Trip Part III through n: Canada, New York, etc.

A quick wrapup of the last legs of my trip--all told, it was two weeks on the road. I'm friggin' exhausted right now, but here's the update.

I spent a week up with the Canadian branch of the company--it was great to see all of them, and hang out at their lab--they have a pretty amazing setup.


I enjoyed the hospitality of Chief Grad Student for part of my stay--here's his wife and daughter visiting the lab. Cool stuff.


For the other part of the trip, I enjoyed Dan and Daniel's hospitality--it was great to see them, even though I just saw them at the beginning of October when they were in Boston. A home-cooked meal (with butternut squash soup with turkey bacon) was about as perfect of a fall meal as could be imagined. And apple pie too!


Also, I managed to get an evening free to have dinner with R.--she is finishing up soon, has gotten a job offer in Boston, and is moving here! Introductions to my circle of friends are definitely in order. As well as a party with... huh... G&Ts, Manhattans, Scotch... something like that.

Travel back from Canada (a YKF-DTW-LGA itinerary) was frustratingly bad. A long line at customs at DTW, followed by a delayed flight connection. Although during the delay, I was amused by the presence of a large gaggle of Japanese schoolgirls in their uniforms... I felt like something in bizarre-Quentin-Tarantino-style-action-movie-style was supposed to break out next en masse.



Transit from LaGuardia to Manhattan is frustratingly bad--the M60 bus (route shown below) is only about a seven mile trip, and took 45 minutes, with only moderate traffic. Just far too many stops along the route--it's just another bus line, not a special express that connects to the airport. One plus though--we passed by the Apollo Theater--I'd never actually seen it, myself.




Oh wait... did I tell you the actually sucky part of this trip? They lost my bags--in spectacular fashion. They put the luggage tag of the guy ahead of me on my rucksack, so it ended up on a Delta flight to Akron instead.

One interesting compensation when they lose your bags nowadays--they give you a free toiletry kit, which was actually pretty useful. It includes a T-shirt, which it useful to sleep in... although it definitely invites the wag, "My luggage went to Akron, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."


The final insult was that I needed to drive up to Rhode Island the next evening--and they promised me they would have my bag in time. It arrived on a 4 PM flight... they told me it was picked up by the courier at 7 PM. 8 PM... 9:30... nothing, and nobody was answering the phones. I gave up and drove up to Warwick at that point, and got in at 1 AM.... ugh. My bags were delivered around midnight... my parents decided that instead of just having the courier re-deliver to Boston, they would drive my bags up to meet me (over lunch break) in Rhode Island. Very sweet... nuts, but very sweet.

Anyway, a complaint letter to Northwest is definitely in the works.

One thing I did with a free day in New York was to help my parents buy and install a flat panel TV--their old (27" tube) had died. I guess it's odd to think that some people don't think that moving a big screen TV in a station wagon and installing it isn't a do-it-yourself activity. As well as the idea that there are folks who can't spend five minutes with a remote and a manual, and then have a pretty decent handle on making consumer electronics work. In addition, I forget there are people who aren't used to, "Huh... I don't know that answer... one Google search later.. yep, HDMI is basically the same as DVI, but with a different form factor, plus it adds sound." I guess having an MIT engineer as a son is useful. (although I certainly hope this isn't my core competency).



So Dad got to watch the final game of the World Series in 46" high definition. Not a bad day's work.

To jump back to the end of the trip--I had a day-long class at the Boiler manufacturer in Rhode Island, and then drove back home this evening. Whew. I definitely could use a weekend now.