SEM Day 2: Give it up for the Beach

After an early morning session that was just un-missable (i.e., the papers were too promising for me to sleep in), I grabbed a bit of a late breakfast and caught a few other fragmentary paper panels. After a while, me and a bud from the University of Toronto (hi Kate!) headed off in search of cheap sushi, and ran into the folks from the morning panel (many of whom had a U of Chicago connection) and we all ended up at an awesome local Hawaiian place. For around $10 each, we each had a towering mess of lotus leaves, slow-cooked pork, poi ("special" day-old flavor!), various pickled things, and some fish. Tasty!

UPDATE: see pics here.

I skipped the afternoon plenary sessions (precisely because they never scheduled a break in the schedule), bought myself a pair of hideous board shorts, a beach towel, and a reed mat, and hit the beach. I sprayed on a bit of tanning oil (SPF 4; hooray for my brownish ancestry!), inflicted my hairy body on the general public, and got my tan on. After a few good minutes of roasting on both sides, I hit the water. The shallows were warm and clear and there were little fishies swimming by, which could've entertained me for ages. Indeed, I once got a fantastic sunburn in Grenada by spending the entire day floating face-down, snorkeling over a reef full of fish. Some of the fish were actually pretty big and in really large schools and it was a lot of fun to find yourself surrounded by them. Also, there was this pair of tiny neon-blue fishes that looked like miniature swordfishes and swam really close to the surface. If it was possible, I would've picked them up and hugged them, they were so cute.

And then back to the conference. That little bit of sun had me in a much better mood, and I headed off to catch the last few papers of the day and then head off to the Popular Music Section meeting (a subgroup of the SEM). That meeting ran a bit long procedurally (i.e., Roberts Rules + slightly OCD academics = slow progress), but it's always fun to see the popmusic folks.

That evening, we hit the Harvard reception party, ate a lot of their fantastic baked brie and drank their free booze, schmoozed, and then headed off with a few of my folks to that sushi place in our hotel, Sansei, for 50% sushi after 10pm. There were about 9 of us in the end, and we ordered about $200 worth of sushi (that's after the discount). It was fantastic (especially the maguro!) and we all went away a bit over-stuffed and satisfied.

Afterwards, it was back to our room for more beers and cocktails on our balcony. Yay Hawaii!