Boston and New York...
From April 3 to 12th I was in the United States for the first time in my life. Why has it taken me so long to get there? I'm not entirely sure... Anyways, here's what I can remember of that adventure, followed by pictures...
Friday April 3rd
Got up really early and was at the airport many hours before my flight. Passed the time wandering around, having an early lunch / late breakfast, watched airport security deal with an abandoned bag, and got the third degree at security (basically had to strip to my bottom layers and had my skin searched for explosives) all before getting on the plane. The flight was rather boring, especially since the multimedia system was broken and the seats more narrow than I've ever seen them! Once in Boston, I got another special treatment in that they scanned my luggage for undeclared stuff, which I didn't have. Seriously. With all that special treatment I missed Charlotte and Uta by about ten minutes and ended up forking out for a personal cab ride to the hotel. Sigh. I met up with Uta and Charlotte at the hotel, and we went to a local pub for dinner. It was great to visit with old friends again!
Saturday April 4th
Sufficiently jet-lagged, I was up at about 6:30am and itching to get up and out by about 8:30am. I had no idea how long I would have to wait for Steve and Amy to be up and about and had no way of contacting them, so I went out on my own in the morning. I started with a hotel buffet breakfast and then walked the length of Newbury Street, over to the Boston Common and then walked part of the Freedom Trail until some time after noon. I went back to the hotel (taking the Boston metro system) and found a phone message from Steve and Amy. I left them a message on their cell phone and decided to stay put until they called me back. Seems they had gone on one of the Boston Duck Boat Tour and I met them at the local shopping center for lunch and trading of bags. Most of my Winter stuff has gone back to Calgary with them and they had a care package from my mom with them for me. That was awesome. From there we dropped off bags, and they had stuff to do, so I went back along Newbury Street in search of the knitting and bead shops. I found a few places, with very expensive (but pretty) yarns, but didn't buy any because it was simply too expensive. I bought a few beads though. I met up with them again for dinner, and we went to the Cheesecake Factory with Uta. I had a Caesar salad (at least two heads of lettuce went into that salad!) and we shared cheesecakes.
Sunday April 5th
On Sunday I hung around the hotel until about 10am or so, and then called up Steve and Amy for breakfast. We went to the food court for breakfast, and met up with one of their colleagues from the NSF. After breakfast (nearly lunch!) Steve went back to the hotel to work on his presentation, while Amy and I headed to Brookline Village. We stumbled on "Boston's Best Knitting Shop" with floor to ceiling yarns and patterns, and then went on to a stamp / beading shop that Amy had hunted down. I bought some yarn and a pattern at the knitting shop and can't wait to start that project! Afterwards, Amy and I headed up to Harvard where we soaked up some of the intelligence and campus scenery before having a Mexican late lunch. We took a burrito back for Steve, and then I headed off back to Boston Common to do some tourist shopping. For dinner I met up with most of the iLab crew, and we went for dinner to a local Indian place (mmm Indian) and then to the Cheesecake Factory for desserts (mmm desserts). We stayed until they basically kicked us out, some time after midnight. It was really great!
Monday April 6th
First day of the conference. I was on my own for the plenary, which was really inspiring. Afterwards I attended some sessions, stuck with Steve and Amy in the break as I got my bearings, caught up with Sheelagh and others, went for lunch with Charlotte (I think?), went to more sessions, went to a workshop with Petra, went for dinner... not sure whom with anymore.
Tuesday April 7th
Day long course that I caught most of, ducking out at the end because I had to get ready for the Job Fair. The job fair itself was pretty dismal, and afterwards I went with Charlotte and Helen to Harvard Square for some Vietnamese food. It was quite cold outside, so we headed back directly after eating.
Wednesday April 8th
More sessions, more visiting and making friends. Went with Uta on a Duck Boat Tour in the afternoon. That was really cool. Went with her to a Design session and then to the Microsoft and Google receptions where I had a nice chat with an Austrian student about cultural differences before coming to Uta's rescue when she realized she no longer had her wallet. We dealt with it as best as we could and then went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with some of the others we had met.
Thursday April 9th
Checked out of my hotel, heard from Uta that she had found her wallet innocently waiting for her in one of the session rooms, went to more sessions, took care of some paper work, went for lunch with the iLoupe group, went to another session to find Amy, had a brief chat with her. Met up with the other French people bound for New York, made our way to the South Station in Boston to catch a $15 (and 5 hour) bus ride to New York. Was quite nauseas by the time we arrived and opted for going to bed instead of going for dinner.
