All the fun of the oral surgeon...

At my last dentist cleaning in August the dentists finally convinced me to have my wisdom teeth taken out. They had started to poke through a couple of years ago and were partially erupted on one side and still under the gum on the other side. They hadn't been giving me any problems but they convinced me that they would start getting infected and the sooner they came out the better. The American attitude to wisdom teeth is very different to the British attitude. America... take them out asap even if they haven't come through or hurt you. British... take them out only if they are causing you pain. I never would have had them out if I was at home!!

So yesterday was the big day. I opted for IV sedation (unlike my badass officemate who did it with just local anesthetic!) as I'm a huge wimp. Matt had the afternoon off work to be my nurse. They were running a little late at the dentist so I had to wait about 20-25 minutes past my appointment time which made my nerves even worse. But fortunately, the procedure itself wasn't that bad. I did pass out just after they put the IV in, but I blame that on taking longer to search for a vein in my elbow joint before going with my hand, yuck!! After I woke up from the pass out I heard them saying to wait till my pulse got higher and then I woke up and it was done!

I think it only took about 30 minutes but I needed to rest at the dentist for a while before Matt could take me home (almost an hour I think). I really didn't like having the gauze in my mouth so it was good to get home and take that out. I feel better today than yesterday but the left side of my mouth is still really sore and swollen and I'm struggling to eat much. On the water and milk diet so far!

Anyway, just thought I'd let the blog world know that if I can get through this then anyone can. I just hope it doesn't take too long to heal. I'm def not ready to show my face in the real world yet and this is why.....!!!

Yuck!!! Chipmunk Ellie is in hiding!

Adventures in China I

Ni Hao! So for those that hadn't heard or seen on Facebook, I spent last week in China. I got to attend the International Workshop on Interdecadal Variability of the Global Monsoons in Nanjing. Nanjing is a former capital of China that is located about 190 miles northwest of Shanghai (don't worry, I had to look up where it was when I found out I was going)!

I got lucky on the long flight from Newark to Shanghai (~14 hours) as there was no one sitting next to me. This meant I had that little bit of extra room to curl up in a ball and get a few hours of rest which made all the difference when I arrived. I did manage to wake up in time for the midnight snack of ice cream on the plane though :-)

On arrival there was someone waiting for me at the airport. I had thought they were going to put me on the subway across Shanghai to the train station but as someone else was arriving ~1 hour after me they had a car and driver to take us across the city. This meant that my first hour in China was spent sitting in a Honda in an underground car park with a driver that didn't speak English. Quite bizarre! Anyway, we drove about an hour across Shanghai, which was completely terrifying with all the bobbing and weaving and huge trucks and horn honking. But we made it in one piece. The person who picked us up then took our money and bought train tickets to Nanjing for us and showed us where to get on the train.

The train to Nanjing was really nice. Clean, fast (although we were on a train that stopped a lot it only took 2 hours) and comfortable. I think I dozed off a little and by the time we arrived it was dark. A couple of students were waiting for us at the train station to put us in a taxi. The train station had a great view of downtown while we waited.

Nanjing downtown by night

It was raining when we arrived, so the "queue" for the taxi was enormous. I used quotations as it wasn't so much a queue as an area full of people pushing and shoving to get to the opening where you get in taxis. We were squashed in there for almost an hour but eventually got in a taxi and to the hotel.

I was staying in a very westernised hotel called the "Nanjing Suning Venice Hotel" and it was very nice. The rooms were big and very nice, although the one bizarre thing was the window between the main living/sleeping room and the bathroom. Why is there a giant window into the bathroom?! I eventually found the electric blind that covered the window but it was quite strange at first. At least there was a western toilet. I never want to use a squat toilet again!

My hotel room. Bathroom window and all.

The hotel was part of a large area called Venice City that had hundreds of apartments. Everybody in China seems to live in high rise flats/apartments and they were building new ones everywhere. I don't think I'm able to convey the scale that these cities are expanding.

View from my hotel room. This was the weather practically the whole time. Cloud and pollution and haze.

View from my hotel room in the other direction. It's just like Venice!

The workshop itself was excellent but I won't go into any detail about work things as most of you wouldn't find it very interesting. I have included a picture of the very nice conference hall we spent our time in. It made a change to be at a conference that had comfortable chairs!

Inside the conference

I'll write some other posts letting you all know what else in Nanjing I saw later. Xie Xie!

New York City Birthday Weekend

My birthday (the last one beginning with 2..eek) was on a Monday this year so we headed down to NYC for the weekend. We took the train on Saturday morning which was quick and easy and nice and comfortable. The day started by dropping our bag at the hotel and heading out for a walk around Murray Hill and a lunch stop at a delicious burger place.

