Return to LJ as I return to Lille
Oh sweet LJ, I've come back to you. I know no one reads this anymore, but I needed somewhere to reflect on my trip during my quiet evenings.
I am in Lille, France until the end of June to do research with my colleague, Gautami Bhowmik. I left this past Monday and was supposed to arrive midday Tuesday, but my SAS flight out of Newark sat at the gate for 2 hours before determining that it had a mechanical problem and couldn't safely fly. At least they didn't find this out midair. They let us off the plane 1:30am and then we stood around for another 2 hours with our bags while they tried to arrange a hotel. All the hotels in the area were booked, due to United having several cancellations as well. They finally booked us in the Hilton in New Brunswick and then we waited for a bus to drive us there. I didn't get to sleep in my room until 4:30 and then had to be up for breakfast before it closed at 10. I then rebooked my $36 train ticket from Brussels to Lille, upgrading to 1st class, which had a more flexible exchange policy, just in case my flight got delayed. It cost me an additional $56.
SAS brought us all back to Newark on Tuesday around 2pm and I was put on a direct flight with United to Brussels. Since I was a late booking, I got put in a middle seat, sandwiched between two broad-shouldered military guys from Chattanooga. That flight was largely uneventful -- United offers complimentary beer and wine now on international flights?!?! -- and a stewardess was even kind enough to comp me a cognac. It ended up being delayed only 15 minutes, but with delays getting our baggage, and some broken ticket machines on the airport train, I ended up arriving in Brussels 15 minutes after my train for Lille had left. So I went to the ticket counter, but apparently since I had switched my ticket from TGV to Thalys, I could only rebook for free with Thalys, whose next train was at 5pm. So, I had to give up that ticket too and buy the next TGV train for 36 euro. In the end, I had spent almost $150 on this damn advance-purchase train ticket, which I should have remembered I had bought at the train station directly the last time I traveled to Lille.
I then had to buy a SIM card and cheap phone at Brussels (because I forgot to bring our old French ones) in order to let the apartment agency in Lille know I'd be arriving at a different time *again*. They were very accommodating and I finally got to my apartment at 2pm. It's in Vieux Lille, which is not quite as vieux as Vieux Lyon, for example, but still a nice part of the city that's become quite trendy. I got settled in and then rushed off to campus to meet Gautami before she left for a day. We only had 15 minutes together -- she gave me my ID card and the key to my office -- before she had to leave to catch a train. You see, Thursday is a national holiday in France (the Ascension) and then who's going to come in on Friday if Thursday was a holiday? So I had essentially arrived just before a 4-day weekend. It's kind of a waste in terms of me getting work done, but it did give me time to adjust to the jetlag and get settled in my apartment.
I did go in on Friday, though, since a visiting Japanese grad student Yuta Suzuki, had wanted to meet with me before he left back to Japan on Tuesday. We spent a good 2 hours in the afternoon with him explaining a new line of attack to an old problem spurred by Gautami and another collaborator, and his alternate proof of one of their results. It felt great to dive into such a rich problem again and it even reminded me of some of the issues that arose during my 2014 REU project -- not sure if there are connections. It's really too bad that our stays don't overlap more.
I am in Lille, France until the end of June to do research with my colleague, Gautami Bhowmik. I left this past Monday and was supposed to arrive midday Tuesday, but my SAS flight out of Newark sat at the gate for 2 hours before determining that it had a mechanical problem and couldn't safely fly. At least they didn't find this out midair. They let us off the plane 1:30am and then we stood around for another 2 hours with our bags while they tried to arrange a hotel. All the hotels in the area were booked, due to United having several cancellations as well. They finally booked us in the Hilton in New Brunswick and then we waited for a bus to drive us there. I didn't get to sleep in my room until 4:30 and then had to be up for breakfast before it closed at 10. I then rebooked my $36 train ticket from Brussels to Lille, upgrading to 1st class, which had a more flexible exchange policy, just in case my flight got delayed. It cost me an additional $56.
SAS brought us all back to Newark on Tuesday around 2pm and I was put on a direct flight with United to Brussels. Since I was a late booking, I got put in a middle seat, sandwiched between two broad-shouldered military guys from Chattanooga. That flight was largely uneventful -- United offers complimentary beer and wine now on international flights?!?! -- and a stewardess was even kind enough to comp me a cognac. It ended up being delayed only 15 minutes, but with delays getting our baggage, and some broken ticket machines on the airport train, I ended up arriving in Brussels 15 minutes after my train for Lille had left. So I went to the ticket counter, but apparently since I had switched my ticket from TGV to Thalys, I could only rebook for free with Thalys, whose next train was at 5pm. So, I had to give up that ticket too and buy the next TGV train for 36 euro. In the end, I had spent almost $150 on this damn advance-purchase train ticket, which I should have remembered I had bought at the train station directly the last time I traveled to Lille.
I then had to buy a SIM card and cheap phone at Brussels (because I forgot to bring our old French ones) in order to let the apartment agency in Lille know I'd be arriving at a different time *again*. They were very accommodating and I finally got to my apartment at 2pm. It's in Vieux Lille, which is not quite as vieux as Vieux Lyon, for example, but still a nice part of the city that's become quite trendy. I got settled in and then rushed off to campus to meet Gautami before she left for a day. We only had 15 minutes together -- she gave me my ID card and the key to my office -- before she had to leave to catch a train. You see, Thursday is a national holiday in France (the Ascension) and then who's going to come in on Friday if Thursday was a holiday? So I had essentially arrived just before a 4-day weekend. It's kind of a waste in terms of me getting work done, but it did give me time to adjust to the jetlag and get settled in my apartment.
I did go in on Friday, though, since a visiting Japanese grad student Yuta Suzuki, had wanted to meet with me before he left back to Japan on Tuesday. We spent a good 2 hours in the afternoon with him explaining a new line of attack to an old problem spurred by Gautami and another collaborator, and his alternate proof of one of their results. It felt great to dive into such a rich problem again and it even reminded me of some of the issues that arose during my 2014 REU project -- not sure if there are connections. It's really too bad that our stays don't overlap more.