life, the universe and everything
Okay so I need to update from awhile back...I was in Montreal from Jan. 5th-8th for the Annual Meeting of the Archaeology Institute of America. The flight was long and delayed so I got in about 8:30pm their time. I met up with Miss Maddy at the baggage claim and we took a taxi to our hostel. The hostel was very cute and located in a really trendy part of town, lots of shops and cafes and bistros. We staggered around in the snow until we found a place to eat (fish and chips and pilaf and salad and bread...damn, they like their carbs! And smoked meat {viande fumee}, but that's later). We crawled into bed around midnight and got up early to take the subway into the Palais de Congres, where the conference was held. We found some truly awful coffee and waited around until we could check in. We went to a panel "Living on the Edge: Archaeology in Border Zones" which was interesting, grabbed some expensive and crappy lunch at the cafeteria (everything had "viande fumee" in it, including the pizza and lasagne, and the salad bar was all pre-made salads like pasta and bean salads, which I don't like). Then I went to an "Archaeology and Conservation" but had to leave after the thrid speaker because I was falling asleep. Mad and I met up and decided to walk through the underground tunnels to some shopping centers where we finally found a cafe that served pastries--my companion was fixated on acquiring cake. We recharged with large pieces of incredibly sugary and delicious chocolate & dulce-de-leche mousse cake and much conversation, as well as expensive WiFi. Went to nearby Chinatown and I had Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) for the first time at a cute Vietnamese diner with a FLAMING queen for a server (loved him). Took pictures of Mad in snow, snowflakes, and snowy streets. Took a cab to the hostel and then stayed up too late talking and giggling.
Saturday we had a better idea of how much time it took to get to the center so we got in just in time for a panel on Afghanistan, which was really informative even though the entire Afghani delegation couldn't make it. Nor could Sanjyot from Berkeley, whom I was really looking forward to meeting. This proved to be an omen. The textile archaeology panel followed. As I sat down my prof came up and told me that she found out Irene Good wasn't coming. I sighed but said "at least EWB will be here"...famous last words. Neither Irene Good nor Elizabeth Wayland Barber showed. Yeah, that would be the two people I basically came to the conference to meet. Even my well-meaning-but-oft-distracted professor felt bad for me. *sigh* After another recharge at our cafe, Mad and I went to a party at the Hyatt hosted by the U of Michigan and bailed after about 7 1/2 minutes. It was agonizing! Turns out most of the people who attend the AIA come looking for jobs...and it's mostly Classicists, bleh! One annoying guy kept following us from the conference to "our" cafe to the party and was a total dick. Kept interrupting me to tell me all about the Scythians since clearly he knew more about it that I could. Argh! Anyway, we decided we HAD to salvage our day by hitting the town. We had Googled some areas that sounded promising so we ventured forth again by subway to Rues Crescent and Peel. Asked about a million people how to find our way around--and EVERYONE was incredibly nice an friendly--found a pub (the Peel St. Pub) where we had to wait in line to get in, finally got in--everyone was sitting (?)--and had three cocktails in quick succession. Ahhhh. After a bit, we headed up to Crescent and found the "Electric Avenue" club. We went in and it was like something out of a movie! PACKED, loud 80s music (mostly good, too), fancy lighting system, tables and a wall made of white plastic blocks that lit up and changed color. We shook our booties for all we were worth and finally staggered out, sweaty and smokey, at around 2am. Caught a taxi back, since the subway wasn't running--which was fun since our driver knew about 10 words of English and my French wasn't up to giving directions. He was great, though, and got us home in one piece. We passed out around 3am or so and got up at 7:20am to drag all of our crap the 7 blocks to the subway station, through the snow, and got to the Palais just in time to grab chairs for the first reason we came--the Scythian colloqium! Which totally rocked. Such good papers by some really great scholars--and it was so rewarding to see the shift taking place in the attitude towards nomadic people. People are actually starting to place them in the center of their own world, rather than talking about those "barbarians" on the fringe who clearly must have borrowed everything they did from Greece, Iran or China. My prof's paper was brilliant, of course, and there was a great discussion of Herodotus, among others.
Then we all flew downstairs to catch a taxi out to the airport. Loooong flight back for me, since I changed planes in both Chicago and Denver before I got home. Was so tired I was punchy--I estimated that I slept about 20 hours in 4 days. Ended up hopping in the car with the SBG and heading to Burrito Boy (open all the time, as far as I can tell) for some free wet burritos (they had messed up my previous order so they promised me two the next time I came in). Finally, passed out around 1:30 here, slept til 2:30pm (!) and sat around like a zombie the rest of the day.
