the fact that his license plate was personalized to say “SAUCED.”

The news may strike the Bulldog fans as surprising given Moreno’s lack of attitude or criminal problems while at Georgia.

Moreno gained a staggering 2,700 yards in his two seasons at Georgia, but he was beloved mostly for the way he played the game.

His energy and enthusiasm on every play were palpable.

He was the first to jump up after being tackled and the first to congratulate teammates in the end zone.

Moreno energized the crowd as much as he did his team.

One can hardly forget Sanford Stadium cranking the “Soulja Boy” during a 45-20 walloping of Auburn in the 2007 “Black-out game.

And yet during his time as a Bulldog, Moreno never let his larger-than-life persona get carried away into disciplinary trouble.

He was showered with awards and praise, but avoided the kind of criminal headaches that can all too often plague young star players.

Which makes Moreno’s recent arrest a surprising — but not devastating — blow to his image.

Certainly, Moreno is on the wrong side of the sports opinions pages.

DUI is a serious criminal offense, and it may result in severe punishment or even dismissal from the Broncos organization.

Not only did Moreno’s crime endanger his life and the lives of others, but it flies in the face of the responsible image the NFL so often tries to promote.

The SAUCED license plate won’t help him in the court of public opinion, either.

But Moreno must be judged by the whole and not the parts, and his body of work is still impressive.

Moreno hasn’t amassed the kind of numbers with the Broncos that he did at Georgia, but he has played an important role for the team over the past three seasons.

And, as he did at Georgia, Moreno has evaded any kind of major disciplinary or criminal issues prior to this incident.

The crime comes at an interesting time, as another former Bulldog, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, has been praised recently for his NFL Comeback Player of the Year award.

It’s a shame that just as one former Bulldog has come to be praised, another commits a crime.

But if Moreno continues to conduct himself as he had before this incident, he will make this a minor blemish on an otherwise sound career.

And perhaps we will forget about him ever being SAUCED.

And for this electronic-dance artist, on his “Deadmeat” tour — showcasing his debut studio album, “Wonderland” — both of his sides are coming out to play.

“I came from live bands, touring with bands since I was 16 years old,” Aoki said. “Literally sleeping in vans for three days, not showering …  I know what it truly is to be punk-rock in that sense, and getting paid like $50 dollars a show.”

And mixing his past with his stage performance and music is what Aoki does.

DJ Steve Aoki will play alongside a ‘crazy Canadian guy’ named Datsik — and their complementary, if differing, styles of electronic dance music reflect a snapshot of the scene at large. Courtesy Steve Aoki

“I played every instrument in a band and sang,” he said. “What I do at a live show, I can’t help but bring that spirit back in … and it kind of brings me back to those glory days.”

But his transition from punk to electronic dance music originated in the business world.

“With running my label Dim Mak … one of the main functions with running my company, I started doing A&R, finding artists,” Aoki said. “And in finding artists I became a DJ …  that became the bridge into the electronic world when I started remixing artists on the label.”

Aoki also believes that mixing styles is how the EDM, or electronic dance music, scene is evolving — and where he’s found roots.

“It’s a really interesting climate right now,” he said. “A lot of DJs are mixing genres …  and I think my sound would be in the electro world.”

Over the years, Aoki has had his hands in numerous projects, remixing songs and collaborating with other artists — further embracing the hardcore-meets-electro mentality.

“It’s pretty aggressive, my music, whenever I do singles,” Aoki said. “The album is just about music and it’s not necessarily about making these ‘club-bangers.’”

With his new album and tour with dubstep artist Datsik, Aoki’s building on the same principle: mixing it up.

“I’m on tour with this crazy Canadian guy and his name is Datsik,” Aoki said. “And we’re forging two different worlds right now. And he’s a pioneer with the dubstep stuff and I’m doing something a little different … and we’re having these really insane bass and dance parties.”

For Aoki, combining the two styles on one tour is breaking new ground.

“I would say three or four years ago, something like this could have never happened,” he said. “Now we can, because all these different sounds are complementing each other.”

And when breaking new ground — musically — as the electronic dance scene is on the rise, other aspects of life begin to be synonymous with the scene. Quite namely, drugs.

“Of course the drug world is a part of the EDM scene,” Aoki said. “But the drug world is part of every music scene … it’s just synonymous with all kinds of scenes … to pick on dance music for drugs is not being fair at all.”

Comparing a major sporting event, Aoki draws upon that irrationality.

“The Super Bowl is known to be the day that there’s the most domestic violence ever, in the entire year,” he said. “But no one really says, ‘Fuck football. Football creates alcoholics that beat their wives.’”

Instead, Aoki boils it down to natural human behavior.

“Any big gathering that happens, anywhere, you’re going to get drugs and violence,” he said. “And all kinds of factors that are negative.”

Even though Aoki is all about the music and the party, he’s still concerned with safety.

