Le Trip

After the Savannah trip, I had almost forgotten how many of my traveling adventures were actually whirlwind-blurs of time passing me by. Luckily, last week/weekend's trip to Montreal has jostled my memory.

the trip was yet another conference trip - the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. preceded, of course, by an emotions preconference. who's jealous? this trip in and of itself has been a roller coaster. the first year that i went was in 2007 - my first year at Penn State - in the cold (but driveable) city of Boston. i actually like conferences - not in the weird way that some people treat it like an opportunity to be elected most popular kid at the nerd-fest (though some people seriously have this attitude) - but in the way that it tends to inspire and excite me to do good and interesting research. that was how Boston felt. i was no less overwhelmed with 7,000 (or however many) people and three days of symposia, but i left invigorated nonetheless. two years later, 2009, was a less fun story. SRCD that year was in Denver - and ended just two days before i started writing my comprehensive exams. that was officially awful. and we had just barely left when a snowstorm hit.  this year was slightly less traumatic - though not entirely stress-free given that i don't *technically* have a post-doc yet. but it was in Montreal. sense the pattern yet? cold (but driveable), cold (but traumatic), and cold (no buts. . . just cold). why are they not planning these things in warm places?! i can't totally complain, though, because i did get some quality time with french foods. including these yummy crepes (mine is the spinach, egg, and cheese one on the left. . . just thinking about eating that much sweet stuff for breakfast made me feel ill).

i was tempted to try to catch a hockey game - being in such a hockey-loving country and all - at the bell center right across the street from our hotel. but given that the canadiens had zero home games and i have even less of an idea about the rules of hockey, i stuck with my love for the bracket-busting 2011 ncaa tournament. lacey and i found a "sports bar" down the street from our hotel early in the trip that we vowed to be at when the final four games started. i put "sports bar" in quotation marks because what it actually turned out to be was a place where people gather, turn on the exact same hockey game on all twenty televisions, and then yell, cheer, clap, and set off sirens. that was a surprise.  but the kindhearted canadian people turned one corner screen on to the basketball game for us. and everyone who i thought was coming to yell at us for being haters turned out to be checking the scores (and when i say "everyone," i mean three other people). and they had really good appetizers. so, apologies to hockey, but that turned out to be a win as far as i'm concerned.

random aside: does anyone else think the toronto maple leafs are funny? i can't get over that.

so, now it's back to state college. i have my hood ordered as - assuming that i get the final version of my dissertation turned in by Monday - graduation is quickly approaching. this is particularly exciting because it means that i will see many of you soon. . . and not have to be the one that travels!!!