from Philadelphia.
So.
Travelling here wasn't nearly as scary as it could have been. Everyone in Detroit was very nice, although one newscaster approached me for my opinion on legalizing marijuana and a man on the bus thought I was running away from home.
I loved the airport, and watching the planes take off. And watching liftoff and touchdown. Our flight apparently sucked though, we were delayed on the ground an hour and had to wear our seatbelts the whole ride and it was kind of shaky and some beeping kept happening. I don't know, I've never flown before and I fell asleep for a while. I get sick, apparently, but no more sick than I would in a ground vehicle (which is to say if I can stop and eat, or sleep through, I'm fine for a few hours at a time).
Philadelphia is a lot prettier than I expected, though maybe because we're in the museum area of town where there's some awesome architecture. Not so much to my preference as Montreal or even Chicago, but the marble/Roman columns thing is impressive, if not up my alley. I'm excited to go to the Museum of Art tomorrow.
We saw the Chicago Blackhawks tour bus and their coach was signing autographs for some guys outside their hotel as they walked by. I would've crowded in and asked for one, but we'd just arrived at that point and I had nothing on me. I was unwilling to wait for another sighting when I went back -- those dudes were hardcore waiting around -- so I just took a picture of the bus and fans for my dad. It's the thought that counts?
I've only been to one panel at the conference. There's...pretty much nothing in my field of interest. This panel was queer studies, and it was interesting enough, but I could've heard similar stuff closer to home, I'm sure. I'm less anxious about presenting now, though; it wasn't an intimidating environment, nor were the papers out of my reach.
So I've learned something: apply to conferences in places you want to go, or in subjects that you actually care about. It seems simple, but when you take classes only tangentially related to stuff you care about and have to write papers in them and get pressured to apply around with them -- well. I was also lead to believe this would be a lot cheaper than it is. I had to drop $700 on this trip, before food/spending money (not that I'm buying anything, other than subway tokens and a museum pass tomorrow). I'll probably get compensated $500 by the department, but that's in September.
Anyway. Rambling.
I'd better get some sleep, as I'm going to a panel in the morning tomorrow (with two classmates and my prof in it), then ditching to the art museum with James and my camera, which I am at least getting some marginal amount of practice with. (I have like four shots I'm happy with. Oh well.)
G'night, mostly-people-not-in-this-country.
Travelling here wasn't nearly as scary as it could have been. Everyone in Detroit was very nice, although one newscaster approached me for my opinion on legalizing marijuana and a man on the bus thought I was running away from home.
I loved the airport, and watching the planes take off. And watching liftoff and touchdown. Our flight apparently sucked though, we were delayed on the ground an hour and had to wear our seatbelts the whole ride and it was kind of shaky and some beeping kept happening. I don't know, I've never flown before and I fell asleep for a while. I get sick, apparently, but no more sick than I would in a ground vehicle (which is to say if I can stop and eat, or sleep through, I'm fine for a few hours at a time).
Philadelphia is a lot prettier than I expected, though maybe because we're in the museum area of town where there's some awesome architecture. Not so much to my preference as Montreal or even Chicago, but the marble/Roman columns thing is impressive, if not up my alley. I'm excited to go to the Museum of Art tomorrow.
We saw the Chicago Blackhawks tour bus and their coach was signing autographs for some guys outside their hotel as they walked by. I would've crowded in and asked for one, but we'd just arrived at that point and I had nothing on me. I was unwilling to wait for another sighting when I went back -- those dudes were hardcore waiting around -- so I just took a picture of the bus and fans for my dad. It's the thought that counts?
I've only been to one panel at the conference. There's...pretty much nothing in my field of interest. This panel was queer studies, and it was interesting enough, but I could've heard similar stuff closer to home, I'm sure. I'm less anxious about presenting now, though; it wasn't an intimidating environment, nor were the papers out of my reach.
So I've learned something: apply to conferences in places you want to go, or in subjects that you actually care about. It seems simple, but when you take classes only tangentially related to stuff you care about and have to write papers in them and get pressured to apply around with them -- well. I was also lead to believe this would be a lot cheaper than it is. I had to drop $700 on this trip, before food/spending money (not that I'm buying anything, other than subway tokens and a museum pass tomorrow). I'll probably get compensated $500 by the department, but that's in September.
Anyway. Rambling.
I'd better get some sleep, as I'm going to a panel in the morning tomorrow (with two classmates and my prof in it), then ditching to the art museum with James and my camera, which I am at least getting some marginal amount of practice with. (I have like four shots I'm happy with. Oh well.)
G'night, mostly-people-not-in-this-country.