Disclaimer: Unfortunately, yours truly does not have the time to write a detailed travelogue. She does want to write about the eventful flight journeys, the crazy stuff you always do as a foreigner at some place, the very enlightening and interesting research conversations (yes, it's geeky) etc etc, but she does not have the time to do it. So here goes what I can do, some justice to the trip that was epic, to say the least.
I had my first US trip this year at Philadelphia. Was part of a POPL conference and thanks to the wonderful sponsors of the event - PLMW 2012 and the following POPL conference (both known and secret generous donors), the entire trip and stay was funded :)
The onward Journey
So, I left Vancouver for toronto and at toronto airport there was a near Indian cinema experience, running to the boarding gate for philly, because of some misunderstanding on the line I should stand at for the US customs.
The 5 days at Philly - It's always Sunny at Philadelphia :-)
Philly is a nice place, though not as beautiful as Vancouver. It was not at all cold, unlike what I was told. Actually it was pretty pleasant for this time of the year! Made a couple of friends from McGill and UCSB. Met many interesting people and conversations ranged from research to culture to cuisines in different countries.
The hotel I was staying at, the Hyatt Penn's Landing, had some pretty good view of the Delaware river and the bridge.
The food was good. We usually had dinners out, Mediterranean food with a gang of grad students. Met up with a high school friend after about 4-5 years and went around the historical places at Philly. We did some sightseeing around Philly with a couple of other friends, the last day before leaving. Unfortunately, I could not go to New York because I had my flight the next day morning (Saturday).
It was actually a good break to be away from UBC and the grind of grad studies for sometime.
The Conference
It was pretty good. We initially had a workshop, where we had speakers like Ben Pierce (yes, the types and PL book author), Thomas Ball from MSR, some very interesting speakers like Simon Peyton Jones, Byron Cook etc. There were interesting topics, related to my research area, though very few. There was some talks on program analysis, security and privacy etc. Types and PL did not interest me much.
There were a lot of conversations, exchange of ideas, meeting fellow researchers.
We had a banquet at the art museum at Philly as part of this conference. The usual food and drinks, some art and history about US.
The Return Trip
The return trip was quite good. Came back with some new friends from McGill who were there with me till Toronto and they flew to Montreal after that. At Toronto, I met my twin brothers since I had a stop over of about 4 hours. They came to the airport and I got some of the stuff I left at Toronto, thinking I'll get them later on. Finally got my ski pants and other stuff. Had a nice lunch with them and then flew back to Vancouver.
All in all, it was a great trip. Met new people, caught up with old friends, met my brothers and had a fun time at Philly.
I had my first US trip this year at Philadelphia. Was part of a POPL conference and thanks to the wonderful sponsors of the event - PLMW 2012 and the following POPL conference (both known and secret generous donors), the entire trip and stay was funded :)
The onward Journey
So, I left Vancouver for toronto and at toronto airport there was a near Indian cinema experience, running to the boarding gate for philly, because of some misunderstanding on the line I should stand at for the US customs.
The 5 days at Philly - It's always Sunny at Philadelphia :-)
Philly is a nice place, though not as beautiful as Vancouver. It was not at all cold, unlike what I was told. Actually it was pretty pleasant for this time of the year! Made a couple of friends from McGill and UCSB. Met many interesting people and conversations ranged from research to culture to cuisines in different countries.
The hotel I was staying at, the Hyatt Penn's Landing, had some pretty good view of the Delaware river and the bridge.
The food was good. We usually had dinners out, Mediterranean food with a gang of grad students. Met up with a high school friend after about 4-5 years and went around the historical places at Philly. We did some sightseeing around Philly with a couple of other friends, the last day before leaving. Unfortunately, I could not go to New York because I had my flight the next day morning (Saturday).
It was actually a good break to be away from UBC and the grind of grad studies for sometime.
The Conference
It was pretty good. We initially had a workshop, where we had speakers like Ben Pierce (yes, the types and PL book author), Thomas Ball from MSR, some very interesting speakers like Simon Peyton Jones, Byron Cook etc. There were interesting topics, related to my research area, though very few. There was some talks on program analysis, security and privacy etc. Types and PL did not interest me much.
There were a lot of conversations, exchange of ideas, meeting fellow researchers.
We had a banquet at the art museum at Philly as part of this conference. The usual food and drinks, some art and history about US.
The Return Trip
The return trip was quite good. Came back with some new friends from McGill who were there with me till Toronto and they flew to Montreal after that. At Toronto, I met my twin brothers since I had a stop over of about 4 hours. They came to the airport and I got some of the stuff I left at Toronto, thinking I'll get them later on. Finally got my ski pants and other stuff. Had a nice lunch with them and then flew back to Vancouver.
All in all, it was a great trip. Met new people, caught up with old friends, met my brothers and had a fun time at Philly.