“Of course, for myself, I promote a positive environment,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt, I don’t want anyone to die … I want everyone to have a good time and everyone to be safe and I want everyone to get home alive.”

But in the end, this hardcore DJ is enjoying the boom of the scene.

“It’s just getting to that crazy life and having a crazy time,” Aoki said. “It’s just blown-up.”

STEVE AOKI and DATSIK

Where: Bad Manor

When: 8 p.m.

Price: $25

Review of Steve Aoki’s “Wonderland”

Two weeks ago, the Georgia Senate filed bills to amend the requirements of both the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships — with the eventual hope of instituting an income gap.

The usual move, sought with the intention of preserving the founding, floundering state-funded scholarships, brought the usual wave of indignation.

Adam Carlson

Indeed, even across campus and Athens, I heard people all a-flutter: they squawked, and they screamed and they wanted someone — anyone! everyone! — to listen to them tell of the story of how HOPE died.

But I don’t care, not really. And neither should you — at least not like this, with pinched faces and loud, angry words. What is there to be said, after all, that warrants it? The cent-tightening crunch has been felt around the state for months.

But time goes on and other educational issues arise — like the safety of city campuses, like Georgia Tech, or the long-term cause-and-effects of underage drinking in college towns — and still we obsess.

Tuition will increase! State-sponsored free money will decrease! Exclamation marks! Woe!

We get it: the Lottery isn’t making any more money, and the HOPE Scholarship is running out of money and soon — soon — students will be fighting one another for just a little money. I get it.

But as the state Senate debates, I wonder: when will people run out of things to say about how HOPE is running out?

HOPE is and has been a problem, and it will continue to be one. But it has not suddenly gotten worse, and there have been no sudden, much-worse revelations. When there are new problems — as there was earlier this year, with the announcement that HOPE’s ability to pay tuition would drop drastically in the next few fiscal years — there is also good coverage and good, pertinent discussion of the events: what they mean and how we can understand them.

But this isn’t that.

This is just this: a pebble rolling slowly down a hill toward someone blind enough to call it a boulder.

— Adam Carlson is a senior from Hiram majoring in magazines and film studies 

Here’s what’s happened so far:

After securing three commitments from in-state prospects on the first day of the early national signing period in November, Bulldogs head coach Mark Fox and his staff have faltered and are struggling to round out their 2012 recruiting class.

As Mark Fox continues his coaching career at Georgia, he continues to have problems keeping big name recruits in the state. FILE/The Red & Black

The class looked to be off to a promising start when Fox was able to land commitments from guards Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines late in the summer.

Mann, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound point guard out of Milton High School in Alpharetta and Gaines, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound combo guard out of Whitefield Academy in Smyrna appear to be the backcourt of the future for Georgia with seniors Dustin Ware and Gerald Robinson set to depart after the season.

Fox was then able to follow up the commitments from Mann and Gaines by signing Brandon Morris of Miller Grove High School in Lithonia — he committed to the Bulldogs after taking an unofficial visit this past September. Morris — a 6-foot-8, 195-pound forward — may add depth out on the perimeter next season for a Georgia team that is lacking fire power off the bench.

But what has been most alarming thus far about Fox’s recruiting efforts is his inability to sign a legitimate post player.

In fact, Fox has whiffed on two of the state’s top big man prospects in Robert Carter and William “Shaq” Goodwin. Carter and Goodwin are both ranked among the nation’s top 25 prospects for the 2012 recruiting class and had both expressed high interest in Georgia this summer.

Carter, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound five-star center out of Shiloh High School in Snellville, ended up signing with Georgia Tech while Goodwin, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound four-star power forward out of Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur opted to go out of state and signed with Memphis.

Losing out on Carter and Goodwin is particularly discouraging for Fox, because both were arguably the two biggest targets for Georgia heading into 2012.

After losing Barnes, Price and Thompkins following last season, Fox knew he had to find more help for what was going to be a thin frontcourt. Carter and Goodwin were two big-name prospects that seemed to be within reach for the Dogs.

The loss didn’t speak well for Fox’s recruiting efforts, as the pair weren’t even swayed enough to wait for National Signing Day on April 11.

Carter took an official visit to Athens on Oct. 15 and said Fox told him that he was his No. 1 priority, but that wasn’t enough to persuade the big man to commit to the Bulldogs.

The following weekend, Carter took an official visit to Tech and committed to the Yellow Jackets within the week.

Apparently Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory had scheduled Carter’s visit to coincide with the visits of his two other 2012 commitments, North Gwinnett guard Chris Bolden and North Clayton forward Marcus Hunt.

Together, the three made a big-time effort to sell Carter on being a part of the future at Tech, and it appeared to have worked.

If Fox is struggling to recruit against a Georgia Tech program that is in complete disarray right now, then the future doesn’t look too bright when it comes to battling it out for the state’s top talent.

Goodwin was rumored as a Georgia lean this past summer, and his mom was even on record for saying that she wanted him to stay close to home.

