Conference in Reims

I headed to Reims for a few days for a conference (Comparative Agendas Project) at the Sciences-Po campus.

Of course, I had to do a little tourism ... Who wants to look at pictures of committee sessions?

Famous Cathedral.

Maryland Bar? Is there some pop cultural reference to Maryland that I'm missing?!

There was even a lights show on the Cathedral the last night. It was especially cool because they showed all the stages of the construction, from the drafting to the [slave?] builders at work, and of course lots of different paintings of it were projected on top.

I think this is from the drafting ...

This just looks cool.

One of the detailed stained glass effects. Since churches were originally painted, this might even be intended as a representation of what it looked like at the time (I don't know enough about this to actually be sure).

On my way out of town, I stopped in a café with a Canadian I met at the conference. Does Ernest Hemingway have a link to Reims, or is this purely marketing?

If my train had been leaving a bit later, I could have gone on the tour of one of the Champagne companies' "caves." The real reason this upsets me is because the parting gift was a BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. Ah well, it gives me a reason to go back?

NYC-Princeton-Airport ... This is belated.

I know this is super behind, but I took all of these pictures darn it, and I want to use them. Oh, hi.

Before I left for Paris, I headed to NYC for the usual sleepover party with one Kelly OC. This was accompanied by a trek to Princeton for a meeting with a professor ... And catching up with Fred, an old friend from ... All the way back to first grade!

Anyway, he gave me the tour of campus (hahaha, Gothic), and I felt compelled to compare this statue to the Nittany lion. You'll see, this becomes a unifying theme of my adventuring. I give it points for scarier-looking teeth, but the Nittany lion is pretty stealthy looking.

After hustling back and forth campus trying to get HR the correct paperwork for dolla dolla bills, I decided it was hot enough to merit a splash. You can't see it here, but there were a couple of really classy girls sunbathing in bikinis. Parallel to the lawn of Old Main drawn here.

Back in Queens, Kelly and I decided it was a perfect night for Astoria Park and CHEESE and ... Surprise, surprise, WINE. Happy Liquor indeed.

I can never remember what number my dad's school was ... So I took a picture, jokingly, and sent it to him. NAILED IT. This was it.

Perfect afternoon for a picnic ...

And even prettier as we get ready to leave!

This is just random, but the fact that this minivan has Consul tags really cracked me up. Minivans aren't exactly the image I'd expect them to be targeting ...

Waiting for Kelly to finish work ... Decided to go read in front of the NY Public Library ...

This lion is pretty stellar. I mean, he looks like he could eat a Nittany lion.

It was a fun few days, as usual. One of my favorite places was a grilled cheese specialty restaurant in Astoria. A RESTAURANT THAT SPECIALIZES IN GRILLED CHEESE. I love having Kelly in the city to find all the things I would like for me :)

Hold up. WHAT?!

In one of the engineering buildings.

Pictorial representations were placed in Pond Lab shortly thereafter.

Really, Heinz? No.

Just check out that country list. Think it over.

Hint: South Africa is a country ... And apparently so is Africa.

On the table in the Nittany Lion Inn -- State College's classier accomodations.

You might be in trouble when the local magazine puts the nearby prison on the 

cover of the interest magazine.

A pinwheel garden, far prettier in motion, in the sun.

Johan and BELGIAN WAFFLES

These two things are unrelated, other than occurring within the same time frame. Johan came to visit for a week (yay!) and since it was his first time in State College ... We went to the creamery. Otherwise, we spent a lot of time either testing out the local restaurants or sitting at home doing work.

Wooohoooo, [sorta]professor life.

This one was at Pickles. Those are drinks. HOORAY!

Because I only recently got my awesome birthday present (thanks, Mommy!), I hadn't been able to test out my Belgian waffle skills until now.

In the works ...

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Now that I can make my own waffles, I'm one chocolate milk dispenser away from a Binghamton dining hall!

In other kitchen appliance news, Kelly's wedding gift to us is a BALLER raclette set. Johan and I had a brief dispute over who would get custody ... Luckily, I had already filled his bag with other things (of mine). So I now have kitchen appliances to rival people way more intense than I, SCORE.

The perfect pairing

HOLD ON. Complimentary beer/wine with a $12 haircut?! SIGN.ME.UP. Why have I never seen anything like this before?!

This made me smile, and seemed somewhat cryptic, until I remembered that the Cafe Laura is on campus, and does all kinds of thematic nights (I think it's some kind of dining hall-like thing).

Nothing suits me like a ... Sauna suit?

In TJ Maxx yesterday, a perusal of the sale selection turned up the following:

That's right. A sauna suit. AKA, a decontamination suit, that you're supposed to work out in. I'm trying not to gag thinking about all the different ways this disgusts me.

It did, however, remind me of this clip from How I Met Your Mother (which remains awesome to this day).

HOORAY !!! (Now bring me a drink.)

This weekend I ran away to Binghamton, to visit my favorite Clark children (all five). EMMA WRONG came too, it was an almost-surprise. I wish you could have seen the looks on the kids' faces while they tried to figure out what was happening. 

On Saturday, we went to a pancake breakfast. I had a bacon attack. So did Dave. 

Carnage. I don't mess around. Three pancakes, four small muffins, a banana, an apple, a yogurt, LOTS of bacon, and orange juice.

On Friday, Lin, Wendy, and I had our usual Starbucks date. I wanted a caramel apple spice (small), but the guy got it mixed up and gave me NOT ONLY a medium, but also a small salt caramel latte. I wish I could say I didn't finish them both, but I can't. Oops. Also, why is there no picture with Wendy? FAIL.

Finally, this notepad was a gift from Katja to Lin (as I understand it), and it has gotten extensive use. All we do is throw our hands up and yell "HOORAY!" and drinks are delivered. Unfortunately, this only seems to work within range of the notepad, because I've been screaming "HOORAY!" for the last few days, and nobody seems to be delivering my strawberry daquiris.

Lame.