Summer Plans Confirmed!

So this is just a quick blog post in which I'm REALLY excited for my summer plans, which just came together over the weekend, in chronologically reversed order. So I wanted to gush about that for a little bit!

Benson is going to two conferences this summer, in July: one in Warsaw, Poland, and the other near Barcelona, Spain. I had originally been planning on flying out to California for his graduation in mid-June, but when he invited me to go around Europe with him for a couple weeks, I decided that Europa took priority over Cali. This weekend, we spent a large chunk of Saturday discussing our plans and booking flights. Since travel within Europe itself is relatively inexpensive, and we knew we wanted to take 2 weeks to travel, the whole continent was pretty much our oyster. Which turned out to be a little problematic, since we both love to travel and want to go EVERYWHERE, eventually.

Our planning went in reverse: We knew we wanted to end in Warsaw, of course, since that is where the first conference is and therefore where I must end my trip. I'm going to actually be there for the first few days of the conference, probably looking around Warsaw on my own while Benson does conference-y things. I've never been to Poland before, and Warsaw should be really interesting. Just prior to the conference, we'll be in Italy: a friend of Benson has family near Rome, and invited us to stay for the week before the conference. I've been to Rome before - when I was in undergrad, my family took a summer and spent 5 weeks in Europe, two of which were traveling around Italy and the other three in France. Rome was one of the stops we went to, so I don't feel the need to do ALL THE THINGS in Rome or nearby... it will be nice to explore smaller towns and take a more relaxed trip, and with people who know the area - not to mentioned home cooked Italian meals!

Prague was the last place we settled on - as I said, since travel is cheap within Europa, we could have gone pretty much anywhere before heading to Italy and then Poland. [An amusing side note: when Benson was describing this trip to his parents, they were apparently under the misapprehension that the conference was in PORTLAND instead of POLAND. A slight difference there...] Anyway, Prague was actually one of the places we had been thinking about before we got the Italy invitation, since it was within reasonable distance to Warsaw by train. So after about an hour discussion of all the awesome places to go in Europe, we kind of defaulted back to Prague on the basis that while there were many we want to go, most of them we'd want to spend more time than available (Istanbul, Greece, and Norway were dismissed for these reasons, for example, since although those are all trips we've been wanting to do for a while, none of them could be done justice in only 5-6 days). My parents have been to Prague, and they highly recommended it: they thought it was fantastic, like a fairy tale city with great music and culture.

So once Europe was worked out, we just had to figure out if we were doing anything prior. In order to see friends, not to mention so that we can take the same trans-continental flight, Benson is going to be in NYC for a few days prior to this vacation. Now, Benson very recently defended his dissertation and received his PhD in Physics at UC Santa Barbara. He'll be going to Cambridge, England, for a three year post doc starting next October. This, of course, is cause for great celebration.

Now, I did get Benson a present for graduating when I was out there over spring break: whiskey! Benson is a big fan of whiskey in general - he has been since undergrad. In fact, he was given a list of quality scotches by one of the professors at Brandeis, which he's been studiously(?) working through, trying all varieties. This is known as "Craig's List", after said professor. Education is a wonderful thing. [Indeed, once during a lab class with said professor, Benson was talking to him about scotch, and I had to interrupt, said I, "with a non-whiskey related question."   "You have to get your priorities straight" responded my professor.] We both like whiskey a lot, is the point, though Benson is more into it than I am - I appreciate it, but don't think I'm a connoisseur or anything. Before my 25th birthday we made a point to go out and drink scotch older than we were (25 year old Bowmore) at Angel's Share in NYC (a most excellent speak-easy, with great cocktails and liquor selection). Since then, we've actually managed to replicate this feat with two additional whiskeys, despite our own aging: my dad has a friend who collects whiskeys, and I've received a couple of very small (as in several ounces) bottles of whiskey since, as presents; so we've also tried 27 year old and 29 year old scotches as well, now. Since I wanted a nice, interesting gift for Benson's PhD, something he'd not gotten before, my dad's friend recommended several bottles of scotch that he thought would be good for such an occasion, from which I chose Aberlour A'Bunadh. Which is very nice indeed.

