One of the coolest things about being a grad student is the opportunity to travel for free (tangent- London in 22 days!!). My project is part of a collaboration with other research groups at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and most importantly, the University of California- Irvine. I say most importantly because UCI is the center (or headquarters) of the collaboration and consequently where I get to fly to a few times a year now. If you're not familiar with California, Irvine is south of LA in Orange County. That's right, the OC. Which means that the salaries are huge and the houses are bigger. I don't know how any of the grad students afford to live there but it is a beautiful area. And now that I've been a few times I have some friends that I look forward to seeing every time.
A few weeks ago I flew to Irvine for a workshop and then had to get down to San Diego for the spring ACS meeting. How should I get from Irvine to SD? A train!! Justin was soooo jealous. He loves trains and talks about taking a trip on one all the time. Sometimes he randomly blurts out "I like trains." Seriously. I have to admit it was more exciting than I thought it would be. The scenery outside the window was beautiful. At one point we were just a few hundred yards from the ocean. It was awesome! I did try to take a few pictures but I was on the wrong side of the train and looked like an idiot taking pictures that didn't turn out. Oh well. I took some of the actual train and station for my hubby.
This is actually the train and bus station which is why it's so big but I think it looks really neat. Speaking of buses I had to take 2 to get to the station itself. Ask Justin how much I like public transportation. He was trying to help me figure out the best route to take the night before and I started crying. For real. Afterward I felt really stupid though because it wasn't that bad. Ok, it sucked a little. I had luggage!
I got to the station over an hour early so I just hang out in this little courtyard until my train came. Isn't it pretty? It was a really nice day and gave me an opportunity to catch up with Mom on the phone.
This is the station in San Diego. A little bigger and more like what I expected to see. It's apparently the original (i.e. really old) station because inside there was a separate room labeled "Women's Waiting Room." I couldn't help thinking of "The Chase" by Clive Cussler. It's a really good book involving, you guessed it, trains.
Because I had luggage I was really excited my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I could just walk there. The bad thing was my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I heard trains all night. After the conference started I was usually so tired by the time I got to bed that I could sleep through it. Not only was our hotel close to train tracks but it was really close to Little Italy. Mamma mia, that was some good Italian food! If you're ever in SD check out the Spaghetteria. I thought the name was a little cheesy but the food more than made up for it. Our last day there we also found a little Thai food restaurant called Mint. I recommend that one as well. So much delicious food for $7!!
The conference itself was really good. I was the first presenter of the first session (for my division) on the first day so I wasn't expecting a very big crowd but the room was almost completely full and the audience had a number of questions. That sounds bad but when presenting at a science conference, getting questions afterward is a really good thing. It means people were listening and interested. The more the merrier in this case so I felt really good about my presentation. And it was nice to get my talk over with early so I could focus on the other talks I attended.
I also got to meet some of the bigger names in my field. Some unintentionally and probably not how I would have envisioned an introduction going. During a talk that I was really interested in there were 2 women talking just outside the room. I wasn't the only one who could hear them better than the speaker and since I'm working on being more assertive in situations like this I took it upon myself to ask them to be quieter. I should have kept my mouth shut. Right after I informed them we could all hear their conversation I realized one of the ladies was Naomi Halas! The only way to describe it is like shushing an A list chemist. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't listen to the rest of the talk now anyway, I was so embarrassed! But after both women came back in, she came over, touched my shoulder and apologized. So maybe it wasn't a big deal and she's grateful someone informed her they were being disruptive. Yeah, at least that's how it happened in my mind.
A few weeks ago I flew to Irvine for a workshop and then had to get down to San Diego for the spring ACS meeting. How should I get from Irvine to SD? A train!! Justin was soooo jealous. He loves trains and talks about taking a trip on one all the time. Sometimes he randomly blurts out "I like trains." Seriously. I have to admit it was more exciting than I thought it would be. The scenery outside the window was beautiful. At one point we were just a few hundred yards from the ocean. It was awesome! I did try to take a few pictures but I was on the wrong side of the train and looked like an idiot taking pictures that didn't turn out. Oh well. I took some of the actual train and station for my hubby.
Train tracks!
Here it comes!
Because I had luggage I was really excited my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I could just walk there. The bad thing was my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I heard trains all night. After the conference started I was usually so tired by the time I got to bed that I could sleep through it. Not only was our hotel close to train tracks but it was really close to Little Italy. Mamma mia, that was some good Italian food! If you're ever in SD check out the Spaghetteria. I thought the name was a little cheesy but the food more than made up for it. Our last day there we also found a little Thai food restaurant called Mint. I recommend that one as well. So much delicious food for $7!!
The conference itself was really good. I was the first presenter of the first session (for my division) on the first day so I wasn't expecting a very big crowd but the room was almost completely full and the audience had a number of questions. That sounds bad but when presenting at a science conference, getting questions afterward is a really good thing. It means people were listening and interested. The more the merrier in this case so I felt really good about my presentation. And it was nice to get my talk over with early so I could focus on the other talks I attended.
I also got to meet some of the bigger names in my field. Some unintentionally and probably not how I would have envisioned an introduction going. During a talk that I was really interested in there were 2 women talking just outside the room. I wasn't the only one who could hear them better than the speaker and since I'm working on being more assertive in situations like this I took it upon myself to ask them to be quieter. I should have kept my mouth shut. Right after I informed them we could all hear their conversation I realized one of the ladies was Naomi Halas! The only way to describe it is like shushing an A list chemist. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't listen to the rest of the talk now anyway, I was so embarrassed! But after both women came back in, she came over, touched my shoulder and apologized. So maybe it wasn't a big deal and she's grateful someone informed her they were being disruptive. Yeah, at least that's how it happened in my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment