Yesterday afternoon was very pleasant; had a nice stroll through the underground complex with a friend and then attended an interdisciplinary session at the conference where my collaborator was presenting. On the underground stroll part, my friend and I wanted to see how far we could get without going outside, and although the map indicated that we could get quite far, we were stopped at an early stage of our journey by a rather surly security guard who informed us that one of the buildings we needed to pass through was closed for a "private conference." So that was that. Incidentally, that's the space where one of my future Montreal conferences will be held, so I should hope that when the time comes I will be able to be invited to whatever exclusive activities are held there.
Despite the general failure of our walking plan, we did pass though quite a few sketchy underground hallways and some eerily empty underground spaces, as well as this forest of fluorescent pink plastic trees:
The signage about them was only in French, not in English (jerks) and my vocabulary wasn't good enough to figure it out, so their meaning will have to remain shrouded in mystery for now.
When we got back to our hotel, we picked up some juice smoothies to supplement our low vitamin levels and went our separate ways to the afternoon sessions. Then everyone met back up at the evening reception at the hotel bar, which turned out to be something of an anthropological experiment investigating what happens when you cram several hundred philosophers into an enclosed space with a cash bar. Also, $8 for a beer? Come on! At least there were butlered hors d'oeuvres, but only two of the many selections were vegetarian.
To make up for that, we had dinner at an exclusively vegetarian Thai restaurant: ChuChai, on Rue Saint-Denis. We took a cab over rather than walking, since we were quite hungry by this point, but when we got there I could see that this neighborhood was much more my speed. The street was lined with restaurants and boutiques, and there were lots of people milling around and spilling out of bars and enjoying the atmosphere. The restaurant was great, too, although the dishes were a bit small. We ended up ordering seven things for five people, which is the opposite of how it usually goes, but it gave us a chance to try a variety of different curries and noodle dishes. I'll definitely keep this place in mind for future trips.
After dinner, we walked over to Taverne Le Cheval Blanc to meet a bunch of other friends. It was a good place and the beer was great, but it was just too damned loud to have any sort of normal conversation. I made an effort for a while, but couldn't manage the noise much past midnight, at which point we walked back to the hotel. I have no idea why bars insist on playing the music so loudly that everyone has to shout in order to be heard, including when placing orders. And then, because everyone is shouting to be heard over the music, everyone has to shout louder to be heard over the shouting. I don't mind a bit of background music for atmosphere, but this sort of thing is just ridiculous. I guess I must be getting old. When we got back to the hotel, Michael and I and one of his classmates from graduate school had some wine in her room before turning in around 2 am.
Given that, I thought that it would be nearly impossible to get up a good hour this morning, and although I can't claim to have popped up like toast, I'm not really feeling any particular ill effects (aside from a lingering scratchy throat from all the shouting at the bar). Also, it's finally sunny! It's a beautiful, cold, crisp early winter day here, and it's ever so much easier to wake up when the sun is shining.
Michael is down at the conference at the moment, but when he gets back we're going to split and see the biodome and walk around the botanical gardens. Good thing we put it off for today, since the sunshine will make it much nicer. After that, he'll be going to the presidential address and I have plans to meet a friend from grad school for afternoon tea at a fancy downtown hotel --- très chic!
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