Now, after that somehow lengthy aside on whiskey (not a waste): Although I gave Benson a present for receiving the PhD, we wanted to go to a nice restaurant to celebrate his graduation, as well. I've mentioned before that we're both foodies to a certain extent, and I'm living in New York City. This means we have access to some of the finest restaurants world wide. This is not an exaggeration. Therefore this morning, exactly one month to the day prior to when we wanted our meal (and the first day possible for booking), at 10am sharp (when the booking line opens) I called Per Se. Per Se is a three-Michelin star restaurant. Last year it was number 6 on the worlds Best 100 Restaurants (which was top spot in the USA). You may recall that in February I was able go go to the restaurant on the number 61 spot, in Cape Town. This year Per Se was number 11 (second best in USA, the top being Eleven Madison Park, also in New York, which is the place I plan on going for MY graduation!). It is run by Thomas Keller, who happens to own TWO three-Michelin star restaurants, the other one being The French Laundry, in California. And as regular readers may recall, my most prized cookbooks is The French Laundry, which I have several different recipes chronologued in this blog. Yes, this is Thomas Keller's OTHER three-Michelin star restaurant. Repeat: I called right when the line opened, at 10am sharp, the earliest possible time. I then proceeded to wait on hold for 25 minutes, and, when I got through, there were only three time slots left. So Benson and I are now proudly possess a reservation at what will be the most expensive, exclusive, and hopefully amazing restaurant that we have ever eaten at to date. Benson is literally booking his flight around this restaurant reservation. To say this place is popular is an understatement. To say I'm excited is an understatement. And of course, finally, to say my summer is going to be awesome is hopefully also an understatement!

Travelogue: Random Moments from Conference Week

Cheetah Encounter: Sunday afternoon, heading towards the harbor, I was walking with a few other people and we decided to take a bit of a shortcut, that they had taken earlier. It was early enough in the week that we didn't actually know the long way around, in fact - I was just following the crowd. But our way was blocked off, by, of all things, a Cheetah. Yes, there was a live cheetah blocking our path. Sitting on a table, on a leash, held by 2 handlers, looking quite bored, and possibly tranquilized somewhat. Apparently there was another conference going on, and they had a live cheetah as some sort of entertainment, and they were holding an event right in the hotel plaza where we wanted to cut. They eventually let us by, holding the cheetah back, but I got within about 2 meters of it. NOT what I expected to encounter in the Cape Town harbor...

Kicked out of the Aquarium: The conference reception was held Sunday evening at the aquarium in the harbor, and we had a great open view into the shark tank, and around the lobby. There was also a set of unlocked doors that led into the rest of the building. So I, and several other astronomers including my advisor, naturally wanted to explore the rest of the aquarium. And it was super cool - the lights were all dim, including in most of the tanks, and we could wander around the floor looking at giant crabs, jellyfish tanks, and so on. Until we were informed that no... we weren't actually supposed to be in there. Oops! Who knew a closed door meant "do not enter"?

Local Cuisine: There has been a surprising lack of distinct South African cuisine around here, though I've had a few things that are apparently local. The dried fish that I've mentioned, a couple desserts (a gingery pudding, brandy sticks), something called Bobotie, which is like a shepherd pie only with a egg custard top. Probably the most different thing I've tried, however, is a local meat that has popped up several places. It's generally not cooked in any particular style, but the meat itself is local: Springbok. I'd never HEARD of springbok, so naturally I ordered it at first opportunity. Its a (very cute) type of antelope, which are very common in the area. I haven't seen any live ones, but they're pretty tasty. The meat is a little tough, so they tend to be braised or roasted for long periods of time. Kind of like a tough venison, is the closest taste I can describe. Not bad, certainly worth a try. Hopefully I'll find some other local cuisine soon - there are some local curries, for example, which I've been wanting to try... but haven't found any place that serves them.

Robben Island

Robben Island: Of course, I had to go for a bit of the historical side of Cape Town and South Africa, definitely a region with a lot of it. Wednesday afternoon was given off to all of us, and we were given the option to take a tour of Robbin island, the prison island where Nelson Mandela (and other political prisoners) were incarcerated. This was a boat ride across the water to the island, followed by a bus tour around it: stopping at a scenic overlook where we had a great view of the city and Table Mountain, one of the prison yards, the quarry where people were doing their hard labor (as well as secretly teaching and talking with each other). And finally, one of the ex-prisoners there gave us a tour of the prison itself, pointing out Nelson Mandela's cell and the garden where he hid his writings, and telling us about details of prison life (for example, that your food rations depended on your skin color/ethnicity). Overall, a very interesting trip.

