I’m back in Dublin after a weekish long trip to Durham, NH and Boston, MA. The rest of the conference went well. I had quite a few good conversations with a few more people who are interested in my work. I have to get to writing the paper about it now. I’ve read so much background material and have a really good idea of what to say now, at least about the method. Getting the physics going will be a little bit more difficult, but we’ll see what can be pulled together in the next month or so.
Boston was a great time. I watched every World Cup match last weekend (except the first Germany match) at one pub or another. One bar, right near the hotel, was a very very shady sort of bar, but the barman was great and the atmosphere reminded me of home. It was a good atmosphere for the games. We explored downtown Boston as well. It seems like everything down there is an Irish bar of some sort, so plenty of places to get good American food for lunch and whatnot. I know that sounds odd, but it is nearly impossible to get ‘pub food’ here in Ireland. If you want a burger in the US, you can always go to bar of some sort. In Ireland, you have to go to a restaurant (but for get about that delicious pub burger). There are lots of shops and all though and it was good to go through them, things like clothes are so much cheaper in the US.
On Sunday, we took a DUCK tour. I highly suggest this to anyone that goes to Boston, especially if you are only there for a short time. It is the only way you’ll see just about all there is to see, plus it helps you figure out what you wanted to see. I have a mess of pics from it that I’ll put up shortly. The thing about the DUCK tours is they are a driving tour, but because the vehicles are old WW2 amphibious landing craft it also takes you out onto the Charles River to see Boston from the water. I learned alot from it as well, you see alot of firsts, and I also learned that a large portion of Boston is land reclaimed from the sea.
Finally, I got to do the one thing I planned on doing while there. I scoffed at the USS Consitution (Old Ironsides). I scoff because her sister ship, the USS Constellation is in my home port of Baltimore in the Inner Harbour. I guess one advantage that they have in Boston is you can get on the Constitution for free because it his a national historic landmark, while they charge you in Bal’more.
Now back to work in Dublin. World Cup finals are on soon, but I’m a bit dissapointed since Germany didn’t make it. I’ll have to root for the referees or something since I don’t think I can root for France or Italy. I just don’t want either of them to get another star on their jerseys. Oh well, should be good anyway.
Pictures to come later..
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