sorry for the delay, the last 3 days have been a whirlwind!
tuesday of the conference saw many great posters and talks, but my labmates and i took advantage of the heavily cellular and molecular theme of the day to skip out and do some sightseeing! we thought we could see some of the major sites along an interactive tour from the international spy museum, but turns out it was just around the block of the building near the convention center, so we decided to go our own way. although the mall and accompanying monuments are fairly far apart, and quite far from capitol hill, it was well worth the walk (and some great exercise after eating on the road for a week). the most stunning, to me anyways, was the lincoln memorial- very impressive and majestic with the dim lighting inside- well worth the exhausting trek, and especially to be able to come out to see dc at dusk. we also stopped in at the smithsonian space and aviation museum (one of many smithsonian and free museums in the area), where i picked up a fuzzy souvenir to cheer me up after losing my cel phone the night before :(
we topped the night off with a delicious dinner at buca di beppo - a really charming restaurant with great family style food and no shortage of schtick and nick-nackery to generate lots of saccades :) scott and i partied hardy at the grad student social along with many other neuroscientists gone wild (always the highlight of the meeting).
wednesday morning was a struggle, but i managed to pack up and lug everything to the convention center to wait for scott & joe to finish presenting shima's poster on decision making and reward. we left rainy dc and grabbed some real american fare at waffle house: steak with 2 sunny side up eggs, GRITS!!, wheat toast, hashbrowns that were capped (mushrooms) and chopped (onions), and a glass of OJ. i was feeling bold, but ended up feeling like shit well into pennsylvania. we stopped at a charming general store that only had an outhouse to meet our needs (and country music playing in the parking lot), so we drove around the corner to a diner that smelled like a mouldy cottage but was full of patrons likely eating something akin to the waffle house gastric monstrosity, but we carried on to have dinner at a true american treasure: hoss's, and ho boy, did we ever hoss out. i can't even describe in words the charm and gluttony of this place, although it did have a kick ass salad and dessert bar (photos are on alex's camera, perhaps i'll share them later). after what we were all relieved was our last meal in the US, we crossed a completely empty border and made it safely home.
many great insights were acquired, memories and new friends made, including ones who were right under my nose in the lab! many many thanks to dr. joe desouza for allowing me the great opportunity to present our research at such an incredible meeting and for his many insights and lessons (and also his kick ass driving skills that evaded many carcasses along the way). thanks also to scott and alexandria for being such great travel mates & drinking buddies! we went a full 5 days without killing each other, despite some of us getting bruised ;)
thanks for following along with me, and hopefully see you next year at SfN 2012 in new orleans!!! :))
p.
tuesday of the conference saw many great posters and talks, but my labmates and i took advantage of the heavily cellular and molecular theme of the day to skip out and do some sightseeing! we thought we could see some of the major sites along an interactive tour from the international spy museum, but turns out it was just around the block of the building near the convention center, so we decided to go our own way. although the mall and accompanying monuments are fairly far apart, and quite far from capitol hill, it was well worth the walk (and some great exercise after eating on the road for a week). the most stunning, to me anyways, was the lincoln memorial- very impressive and majestic with the dim lighting inside- well worth the exhausting trek, and especially to be able to come out to see dc at dusk. we also stopped in at the smithsonian space and aviation museum (one of many smithsonian and free museums in the area), where i picked up a fuzzy souvenir to cheer me up after losing my cel phone the night before :( |
| he's gone where no bear has gone before |
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| gangster lean |
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| photo taken by scott |
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| alexandria, scott & me! :) |
we topped the night off with a delicious dinner at buca di beppo - a really charming restaurant with great family style food and no shortage of schtick and nick-nackery to generate lots of saccades :) scott and i partied hardy at the grad student social along with many other neuroscientists gone wild (always the highlight of the meeting).  |
| joelab conquers SfN2011!!! |
wednesday morning was a struggle, but i managed to pack up and lug everything to the convention center to wait for scott & joe to finish presenting shima's poster on decision making and reward. we left rainy dc and grabbed some real american fare at waffle house: steak with 2 sunny side up eggs, GRITS!!, wheat toast, hashbrowns that were capped (mushrooms) and chopped (onions), and a glass of OJ. i was feeling bold, but ended up feeling like shit well into pennsylvania. we stopped at a charming general store that only had an outhouse to meet our needs (and country music playing in the parking lot), so we drove around the corner to a diner that smelled like a mouldy cottage but was full of patrons likely eating something akin to the waffle house gastric monstrosity, but we carried on to have dinner at a true american treasure: hoss's, and ho boy, did we ever hoss out. i can't even describe in words the charm and gluttony of this place, although it did have a kick ass salad and dessert bar (photos are on alex's camera, perhaps i'll share them later). after what we were all relieved was our last meal in the US, we crossed a completely empty border and made it safely home.
many great insights were acquired, memories and new friends made, including ones who were right under my nose in the lab! many many thanks to dr. joe desouza for allowing me the great opportunity to present our research at such an incredible meeting and for his many insights and lessons (and also his kick ass driving skills that evaded many carcasses along the way). thanks also to scott and alexandria for being such great travel mates & drinking buddies! we went a full 5 days without killing each other, despite some of us getting bruised ;)
thanks for following along with me, and hopefully see you next year at SfN 2012 in new orleans!!! :))
p.