My real birthday present was a trip to Broadway to watch Mary Poppins (my favourite film ever)! The theatre was beautiful and the show was excellent. Very cleverly done - elements of the movie but not an exact copy.

Inside the New Amsterdam Theatre

After the show (it was a matinee) we wondered southwards to China town and little Italy for a walk and to see all the different neighborhoods. Anyone a fan of food network?

Are you a sweet genius??

Dinner was in the East Village at a tiny little Mexican/Latin food place. The food was okay, I was expecting better, and we were squashed in so close to the other tables it was hard to have a conversation as you could hear every word everyone around you was saying. Dinner was followed by a walk around the village and a beer at a cool (and cheap) bar!

Oddities anyone?

We stopped by Times Square on the way back from the Subway to the hotel - I guess it had to be done. Perhaps it's more surprising that I'm wearing wedges and a dress!

Yep, we did some touristy things!

On Sunday we started the day with a walk to the West side of Manhattan, stopping for a bagel for me and a breakfast hot dog outside the Empire State building for Matt!

Morning hot dog!

 We spent most of the morning and early afternoon walking along the High Line Park - an old raised train track that has been converted into a park. It was a nice morning so there was quite a lot of people but it was a great place to get a good view of a few different neighborhoods and various city sights. I really enjoyed it.

Taking it easy at High Line

Cool building art

View from the High Line Park (which you can see on the left)

The park ends around Chelsea so we took a walk through Chelsea market, enjoying all the little food shops and getting some truffle salt. Lunch was at a small Italian restaurant where we shared a delicious pizza outside and watched the world go by.

Chelsea Market

After negotiating all the weekend closures with the subway, we finally made it up to Central Park for the afternoon. We walked all around the southern part and generally enjoyed the great weather. Dinner was in Korean town where we had what was probably my favourite meal of the whole weekend. Matt had grilled eel (which was really good) and I had seafood bibimbab which was equally good. Not to mention all the great side dishes. Really delicious and highly recommended. We got back to Albany pretty late but it was a great weekend and we will be back soon I am sure!

Me and Matt in Central Park

I'm catching up the blog as fast as I can... only a few weeks behind the times now!!

Camping in the Adirondacks

A few weekends after camping in the Catskills we camped in the Adirondacks by Indian Lake. We managed to get a really cool campsite right on the edge of the lake with a great view.

Not a bad camping spot!

 We spent the day swimming in the Lake out to one of the little islands and hiking around the campsite. The weather was great (apart from one little thunderstorm) and it was pretty quiet even though the campsite was busy.

Matt taking a swim

These stone towers were everywhere. We made our own on on one of the islands

On the Sunday we drove along Indian Lake up to Blue Mountain and hiked up to the top. It was cloudy but dry when we started and the higher we got the closer the rain got. It was pretty steep near the top but it was a really nice hike through the woods. Just as we got to the clearing at the top of the mountain the rain really started. Not just a bit of drizzle, but completely soaked in 30 seconds type of rain! It meant we didn't have a view from the top (which was supposed to be amazing) but maybe we'll do it again sometime. The rain also made hiking back down the steep rocks a little more interesting, but I managed to stay on my feet somehow. By the time we got back to the car it had stopped raining (of course). We stopped at a cool little restaurant on the way home (where it rained again) and all in all, in was a good weekend. Really do enjoy the Adirondacks!

View at the top of Blue Mountain in the rain!

Camping in the Catskills

The Catskills are a little south of Albany and after I got back from France we spent the weekend around Kaaterskill Falls in the northern part of the Catskills. Matt had been there a few weeks before with his family and wanted to go back to camp so we did.

Words of caution: If you want to camp in Catskill park at one of the state campgrounds during summer then reserve a site in advance! The campground was huge and they didn't even have room for us with our little tent. We ended up at a private campground just outside the park, which was fine and we had a lot more space and privacy!

Anyway, we walked up the trail to the Falls kind of early so we didn't see too many people and there weren't many people at the Falls themselves (just a group of people getting a guided tour) and the water levels were low. This meant we were able to hang out at the bottom of the lower falls, take lots of pictures and get right into the water.

Me at the Falls

Matt at the Falls

We also got to scramble up a non trail to get to the upper basin/bottom of the upper Falls. It was a giant horseshoe basin (with hardly any water due to the lack of rain). Some people were at the top and had a rope set up for abseiling (or repelling in American) but we never got to see any of them actually do it. I wanted to go up and do it!! You can see the scale a little in this picture as Matt went adventuring in the basin.

The upper basin (with Matt in red)

After a late-ish lunch at a little pub in town and trying to find a campsite we chilled out in the campsite pool and played games (bananagrams, trivial pursuit, cards) by our tent. After building the best fire ever, we had a delicious dinner of swordfish, red beans and rice cooked on the campfire. It was so good! The next day we went for another little hike and looked out over the Hudson Valley. A nice relaxing weekend in the Catskills.

