Category Archives: conference

Random Pictures

Today was good, especially in comparison to yesterday. My presentation went very well, and I got to meet a lot of very wonderful and brilliant people. I am not going to really talk about the conference since most of you who have been to conferences know what it is like, and for those of you who haven’t, well, my paltry description won’t really elucidate much.However, during one of the longer breaks I walked around a bit and took some fun pictures.

This was directly across the street from the conference.

I tried getting a close up of the tower….
I just like the way this building looks.
There was a park/sitting area down the street…. the autumn colors looked so beautiful.
This is a terrible picture, but this coffee shop was actually pretty cute.
I haven’t the slightest clue what these things are, but they reminded me of printing presses. Either way, this building had a bunch of them, and I had wanted to take pictures since yesterday… finally got a chance to do so as I was walking back to my car tonight.
Tomorrow I am going into actual Portland, so I should have more to share then.

My Day, Briefly

Today was exhausting. I have been up since three in the morning and had to be at the airport before the sun was even up. The flight was fine, but the car rental place was not. Everyone and their brother decided to rent a car today, and the wait was almost two hours. I had reserved a small sedan, but by the time I got to the counter they didn’t have any left. I ended up with an SUV type thing. It is a Ford of various natures. They didn’t increase my cost any, but the car is a little bigger than what I am used to, so I am driving cautiously to the point of probably annoying everyone else on the road.

By the time I got to the hotel, changed and drove across the bridge I pretty much missed more than half of today’s conference and was only able to catch one panel, after which they had a social hour/banquet.

I chatted for a bit with people who I have until now only spoken to via email, but I wasn’t feeling altogether social. In fact there were so many people there I felt slightly overwhelmed.

So I am having dinner in my room with my blog and books.

Highlights of my day? Hot shower and the fact that there is a Starbucks 0.2 miles from my hotel.

Tomorrow there might be some pictures.

Planning Ahead

I will be going to a conference in a few weeks. I don’t have time right now to do anything about it since there are so many other things going on in the next week/weekend, but I do need to start planning.

I have my paper written, but it could probably use some editing. Then there is the actual itinerary. I will be in Portland for four days, but only going to the conference for two of those days. I need to see about the car rental, and find out when my plane lands, and figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. I scheduled it all several months ago, and have now forgotten everything.

However, I was looking at the conference schedule, and on one of the days I was excited to find that there is an entire panel dedicated to Romanian literature. I am not very familiar with the authors being discussed, but I have heard of them, and am quite curious to see how they will be presented and have been studied in academia.

There are actually numerous panels I would like to see so I need to sort all of that out as well.

Then I have to figure out where the giant bookstore is, because that is pretty much what I have planned for all of Saturday with maybe a quick lunch break.

As you can tell, I am very excited. But I do wish this could have been in November instead.