Conference Day 1

I’ve been a few hours in Christchurch now, and despite the cold, I really love it here. I think this is one my top list of cities to live in someday. Now I’ll just have to convince Crystal that she also wants to live here. I don’t think that it should be too hard if I can get her here in summer time.

The city is full of really old looking buildings. Many are what I think is termed Neo-gothic and others are Neo-classical. This means that a lot of the buildings look much older than they really are. It makes for a very beautiful town though. As I walked along the River Avon, I saw trees in bloom. It may still be winter here, but spring is on its way. I’ve taken a lot of pictures of the interesting buildings and trees and other things. If I get things right, they’ll just be loaded up with the blog entries proper.

After wandering aimlessly around town for nearly an hour, I managed to find a nice Italian restaurant, by the name of Café Valentino. I don’t know why I picked this place, aside from some gut reaction. The Italian food seemed really appealing at the time. I loved the restaurant. The food was delicious, and the old brick building with walls decorated in theatre posters, and 1950’s crooner music made my day. I’ll be going back there again if I get the chance. I snatched a menu so that I can remember where they are and get everything figured out.

Just before sitting down to write this, I went to the convention center and picked up my registration packet. Seeing my own name in the program of any conference, let alone a professional one, gave me a bit of a thrill. I’m not sure if I am more nervous or more excited. I can’t wait to see some of the other speakers and programs. I think I will learn some things on this trip, and I hope that I can make a few professional connections as well. Maybe a company will decide that they want to fund my research because they have an interest in it.

And now, I’m going to go walk around with everyone else for a bit and see what’s what. I’ll be back later with more of our shenanigans.