Friday April 10th
We made our way to the Guggenheim Museum (but didn't go in) to meet some others there (from Paris, including Anastasia), and went walking. We walked through Central Park where I got puppy kisses from a really cute and excitable fur ball. We went to Times Square, saw the Empire State Building, walked down some famous and some interesting streets, took the local transit system, saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance (I'll have to go back to see it in detail), saw the site of the World Trade Center, the New York Stock Exchange, went for dinner.
Saturday April 11th
It was pouring rain all morning, and so we all decided it was an excellent shopping day. The guys went and did their thing, and I went with Fanny to Old Navy where I went on the biggest shopping spree I've ever gone on. I thought it rather ironic and funny that I was spending my hard-earned French money in the US rather than supporting the French economy! In the afternoon we went back to Times Square where I lost the others in the blink of an eye, waited for about 45 minutes, and then went on my way. I found the St. Patrick's Cathedral, and then over to St. Bartholemew's Anglican Church where I was just in time for their Easter Vigil Mass. It was quite amazing because the service was all in the dark, and when the lights went on in the latter parts of the service it was all the more impressive to me because I had never seen the church in the light before! After the service I took the metro back to the hotel, stopping at Subway for a sandwich on the way, and found a note from the others that I could join them at a particular restaurant if I wanted to. I got directions from the concierge desk and tried to go, but couldn't find them. So I headed back to the hotel and packed. The others came in shortly after and we went to bed early.
Sunday April 12th / Monday April 13th
We got up really early, caught the 8am bus back to Boston, arrived in Boston at 12:15pm, discussed possible places to go, decided on the Airport (very early, but we all had luggage), walked the entire complex (it's really big!), found a Starbucks and a Burger King, I mailed some post cards, and we went through security and hung around until the flight back to Paris was called. Security was really easy this time, and I had no problems with Customs in Paris. The hardest part was the RER B after being on the road for so long, nauseas, dead tired, jet-lagged. I made it back to my little place though, did the laundry, napped, and I don't know how the rest of the time passed. I set my alarm for Tuesday but not my clock, so after 14 hours of sleep (!!) I made it back to the lab just in time for lunch. Oops.
PHOTOS!!
Friday April 3rd
Got up really early and was at the airport many hours before my flight. Passed the time wandering around, having an early lunch / late breakfast, watched airport security deal with an abandoned bag, and got the third degree at security (basically had to strip to my bottom layers and had my skin searched for explosives) all before getting on the plane. The flight was rather boring, especially since the multimedia system was broken and the seats more narrow than I've ever seen them! Once in Boston, I got another special treatment in that they scanned my luggage for undeclared stuff, which I didn't have. Seriously. With all that special treatment I missed Charlotte and Uta by about ten minutes and ended up forking out for a personal cab ride to the hotel. Sigh. I met up with Uta and Charlotte at the hotel, and we went to a local pub for dinner. It was great to visit with old friends again!
Saturday April 4th
Sufficiently jet-lagged, I was up at about 6:30am and itching to get up and out by about 8:30am. I had no idea how long I would have to wait for Steve and Amy to be up and about and had no way of contacting them, so I went out on my own in the morning. I started with a hotel buffet breakfast and then walked the length of Newbury Street, over to the Boston Common and then walked part of the Freedom Trail until some time after noon. I went back to the hotel (taking the Boston metro system) and found a phone message from Steve and Amy. I left them a message on their cell phone and decided to stay put until they called me back. Seems they had gone on one of the Boston Duck Boat Tour and I met them at the local shopping center for lunch and trading of bags. Most of my Winter stuff has gone back to Calgary with them and they had a care package from my mom with them for me. That was awesome. From there we dropped off bags, and they had stuff to do, so I went back along Newbury Street in search of the knitting and bead shops. I found a few places, with very expensive (but pretty) yarns, but didn't buy any because it was simply too expensive. I bought a few beads though. I met up with them again for dinner, and we went to the Cheesecake Factory with Uta. I had a Caesar salad (at least two heads of lettuce went into that salad!) and we shared cheesecakes.