Countryside in the Winelands

Boschendal: For the conference dinner, we went out about an hour outside the city to the wine country, to the vineyard/restaurant Boschendal.  Beautiful countryside, lots of tasty food, and some VERY excellent sauvignon blanc  - I may have to buy some at some point before I leave, if I see it again. But most awesome of all - I hadn't actually thought much about what kind of sky I would see in the south as far as specifics go. I don't know the southern sky very well at all, in fact, so I just thought "oh, I'll learn some southern constellations" and didn't think much more about it. We'd been to tour the SAOO (South African Optical Observatory), but we had to leave before it got truly dark, and that was much closer to the city anyway. But when we went to Boschendal - that's over an hour outside Cape Town, so you could actually see some LOVELY night sky - the Milky Way, for one thing, which is a baseline for how good a sky you've got - if you can see that, it's got to be a pretty decent sky (at least, that is what I think, having lived in NYC and Baltimore). But I ALSO discovered how Large and Cloud-like the Large Magellanic Cloud actually IS. It hadn't crossed my mind, but of course, it IS in the southern sky, and it was known before there were actual telescopes, so it's quite visible by eye down here on a sufficiently dark night. It had to be pointed out to me, because it is very easily be mistaken for a cloud, but it was a little taller and at least 3 times as wide as the full moon would be (though happily it was a moonless night). It's undoubtedly even larger on a darker night, as it gets even more diffuse around the edges. Super cool. I also had some other constellations pointed out to me, most notably the southern cross. I commented it looked more like a small square than a cross (since I'm used to the northern one, which is quite a bit larger and has a central star which serves as a crossing point), but I can pick that one out now. The only constellation I could recognize myself was Orion, which was upside down to what I'm used to seeing! This weekend I'm going to be going on an after-conference tour to SALT (South African Large Telescope) in the Sutherlands, where I hope to see even more of the southern sky, maybe even the SMALL Magellanic Cloud. It will be a lot further from the city, so I have high hopes for a clear and dark night sky.

Actual Astronomy: Of course, I'm at this conference for a reason, not just to play tourist. It's the first all-novae conference in a decade - one of a series, this is the 4th such conference in ~40 years. I'm meeting scientists from around the world, all of whom work on the same type of object that I do. I'm introducing myself and my work to the community, meeting people who may become future collaborators, exchanging ideas, and absorbing all the science I can. And of course, it's my first international conference - I gave my first ever talk at a conference, on radio observations of the nova V1723 Aql, which seemed to go pretty well. I even got several compliments on it! Certainly an interesting topic (in my completely unbiased opinion!). This is an object which by all appearances, when it first went off in 2010, was a completely typical classical nova (at least in optical observations). In fact, the reason our group (see blog post "The Astronomer's Day On") started observing it was in the hopes of getting a good "baseline" for radio behavior. While the late time observations fit predictions pretty well, there was an early time 'bump' in the light curve (here this means the brightness of the nova over time, when observed in radio at various frequencies) which one can't explain at all with the simple model. So my talk described our speculation about the nature of the bump, in addition to the late time fitting to models which estimates the total ejecta mass and showing off our observations in general. Our radio group had quite a good showing at this meeting, and in fact I met people who I've been collaborating with but hadn't physically met before. In addition, I got to talk to many new people, from people whose papers I have read, to those working on topics I didn't know much about at all. About 90 people, from 22 countries, were in attendance; the various venues, activities, and schedules were all well organized; and the talks were by and large quite interesting - all in all, a very good conference!

Me, giving my talk (taken by Allen Shafter!)

