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..

So, for this week I am at the American Astronomical Society (AAS): Solar Physics Division (SPD) annual conference. This year it is being held at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. I have to say, this campus is the absolute deadest I have ever seen at a college campus. It is summer and there arn’t any students here so that could explain some of it, but I just dont see the possiblity of life here even when there are students.

Anyway, the meeting has been interesting and beneficial so far. First, and most important for me, I have a poster on display. This poster is the summery of my research over the past two years, so far. The final summary will be the paper that I write starting next week. It has been up since Monday and I’ve spoken to a few people about it. More on that later though.

We got in late Sunday after a long flight and had a long drive from Logan airport to get to Durham. Along the way, we did stop at Friendly’s though, which frankly, is one of my favorite places to eat. All you people out in the midwest have absolutely no idea what you are missing. The room I’m in is actually on campus, which makes it difficult to get out and socialize as there is nowhere near by to socialize with.

Festivities started Monday with some interesting talks and getting my poster set up. After a day of talks and explaining my poster, I was quite tired. For dinner, we drove to a place called Ogunquit, Maine to go to a restaurant that Alex knew from his PhD days at UNH. While it was expensive, the meal was quite delicious and we had a wonderful view of the harbour. I had never actually had a whole lobster before. Picking it was similar to picking a crab, but it was less work. It also was definitely missing the delicious taste of Old Bay Seasoning ™. Mmmmm.. I’ve got Old Bay in my blood. The drive up there was gorgeous though, I’m starting to think that I’ve been living in the wrong places, with regards to nice views and wonderful landscapes, though, SW Virginia is quite beautiful as well. I could sooo go back there. Anyway…

Tuesday was another day of more talks, but I also had a very productive discussion about my project with Valentyna Abramenko, a researcher at Big Bear Solar Observatory, whose research my work parallels in many ways. I learned alot from talking with her and she seemed very interested in seeing my final results when I get them out. I am very pleased by this, it is nice when other people are interested in what you are doing.

After that discussion, I took a side trip down to Warwick, Rhode Island (just south of Providence) to see a family friend. Charlotte is a friend of my mom’s from when she was working on her PhD (seems to run in the family..). I had a wonderful dinner with Charlotte and her family, and got to see her dog, Penny, a dachsund that I had met when she was a puppy. It had been quite some time since I had seen Charlotte, so it was quite nice to see everyone. I think they were surprised by how much older I am though, I’m still getting used to seeing people that knew me when I was but a few feet tall. I also had my new camera delivered to Charlotte’s, so I am with camera again, yayy! This means more new pictures when I get back to Ireland. Also, I had some prints of my photos so far made, they turned out really really well. I was very very pleased.

Today, we’ll be going somewhere else for dinner, and hopefully I can get a haircut and make a trip to walmart (need zone bars, they dont have those in Ireland), perhaps in the morning. I’ll be interested in the talks in the afternoon so I want to be around for those.

New pictures will come soon, as soon as I get some good light! (i promise)