Sunday April 5th
On Sunday I hung around the hotel until about 10am or so, and then called up Steve and Amy for breakfast. We went to the food court for breakfast, and met up with one of their colleagues from the NSF. After breakfast (nearly lunch!) Steve went back to the hotel to work on his presentation, while Amy and I headed to Brookline Village. We stumbled on "Boston's Best Knitting Shop" with floor to ceiling yarns and patterns, and then went on to a stamp / beading shop that Amy had hunted down. I bought some yarn and a pattern at the knitting shop and can't wait to start that project! Afterwards, Amy and I headed up to Harvard where we soaked up some of the intelligence and campus scenery before having a Mexican late lunch. We took a burrito back for Steve, and then I headed off back to Boston Common to do some tourist shopping. For dinner I met up with most of the iLab crew, and we went for dinner to a local Indian place (mmm Indian) and then to the Cheesecake Factory for desserts (mmm desserts). We stayed until they basically kicked us out, some time after midnight. It was really great!
Monday April 6th
First day of the conference. I was on my own for the plenary, which was really inspiring. Afterwards I attended some sessions, stuck with Steve and Amy in the break as I got my bearings, caught up with Sheelagh and others, went for lunch with Charlotte (I think?), went to more sessions, went to a workshop with Petra, went for dinner... not sure whom with anymore.
Tuesday April 7th
Day long course that I caught most of, ducking out at the end because I had to get ready for the Job Fair. The job fair itself was pretty dismal, and afterwards I went with Charlotte and Helen to Harvard Square for some Vietnamese food. It was quite cold outside, so we headed back directly after eating.
Wednesday April 8th
More sessions, more visiting and making friends. Went with Uta on a Duck Boat Tour in the afternoon. That was really cool. Went with her to a Design session and then to the Microsoft and Google receptions where I had a nice chat with an Austrian student about cultural differences before coming to Uta's rescue when she realized she no longer had her wallet. We dealt with it as best as we could and then went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with some of the others we had met.
Thursday April 9th
Checked out of my hotel, heard from Uta that she had found her wallet innocently waiting for her in one of the session rooms, went to more sessions, took care of some paper work, went for lunch with the iLoupe group, went to another session to find Amy, had a brief chat with her. Met up with the other French people bound for New York, made our way to the South Station in Boston to catch a $15 (and 5 hour) bus ride to New York. Was quite nauseas by the time we arrived and opted for going to bed instead of going for dinner.
Friday April 10th
We made our way to the Guggenheim Museum (but didn't go in) to meet some others there (from Paris, including Anastasia), and went walking. We walked through Central Park where I got puppy kisses from a really cute and excitable fur ball. We went to Times Square, saw the Empire State Building, walked down some famous and some interesting streets, took the local transit system, saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance (I'll have to go back to see it in detail), saw the site of the World Trade Center, the New York Stock Exchange, went for dinner.
Saturday April 11th
It was pouring rain all morning, and so we all decided it was an excellent shopping day. The guys went and did their thing, and I went with Fanny to Old Navy where I went on the biggest shopping spree I've ever gone on. I thought it rather ironic and funny that I was spending my hard-earned French money in the US rather than supporting the French economy! In the afternoon we went back to Times Square where I lost the others in the blink of an eye, waited for about 45 minutes, and then went on my way. I found the St. Patrick's Cathedral, and then over to St. Bartholemew's Anglican Church where I was just in time for their Easter Vigil Mass. It was quite amazing because the service was all in the dark, and when the lights went on in the latter parts of the service it was all the more impressive to me because I had never seen the church in the light before! After the service I took the metro back to the hotel, stopping at Subway for a sandwich on the way, and found a note from the others that I could join them at a particular restaurant if I wanted to. I got directions from the concierge desk and tried to go, but couldn't find them. So I headed back to the hotel and packed. The others came in shortly after and we went to bed early.
Sunday April 12th / Monday April 13th
We got up really early, caught the 8am bus back to Boston, arrived in Boston at 12:15pm, discussed possible places to go, decided on the Airport (very early, but we all had luggage), walked the entire complex (it's really big!), found a Starbucks and a Burger King, I mailed some post cards, and we went through security and hung around until the flight back to Paris was called. Security was really easy this time, and I had no problems with Customs in Paris. The hardest part was the RER B after being on the road for so long, nauseas, dead tired, jet-lagged. I made it back to my little place though, did the laundry, napped, and I don't know how the rest of the time passed. I set my alarm for Tuesday but not my clock, so after 14 hours of sleep (!!) I made it back to the lab just in time for lunch. Oops.
PHOTOS!!