Monday, November 28, 2005

So I got back from Barcelona about a week ago. It was a lot of fun. My presentation went well enough and it was on a Tuesday, so for the rest of the week I didn't have to think about it. I didn't take very many photos since I was with people who had cameras, so I figured they'd take the pictures. Which they did, but unfortunately I haven't had time to look at everyone else's pictures yet. Anyway, here are a few that I did take.

Here's Plaça Reial, which is a square downtown that I wound up visiting pretty much every day that week. (It was a convenient place to meet up.) There's a bunch of restaurants and bars and it's right by La Rambla, the main drag.

This is Casa Batlló, one of the buildings designed by the architect Gaudí. Kinda cool looking. His Sagrada Familia was much more awesome, but I don't have any pictures of it.

This is Palau Nacional, or National Palace. Looked pretty cool at night with those light beams. There is a series of large water fountains leading up to the Palace but unfortunately we didn't get to see them working.

I stole this one from Lisa; it's me, Jay, Emily and John standing near the waterfront.

I may post more Spain pictures later if I come across them.

Anyway last weekend was Thanksgiving and Jenny came out to visit. We had good food and saw Rent. We also went ice skating, which was a small adventure since neither of us knows how. I think we sorta got the hang of it after a while -- at least we could get around the rink without hanging on to the side. =)

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

I hold my office hours in the Media Union (a.k.a. Duderstadt Commons). One slightly annoying thing is the escalators are always closed for "preventative maintenance". In fact, I'm pretty sure they are closed a lot more than they would be if no maintenance were done and they just broke occasionally. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of preventative maintenance?

So next week I will be in Spain. (I leave in 3 days, actually.) It'll be cool. I'm trying to find out things to do there. I think I asked a few people about things to do there a while ago, when I first found out I was going. But it's been so long that I don't remember those things anymore so I have to re-research it.