Us at the bottom of the Falls

Toulouse

The first week of July I went to the AMMA conference in Toulouse, France. The flight wasn't too bad in either direction, but I was annoyed they couldn't find a different flight for me on the way there.  They needed 10+ people to volunteer to get off and they were giving out $1000 but despite searching they couldn't find a different flight. Oh well, maybe next time.

The conference was very useful for me and I think my talk went well. I'm not going to talk about that much though, just show you lots of pictures of Toulouse! The conference was held at Meteo France, and I managed to sneak a pic of the main lecture theatre where I gave my talk and co-chaired a couple of sessions. And yes, the podium does have a giant satellite image on it!

Where I gave my talk at Meteo France

The conference ended with a banquet (as so many do), but let me tell you, this was no ordinary conference banquet. It was in this beautiful old building by the river and had the best food and wine ever. What other conferences serve foie gras and veal (of course I didn't have that but my salmon was great). There were about 6 course, including cheese and the most delicious macaroon ever. Yum!

Just to prove I was really there - me and my vegetarian sign!

I managed to find a little bit of free time a couple of afternoons to explore the city. I can't quite remember the names of all of the places I visited (although I could try harder to look them up if I really wanted to). Anyway, Toulouse is a beautiful city (known as the red city) and we had great weather for most of the week - warm and sunny makes for great pictures. Here are a selection.

Random street in Toulouse

Bridge over the river in Toulouse. I love the reflection!

The Capitole by day

The Capitole by night

Church downtown

Scrap metal dragon in a pond at a park

Inside of one of the several churches I visited. I think this was on the Rue du Taur (hence the bulls in the painting)

Sadly, I was a few week early for the Tour de France visiting the outskirts of Toulouse but on my last night they had a 3km and 10km run through downtown. If only I had my running stuff I would have joined in! I watched the start and finish of the 3 km and pretended I was at the Tour anyway!

Not the Tour de France

For those that find themselves in the Midi-Pyrenees I recommend Toulouse! I even remembered some of my high school French :-)

Lake Placid

So way back in June me and my parents went up to the high peaks region of the Adirondack's and stayed in Lake Placid. The trip was slightly delayed (and I was still feeling a little under the weather) due to a stomach virus making its nasty way around our apartment but we made it up there eventually!

Lake Placid is about a 3 hour drive north of Albany, and it's a very pretty drive too. We spent the first afternoon walking around the downtown area and Mirror Lake (we barely saw Lake Placid itself as it's hidden behind various hotels and houses).

Mirror Lake

The Lake Placid ironman triathlon was a few weeks after we were there so there were a lot of people out on bikes, running and swimming. Certainly not a bad place for outdoor activities. After an early dinner and a compulsory game of mini golf at Pirates Cove (which I won with multiple holes in one despite the tummy aches) it was back to the hotel. We didn't have a view of either lake from our hotel room, but the room itself was huge - at least twice the size of "typical" hotel rooms!

We headed out to the Olympic ski jumps bright and early the next morning so there was only a couple of others visiting when we were there. After seeing the jumps, I honestly have no idea how people can do it!

Olympic ski jumps at Lake Placid

We went up the ski lift to the base of the jumps (which you can see in the picture on the right hand side) and then in a elevator to the top of the 120 m jump. I am not a big fan of heights when it comes to tall buildings but I even managed to go out onto the adjustable platform the the jumpers start from. The view from the top was great though and when the next winter Olympics comes around I will have a whole new level of respect for those ski jumpers (I don't think the pictures quite do it justice though)!

My parents on the jumping platform. It was scary.

Not a bad view but I will never be a ski jumper!

After going up the jumps we headed back down and watched some of the athletes at the Olympic training centre doing practice freestyle jumps into the swimming pool. It was fun watching them and it looked like fun doing it. Although swimming to the edge of the pool while wearing skis and carrying poles was maybe a little less fun. Anyway, I took a couple of videos and some action shots.

This looks like more fun

We then headed out towards Essex, NY and took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont. We drove through Vermont to Waterbury and took a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory. If only my stomach had been feeling better I would have enjoyed my free sample a little more (of course I still managed it all though). The tour was good for an ice cream loving family!! After Ben and Jerry's we stopped by somewhere to taste lots of cheese (my stomach enjoyed the cheese) and buy some real Vermont maple syrup for me, my parents and as a gift for my brother (I hope the maple syrup thieves are caught)!

A night in Rutland, VT and a trip to the outlets in Manchester, VT (no sales tax and a few super cheap bargains) on the way home completed the tour. I don't have any pictures of Vermont sadly as the camera battery died and I didn't realise I had the charger until it was too late.

Hopefully we can go camp in Vermont and the high peaks sometime!