A singing bird in an open cage
So, this weekend I packed my bags and headed to Boston on the infamous chinatown bus for the Medieval Academy of America conference. Since last year in Miami, I worked out the two golden rules for these events (don't go to all or even most of the panels and freelance if your posse isn't doing what you want to do) I figured this year would be better than last. Besides, any excuse to wear my beloved BCBG pinstriped pants is a good thing, right?
So I did manage to have fun. Boston is a great city, and I spent half a day shopping and wandering and even took the subway for the first time, which was awesome. The seafood was great, and I managed to get myself and a group of fellow nerds to venture out to the No-Name restaurant, something that I've wanted to do since I failed to go last time I was in Boston. The hotel was awesome, including the view from our room, the pool/gym, and the conference food. We even met a few cool people and managed to mostly avoid unfortunate encounters with unfortunate people.
There were, however, moments that were not so great. The 7AM Chinatown bus with the irritating teenagers? Coulda lived without that one very easily. Especially the girl who sang along to her stupid Ipod for three whole hours. And although I guess the good generally outweighed the bad, if I had it to do over again, I would give up all the fun I had (shopping, delicious seafood and chocolate, cuddling with BF on the bus) to skip that last night. Which, let's face it, was a spectacular disaster.
So all in all, Boston was not as bad as I feared it would be, but not as good as I hoped, either. Which brings us to a conundrum...if I learned at all from my previous mistakes, I should skip next year's conference. But next year is Toronto, another city dear to my heart (as long as it's spring or summer) and I know that should anyone else show the slightest interest in going, I'll most likely pack up my bags and hope for conference nirvana-- good talks, good medievalist-spotting, good extracurricular dining and drinking, and delicious receptions with free-flowing wine.
At heart, I am a stupid creature in this way.
So I did manage to have fun. Boston is a great city, and I spent half a day shopping and wandering and even took the subway for the first time, which was awesome. The seafood was great, and I managed to get myself and a group of fellow nerds to venture out to the No-Name restaurant, something that I've wanted to do since I failed to go last time I was in Boston. The hotel was awesome, including the view from our room, the pool/gym, and the conference food. We even met a few cool people and managed to mostly avoid unfortunate encounters with unfortunate people.
There were, however, moments that were not so great. The 7AM Chinatown bus with the irritating teenagers? Coulda lived without that one very easily. Especially the girl who sang along to her stupid Ipod for three whole hours. And although I guess the good generally outweighed the bad, if I had it to do over again, I would give up all the fun I had (shopping, delicious seafood and chocolate, cuddling with BF on the bus) to skip that last night. Which, let's face it, was a spectacular disaster.
So all in all, Boston was not as bad as I feared it would be, but not as good as I hoped, either. Which brings us to a conundrum...if I learned at all from my previous mistakes, I should skip next year's conference. But next year is Toronto, another city dear to my heart (as long as it's spring or summer) and I know that should anyone else show the slightest interest in going, I'll most likely pack up my bags and hope for conference nirvana-- good talks, good medievalist-spotting, good extracurricular dining and drinking, and delicious receptions with free-flowing wine.
At heart, I am a stupid creature in this way.