So...quite a trip, all in all. I cannot believe how amazingly beautiful Montreal is, or how invariably polite, warm and friendly the people were. I was terribly glad I could say anything at all in French, not so much because no one would have understood me (they are almost all totally bilingual) but because it meant I could use the courtesies ("merci", "excusez moi", "Parlai-vous anglais?" etc.) that show some politeness and respect for the culture. Also, I could read the menus! All of which contained offerings involving smoked meat.
I'm very glad I got to know Miss Maddy better--she is ridiculously intelligent and so freaking cute! Numerous men kept trying to dance with her at the club. Of course, modest girl that she is, she thinks I'm exaggerating. Pshaw! It was also good to experience a conference like this and it really is helping clarify some things about my professional career. Finally, it was good to come home--to my favorite SBG, my friends, my home and cats, and my beloved hometown.
Saturday we had a better idea of how much time it took to get to the center so we got in just in time for a panel on Afghanistan, which was really informative even though the entire Afghani delegation couldn't make it. Nor could Sanjyot from Berkeley, whom I was really looking forward to meeting. This proved to be an omen. The textile archaeology panel followed. As I sat down my prof came up and told me that she found out Irene Good wasn't coming. I sighed but said "at least EWB will be here"...famous last words. Neither Irene Good nor Elizabeth Wayland Barber showed. Yeah, that would be the two people I basically came to the conference to meet. Even my well-meaning-but-oft-distracted professor felt bad for me. *sigh* After another recharge at our cafe, Mad and I went to a party at the Hyatt hosted by the U of Michigan and bailed after about 7 1/2 minutes. It was agonizing! Turns out most of the people who attend the AIA come looking for jobs...and it's mostly Classicists, bleh! One annoying guy kept following us from the conference to "our" cafe to the party and was a total dick. Kept interrupting me to tell me all about the Scythians since clearly he knew more about it that I could. Argh! Anyway, we decided we HAD to salvage our day by hitting the town. We had Googled some areas that sounded promising so we ventured forth again by subway to Rues Crescent and Peel. Asked about a million people how to find our way around--and EVERYONE was incredibly nice an friendly--found a pub (the Peel St. Pub) where we had to wait in line to get in, finally got in--everyone was sitting (?)--and had three cocktails in quick succession. Ahhhh. After a bit, we headed up to Crescent and found the "Electric Avenue" club. We went in and it was like something out of a movie! PACKED, loud 80s music (mostly good, too), fancy lighting system, tables and a wall made of white plastic blocks that lit up and changed color. We shook our booties for all we were worth and finally staggered out, sweaty and smokey, at around 2am. Caught a taxi back, since the subway wasn't running--which was fun since our driver knew about 10 words of English and my French wasn't up to giving directions. He was great, though, and got us home in one piece. We passed out around 3am or so and got up at 7:20am to drag all of our crap the 7 blocks to the subway station, through the snow, and got to the Palais just in time to grab chairs for the first reason we came--the Scythian colloqium! Which totally rocked. Such good papers by some really great scholars--and it was so rewarding to see the shift taking place in the attitude towards nomadic people. People are actually starting to place them in the center of their own world, rather than talking about those "barbarians" on the fringe who clearly must have borrowed everything they did from Greece, Iran or China. My prof's paper was brilliant, of course, and there was a great discussion of Herodotus, among others.
Then we all flew downstairs to catch a taxi out to the airport. Loooong flight back for me, since I changed planes in both Chicago and Denver before I got home. Was so tired I was punchy--I estimated that I slept about 20 hours in 4 days. Ended up hopping in the car with the SBG and heading to Burrito Boy (open all the time, as far as I can tell) for some free wet burritos (they had messed up my previous order so they promised me two the next time I came in). Finally, passed out around 1:30 here, slept til 2:30pm (!) and sat around like a zombie the rest of the day.
So...quite a trip, all in all. I cannot believe how amazingly beautiful Montreal is, or how invariably polite, warm and friendly the people were. I was terribly glad I could say anything at all in French, not so much because no one would have understood me (they are almost all totally bilingual) but because it meant I could use the courtesies ("merci", "excusez moi", "Parlai-vous anglais?" etc.) that show some politeness and respect for the culture. Also, I could read the menus! All of which contained offerings involving smoked meat.
I'm very glad I got to know Miss Maddy better--she is ridiculously intelligent and so freaking cute! Numerous men kept trying to dance with her at the club. Of course, modest girl that she is, she thinks I'm exaggerating. Pshaw! It was also good to experience a conference like this and it really is helping clarify some things about my professional career. Finally, it was good to come home--to my favorite SBG, my friends, my home and cats, and my beloved hometown.