Goodwin had hinted he was going to wait until April to announce where he would sign, and had Georgia in his top five. But after taking an official visit to Memphis in mid-October, Goodwin opted to commit to the Tigers shortly thereafter without even taking an official visit to Georgia.

Fox had been recruiting Goodwin ever since he arrived in Athens, but it seemed like he was out-hustled by Memphis head coach Josh Pastner.

In late September, Fox had visited Goodwin at his high school and spoke at length with him about the possibility of seeing immediate playing time at Georgia, but apparently the meeting was unbeknownst to Goodwin’s mother and she wasn’t very happy that she didn’t have a chance to meet Fox.

Pastner, however, made two trips to visit Goodwin the following week.

He first met with Goodwin at his school and then made an in-home visit and met with his mother.

UCLA coach Ben Howland also made an in-home visit to meet with Goodwin and his mother that same week as well.

Fox has proven that he’s great when it comes to Xs and Os, but the jury is still out on his ability to recruit.

During his five seasons at Nevada, Fox was unable to land a commitment from a player who had higher than a three-star rating.

If he hopes to consistently have a program that sits atop of the SEC, then he is going to have to land the star recruits on a more consistent basis. It was easy to get by in the WAC coaching up the players he had, but he is not playing the schedule of a mid-major anymore.

Since losing out on Carter and Goodwin, Fox has turned his attention to Charles Mitchell.

Mitchell — a 6-foot-8, 250-pound four-star center out of Wheeler High School in Marietta — is regarded as the best uncommitted big man prospect in the state. He’s not as refined as Carter offensively and he’s not as athletic as Goodwin, but he is a great rebounder and a phenomenal team defender. Mitchell is believed to be between Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee and Maryland.

But this isn’t the first year that Fox has had trouble rounding out his recruiting classes while in Athens.

In 2010, it took the resignation of Oliver Purnell at Clemson to land Fox’s most coveted commit in Marcus Thornton.

Thornton was a long-time Clemson commit, and even signed with the Tigers during the early national signing period — but he was released from his national letter-of-intent only after Purnell left for DePaul.

Last season’s biggest commitment was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who always wanted to stay in-state but appeared to have always been a Georgia Tech lean.

He didn’t sign with the Bulldogs until after Paul Hewitt was fired and Tech had over-signed amidst their coaching change.

Fox has lucked out late the past couple of years, but things aren’t looking so bright right now for his 2012 class.

He has one more scholarship to offer and has to find a true big man to go along with Mann, Gaines and Morris.

If he fails to sign Mitchell or another quality big and continues to struggle in the recruiting realm, then the Mark Fox era may be coming to an end sooner rather than later.

Donald Keith, the director of the University of Alabama Emergency Preparedness, gave a lecture at the Tate Student Center that focused on what his university had learned from the storm — and what the University here can do in case of devastating weather.

Keith has worked at the University of Alabama since 2007 and previously worked as a police officer. Most of the lecture centered on Keith’s experiences at the Emergency Operation Center during and after the storm. The problems, according to his lecture, began almost immediately and hindered the Center’s ability to get crucial information.

“We lost all TV coverage in the EOC,” Keith said. “We were trying to figure out how bad it is.”

The University of Alabama is home to 31,000 students, approximately 7,000 of whom live either on campus or in Greek housing, according to Keith’s lecture. The city of Tuscaloosa has a population of 92,000. The storm did a significant amount of damage to the town, but the actual university escaped with minor wreckage.

“[The storm] grew stronger as it passed through the city. Twelve percent of the city was destroyed or damaged in six minutes. We lost fire stations, a police precinct and a number of emergency vehicles were destroyed,” Keith said, while showing pictures and video clips of the tornado and the subsequent wrecked buildings.

The Tuscaloosa tornado is part of a larger trend about dangerous weather.

“More than 1,100 people in the United States died in weather-related events in the United States in 2011. More than 8,000 were injured,” Steve Harris, Director of University Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness, said in a statement before Keith’s lecture.

The talk was part of Georgia’s statewide Severe Weather Week. The University’s Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness hosted the talk as a part of this week, which is meant to educate the community on what to do in case of dangerous weather.

Although the seminar took place in the morning, there were some University students in attendance.

Melissa Hunter, a senior geography major from Savannah, was there. She said she had an interest in emergency management and weather.

“I took an atmospheric hazards class with Dr. [John] Knox, and we had a speaker come over and talk about [emergency management],” Hunter said. She also emphasized that she hoped to learn more.

Still, Hunter said she did not feel the time of the lecture accomodated students.

“The problem is that [the University] holds [seminars] during class time, so not a lot of people can come” Hunter said.

Yet, despite the discussions of destruction and waste that followed the storm, the aftermath of the Tuscaloosa tornado also revealed a community spirit.

Keith said that it is ultimately the people in the community who stepped up to help each other.

“The desire to help was amazing,” Keith said in his lecture. “People were coming from all over the country to help.”