Travelogue:Getting to Cape Town

So this week, I'm traveling to Cape Town, South Africa, for a conference on Novae (which, as you recall from blog post "The Astronomer's Day On," is my topic of study). The conference is from the 3rd-8th, and I'll be giving a short (15 minute) talk on 7th. After that, there is a two day "after conference" tour (optional, but fun), and then I'll be bouncing about on my own: mainly around Cape Town, but also in the town of Stellenborsch (in the wine country!).  I'll be flying back on the 18th, arriving in NYC on the 19th. Since I'm writing these on the road, these entries will probably be a little shorter, and possibly light on pictures, until I get back (sometimes I forget to take out the camera when I'm enjoying myself, or what I'm doing just isn't particularly scenic), not to mention more clearly written chunk by chunk.

The flight and layover:
I could love Munich for its airport alone. Seriously, great place to have a layover. Germany in general, probably, but this is the first time I've ever been in a German airport - the last time I was in Germany, I came by train, and the only other time was driving across the border of France to grab a meal, just so I could say I've been. There are little areas you can rent that are a quiet space to nap - an actual cot - plus a little desk to work at, if you want such a thing. But if you don't want to pay, there are chairs - both regular and lounge - and plenty of them, each with their own place to plug in your computer. So I can stretch out comfortably while waiting for my flight (as I'm doing as I type these vary words, though they'll be posted later, due to lack of internet connection). I suspect on my next layover I'll find one of these chairs and just NAP, since THAT layover is 4 hours, and early in the morning, rather than this one, which was 12 hours and starting at the beginning of the day I'm supposed to be getting used to. I think I recall I had the choice of  this or leaving super early in the morning, rather than in the late evening and sleeping on the plane, but honestly, I'm not really quite sure why I decided to book this flight in particular, when I was being reimbursed the cost.. But it was enough time to go into town. Which leads me to the German trains - so fast, efficient, and ON TIME. I traveled in Germany with Benson in 2011, for a bit, and they actually make an announcement and apologize for the inconvenience if the train is - LITERALLY - a minute late. And it's a rarity if it is late at all. I'd love to see the NYC metro do that...

Also, Germans do vending machines RIGHT

So I bought an all day train/bus pass at the airport, and went into Munich. Like I said, I've been here before, with Benson, so my first stop was actually the central station, where I knew I could pick up some VERY tasty sausage for cheap (breakfast!), plus then move on to anywhere else in the city easily from there. The second stop was a museum that we missed last time, the Deusch Museum, which was a museum of science and industry - very up my ally. Not the usual science museum, though - it seemed very focused on the instrumentation side of things, so there was a lot of really awesome old equipment from all branches of science. Astrolabes, old slide rules, tubes of all sorts, telecommunications, musical instruments, old cars and jets and helicoptors and rockets, whole ships, seriously, everything. It was a pretty cool museum, and a good chunk of the signs were translated into English, though not all. So that was a good place to spend my time. I also managed to hit not one, but 2 beer gardens. I'd been to both before, Augustiners for a light lunch (a bowl of liver dumpling soup, after the sausage, and a nice tall half liter of Augustiner Hells), and Hirschgartin for dinner (a half of a pork shank, with a potato dumpling and a pretzel, plus a nice tall half liter of a local Weissbeir.) Both were delicious, and refreshing. In fact, I wasn't able to finish my dinner, but got it wrapped up and through security with no problem, so I'll be having a some very tasty pork for breakfast tomorrow, as well! It was very easy to get through the airport, and security very efficient, so there was hardly any wait to get through again. Anyway, an enjoyable layover, for the most part! And now, an overnight flight (again) which will land me in Cape Town, where I've already booked a nice shuttle to take me directly to the hostel. Hopefully I won't be *too* tired, but I don't have anything planned for tomorrow (aside from working more on my talk!) just in case.

Addition:
Just jotting this down, I'm super exhausted and will be taking a nap shortly - but I've officially arrived in Cape Town, now and the hostel I'm staying at is really nice. I'm staying at a hostel for the first 2 nights before moving to the conference hotel (since while I'm getting free housing provided by the conference people, they're not going to pay for students to stay extra there, either). I'm in an all girls dorm room, which is nice, and it's very clean and seems pretty secure. Right near the waterfront area, so it looks like there are some nice places to walk around near by. But for now, after an 11.5 hour flight, I just got in, got a shower, checked e-mail and whatnot, and am going to take a NAP.  I can hold out until this evening or tomorrow to start exploring, and it would be nice to be well rested if I'm going to work on my talk any. Even if it is a lovely 92 degree (!) afternoon....