Random Ramblings

The Personal Blog of Lori Hogan

Trip Wrap-Up

Hi y’all. When last we spoke, I told you all about travelling and my first day of meetings/fun. The rest of the weekend went more-or-less to plan. Saturday was 12 hrs of meetings, in which I tasked myself with a sub-committee of the two committees to examine SAC/GOLD relations and interface (sounds fun, doesn’t it? I’m taking volunteers, if you are interested). The somewhat productive day was marred by a “Devil’s Advocate” type who rather liked hearing his own voice, I suspect (it irks me when people do that).

Saturday night we went to a great “authentic Creole restaurant” called Cafe Sbisa. Mmm…. Sbisa. It was a lovely place (most of us were horribly under-dressed, but we had our own room so who cares?), with great wait staff and good food/swamp water (mmMmm… swamp water). After that the group split. My group saw some great blues in a hole-in-the-wall. I think it’s the type of bar the locals wouldn’t be caught dead in, but the tourists don’t know any better. We then proceeded to Bourbon Street, where we lost a man, Igor from Brazil. As any “nice” group would do, we went to find him, but he was not to be found. To make a long story short, after worrying and going back to the hotel early and waking several people, and then sleeping and getting up and worrying… Igor appeared. His story? He went to a bathroom, met up with some friends from high school, and went with them, assuming we wouldn’t worry. Note to those of you who face this: your friends WILL worry, at least a little. If they don’t, then get new friends.

Sunday: Started way too early and with Igor. Half-day of meetings with motions and discussion. Great news, grad student IEEE members - you get to vote in the upcoming election! Yay us! And the afternoon was ours. We wandered for way too long to a restaurant that was way too full, so we went back in the old direction to find a place that could seat us. Had some jambalaya - rice with yummy things. Then I wandered by myself for a while (yes, Mom, I know - strange cities are not a good place for that.) But I walked by the river in 27C weather (eat your hearts out) and sang “You are my Sunshine” with a street performer, rode a streetcar, bought some souvenirs, and didn’t get a sunburn (that’s kind of disappointing).

Note to travellers: MAKE RESERVATIONS, OR EAT MCDONALDS. The search for food resumed Sunday night. No where was a seat to be found, until we hit a GREAT steak place. Check out my Gallery, find the steak and cake. Mmm… the pics still make my mouth water.

So… Monday was an early haul to the airport, where I found Fanta (which now sits in my fridge, to be combined with vodka some night soon)! Nothing eventful flightwise to support - the flight gods must have read my earlier blog post and realized I had enough on the way down. Was blessed by a Philipino woman in O’Hare after having a chat with her - I will now have tall babies. I hope they aren’t tall at first, that could take a while in delivery. Took in Lush in Toronto airport - gotta wonder how they get away with all the smelly stuff in a scent-free world such as ours.

And then… home. Back to “my job”. And snow. :( My countdown to summer is on. Thanks for listening!

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