I'm enjoying it here. I was here 4 years ago, but didn't get to see much (I was doing my post-doc with a cheap mentor who made us stay in a motel out in the middle of nowhere, and we had to take the bus, no rental car, so I didn't have much opportunity to see anything until a few colleagues of mine who had a rental car rescued me with an invitation to dinner in La Jolla). Basically, I have today free, except for an hour talk, and then I have dinner plans with our students. I should have asked about stuff to do before getting here, now by the time anyone gets back to me, it will be too late.
I was going to go to the zoo, but with having to get to that talk right in the middle of the day, that sort of ruined that plan. I've heard the zoo requires more than one day to see, so I don't know if a half day will be worth it.
I've decided instead to go shopping! The clothes in the mall here are so much nicer than what they have in the mid-west. I did a little window shopping while waiting for my room to be ready yesterday (I arrived only about 3 hours before check-in time...sigh). I'm dying to see if I fit into any of that stuff...that's the downside, California clothing is made for toothpicks. But maybe I'll get something a little splashy to wear to the presidential reception on Tuesday (out of 30,000 members, I have no idea how my name got on the invitation list, but I'm not passing up that reception, it has to be a good one when the president of the society is the host). Oh, and I don't have plans yet for Monday night...that's my birthday! I don't know who I'll be with, but I want to go out and PARTY! I've been invited to join some of my drug abuse colleagues that night, but I'm not sure if that's the group I really want to spend my birthday with (I don't want to be talking about addiction while drinking).
Anyway, if I don't see stuff this time, I can always do it in another 4 years when I'm back for this conference again (they have it in only about 4 cities with enough accomodations to house 30,000 neuroscientists at once, so it returns to the same cities over and over).
Gokul, I will be staying away from Margueritas. I avoid anything with tequila after a bad experience years ago. I'm very close to Little Italy, so I will have to head over there for dinner one night. Maybe tomorrow night. I have plans to meet a friend (we worked in the same lab together...the one with the cheap mentor) for drinks and dinner since we both have our presentations tomorrow (she has a slide talk...I feel sorry for her about that because the talks are always under attended at this conference, it's just the way they schedule them at the same time as the posters are being presented on the same topic, so the audience most interested in hearing it is stuck presenting their posters).
I always go home from this conference exhausted...usually more from staying up late and partying too much than from attending the scientific sessions.
. What kind of things are you interested in? I can give you the inside scoup on what to do if you want.
