Conference Photos--A Long Good Weekend

This past weekend I was away at a conference. Not strictly in my area of specialization, but I drove down with the Lama, who is one of the founding members of the conference, and who was presenting a paper. The third member of the party was a Chinese grad student who's doing a one year foreign exchange study, whom I shall call E.T. (not her real initials). The conference was at a really pretty campus in the middle of nowhere.

We got off to a bad start up in Chicago because the Lama had reserved a car from Enterprise, but when we showed up at the Enterprise, there were no cars to be had. There were other people in the waiting room who had been waiting already for some time. Time dragged on. The Enterprise people made some calls but we were mostly waiting on returns. All told, we waited over two hours. It was nice getting a chance to chat with the Lama and all, but not nice to preface a five hour drive with a two hour session of sitting and fuming.

In the end the first thing we could get was an SUV. We complained because of the gas mileage, and eventually the Lama got them to throw in a free tank of gas. That was pretty decent compensation given that the gas tank held $60 worth (!) at current gas prices. But if it had been essential for us to get to the conference's first night dinner on time, we would have been sorely disappointed. Oddly, the last time I rented a car it was also from Enterprise, and we also had to wait for cars, over half an hour I think, but in some ways that was worse because we had to stand up in a parking garage rather than sitting comfortably in air-conditioned room. I conclude from two such experiences in row: next time I'm taking my business elsewhere.

I gave E.T. the front seat, assuming rightly as it turned out that she would have more trouble with car-sickness. The Lama drove. We had a sort of three-corner conversation. E.T. is a bit sullen about her experiences here and it shows. I am much more forgiving than I would have been before I was a foreign exchange student myself but she's still somewhat of a difficult person. At left is a picture of the Lama and E.T. after we were finally underway, sitting in traffic on Lake Shore Drive.

The drive was actually a very pretty one. We were going south, and it turns out that in that direction spring had already come. Everything was a brilliant vivid green. We came across a rest area with a wind-mill. I was impressed with it. The wind there was very fierce, and the windmill was going extremely fast, its blades loudly slicing the air. E.T. was using my camera and taking a lot of pictures but she doesn't have the knack of holding the camera straight. The Lama has started smoking again. What a tough addiction.

I graded a lot of papers, spreading everything out in the back seat. That was a good thing. Here is a picture from the road of a funny billboard.

No need for a blow-by-blow on the conference I suppose. The first night dinner was fun. I concentrated on getting to know the two female graduate students with whom E.T. and I were staying (we were divided up, one per graduate student; it was a nice break). It was really great of them to put us up. The one I got to stay with had two lively young cats. She lived far from campus and so I had to follow her schedule, but that was fine. I had made up my mind in advance to be really easy-going. Both of the grad students were part of the conference organizing team, meaning they were responsible for getting the bagels and coffee in the morning, ordering the bag lunches, carrying the cooler with cold drinks, and so forth. I helped as much as I could and they seemed glad for it.

My hostess and I were extremely pleased upon discovering that we were both really fond of tea in the morning. She made a nice pot of tea the first morning and told me I should help myself. While pouring I admired her teapot--it had a pretty blue pattern on it. She said it was her mother's. Just then the lid of the teapot went skidding off into the sink and broke!!! I felt so bad. The next day, though, I fixed it with some superglue that I found in her house and she said it looked as good as new. Still--boo, what a butterfingers I am.

I very much enjoyed listening the papers. Being focused on Chinese philosophy, it was not exactly my field or discipline. Still, there was enough relevance that it was stimulating, and of course it was more useful data on how to give an effective presentation. On Saturday night after a horrendously caloric dinner, many of the cool interesting people were going to a bar--including my hostess--so I went too. I had been pessimistic about my staying-power, but we were actually there until one in the morning. Pocket of Bolts always says that going to bars is actually part of a philosopher's work, and this was certainly true here. A lot of work got done in one-on-one objections and rebuttals and general constructive discussion. I had not given a paper of course, but I listened and contributed when I could. I hope I made a good impression.

The weather was beautiful and we ate our lunches and dinner outside. The seating area most convenient to where we were having the conference was a round brick area which had some benches. One one of the benches was a bronze statue of long-time president of the university we were at. (Hint--see the movie Kinsey?) It's a funny statue. HW's hand is apparently raised in benediction. Here is a picture of me sitting by him.

Another amusing thing was that I got to see one of my grad school classmates, now in a tt position at the university where the conference was being held. Not someone I'd known too terribly well, but it was fun to see him anyway and gossip and reconnect. This is the way connections get strengthened, the vagaries of where conferences are and who happens to be there. He's the guy on the left in this photo. The girl in the center is a grad student who does some Chinese stuff.

On the last day everyone was exhausted, naturally, but I MOSTLY managed to stay awake. I had a really good conversation with one of the professors on how to negotiate spousal hire. I felt in general that the people at the conference were warm and friendly and welcoming. The questions were all quite constructive rather than snarky. It was just a good environment. I had to point out something someone had wrong, but I tried to do so in a really nice way too.

I made three new Facebook friends. :D

It was of course a long ride home (I did more grading), but I got back feeling really inspired to work on my dissertation. Though of course there's a ton of stuff involved with the last week of classes. Both Pocket of Bolts and I feel like we have been limping along just trying to get through to finals week where it's all on the students instead of on us....