From My Hotel in Sunny, Warm Conference City

This week I am attending a conference (at which I have a paper to present) in a beautiful, touristy city with highs in the 80s all this week. I am here by myself (advisor opted out of this one), and I intend to fully enjoy all the networking and all the sightseeing I can possibly cram in.

Just this evening I wandered down to the hotel lobby to try and rustle up some dinner (avoiding expensive room service at all costs). I was complaining in my head that it's actually rather hard to eat when you are only one person - it's awkward to go to a sit-down place by your lonesome, but there aren't any fast food places close to this hotel. And just then, I ran into a colleague of mine from World's Best School. How cool - and what fortunate happenstance! He is here with his labmate, and they each have papers to present at this conference.

So the three of us went to dinner, after finding a suitable place (how many engineers does it take to read a map... gees...). I got along really well with the two of them, and it certainly makes travel more enjoyable to have familiar faces to socialize with. After paying an exorbitant amount for a modest dinner and a sad-looking banana, we made plans to scout out a grocery store tomorrow evening to stock up on fruit.

So cheers to friends in all places -