travel

travel / work — 1 Comment
14
Jul 09

Yesterday I met with my boss about the possibility of working remotely

I made my case, and he said that while he has no doubt that I’d be able to do the work from California, his concern is about my career growth, which is something MB had mentioned, that working off-site might make my job very task-oriented – which to tell the truth, it kind of already is. My boss said he’s going to talk to a few people, and I should have an answer by the end of the week.

We also finally booked our hotel. I had gotten to a point that I was doing so much research that I was paralyzed. MB helped me last night, and ended up picking the one I had originally picked in the first place. But he’d have been happy with whatever I chose. “If I relinquish responsibility,” he said, “I have to be fine with whatever your decision is.”

This is just how a I feel – with freedom of responsibility comes acceptance of whatever the other person decides. But other people don’t feel this way. I’ve been burdened with the responsibility of handling something, then being criticized for my choice afterwards. I’d even go to this individual for feedback during the decision process, only to be met with annoyance.

Anyway, our hotel is in Japantown and is reasonable at $101 a night for a “renovated king” with free wireless. Other nicer hotels were $150 and above, and there were some B&Bs for $80-$120 but I am not sure I’m a B&B person. Also, there was one super cheap place – about $60 a night – that was highly rated on TripAdvisor. Why is it so cheap? Shared bathroom! I had to dig through the reviews to find that tidbit.

I read reviews that the rooms at our choice are small, but what do we care. As long as they’re clean. Plus I can use my Amex points there, which ends up paying for more than half. That means around $200 for four nights, or around $50 a night. Woohoo! My cheap Chinese blood is happy.

After we (hopefully) move, I want to go down to L.A. and see my grandmother. According to my brother and mother, she has really changed in the last few years. When before she was fat and vivacious, with perfectly coifed jet black (dyed) hair, make up, and jewelery, now she’s a bag of bones who doesn’t speak. She’s had a series of strokes over the years, which before just slurred her speech, but now she can’t talk at all. Plus she has let her hair go white. That for some reason makes me saddest of all.

london / travel — Comments Off
28
Jun 09

I’m back!

And I’ve been up since about 5 this morning. Not just up, but WIDE AWAKE. I lasted till about 9 last night before passing out.

My trip back was fine, though of course it felt like I was traveling for hours and hours, which I guess I was. Grabbing a taxi on Tottenham Court Road was pretty easy and cost about 12 pounds to get to Paddington. I know that’s expensive, but I thought it’d be more like 20, and it was worth it to me not to have drag my stuff around the tube.

The express train to Heathrow was 16.50 pounds, but they didn’t even collect my ticket. I guess it’s the honor system? Either way the ride was very nice and fast, and if I ever go to London again, that’s what I’m taking.

I think Heathrow is the worst airport I’ve been to. I mean, there are some in the U.S. that are pretty crummy, but at least they tend to be spread out enough so that you don’t feel like you’re trapped in a writhing sea of people. Everywhere I went was people – there was no escape. Still, I managed to grab a sandwich and stuff from Eat, a book for the plane, and gifts for my parents (biscuits and tea).

My flight was at 2 but the gate wasn’t posted till almost 1. I guess the gate areas are so small that they don’t want people mobbing the area. And once they announced the gate, we didn’t have to wait too long before boarding. The plane took off about 45 minutes late, which in the scheme of things, isn’t too bad.

I had a window seat this time, which in some ways is good, though the poor guy next to me had to get up several times for my small bladder. Realizing I hadn’t watched TV for two weeks, I settled in for some movies: The Young Victoria, which was pretty good; He’s Just Not that Into You, which was better than I expected (I actually cried) though I thought it was incredibly lame – here comes a spoiler – that the Ben Affleck character ended up proposing to Jennifer Aniston even after she realized how meaningless marriage really is, and that a ring on a guy’s finger doesn’t necessarily equal a good partner; and The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was just as bad as thought it’d be. Keanu is perfect however as a robotic alien. I got pretty antsy towards the end of the flight, watching the time tick down: 1 hour, 30 minutes till landing, 1 hour, 15; less than an hour.

Then it was more waiting. Waiting to get off the plane. Waiting to get through immigration, where a random airport worker with a frigging foreign accent asked me if I was sure I was a U.S. citizen – Are you, dude? Let me see your papers. Then the big wait: for my baggage. It took AGES. I don’t know why I was surprised. JFK is always like that.

Then waiting for a cab, and finally waiting through a massive traffic jam. As we inched along, I thought I’d die. I was soooo thirsty and so very tired of waiting and so anxious to get home. The driver was very nice though.

While we were driving, this crazy downpour hit us. It was basically like a tropical storm. Raining raining raining while in the distance we could see blue skies and the sun.

Luckily it stopped by the time I got the apartment, and then there was MB, a sight for sore eyes, coming downstairs to help me with my luggage. :)

~ ~ ~

One thing I forgot to mention in all my London posts is Michael Jackson’s death. Crazy, to say the least. Apparently Thursday night, a few of my classmates came back before 10, one went to check her email, then her door burst open and she was shouting, “Michael Jackson’s dead!” Chaos quickly ensued.

Not feeling well, I had gone to bed early that night, and I remember hearing all this noise and thinking, What the hell is that? Then all annoyed put in my ear plugs. I finally saw the news the next morning.

It’s such a strange feeling to know that he’s dead. It would be like if Madonna or Prince or Cyndi Lauper were dead. I’ll always remember being 9 years old, roller skating at the Y, where they played Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough over and over, so that till this day when I hear that song, I think of a dinky disco ball and blisters on my feet. In the sixth grade we all wanted to be him, or at least dance like him. One kid actually had one of those crazy leather, zippery jackets, and could moondance pretty well (skinny white kid btw). Then the disturbing transformation began, and soon none of us wanted to be him anymore.

It’s really sad how messed up he turned out to be. No grip on reality (ie, best friend = chimp), addiction to plastic surgery and who knows what else, probably a pedophile. But of course not everyone who’s been abused as a kid turns their abuse on other children. Our pity for him is no excuse.

It’s like two Michael Jacksons, the one putting veils on his kids’ heads and the the Beat It-Michael Jackson, the Thriller guy, and even sadder, that little kid singing and dancing his heart out.

library school london / london / travel — Comments Off
26
Jun 09

London, Day 13

My last night in London!

Today’s sessions were somewhat better. I think it helped that I had dressed more comfortably and the weather was cooler. David Nichols spoke again, and while his presentation had elements from the one he gave us at the beginning of the course, he made it specific to academia.

His most interesting point was that while there is all this data about what users are doing, no one is using to data to improve systems. The focus is on Web 2.0 – Twitter, Facebook, blogs – because it’s new and easy, and it’s much harder to change existing systems.

I totally agree. Every presentation had its arbitrary Web 2.0 slide, but it was always, we know it’s out there and we should be using it but we don’t know how. Then later someone mentioned a patient education system, and I thought, That’s what Web 2.0 should be used for.

Academics resist commenting on each other’s papers, at least publicly, so why not use blogs or Twitter to help educate patients and the average joe. Anthony mentioned Patient Inform, in which experts basically translate heavy duty papers for the lay person, but it’s dying because these experts don’t have time to do it, even though they’re getting paid to do so. I’m not sure how to solve that problem, but it seems Web 2.0 would be better used for educating others rather than trying to create a social network where the participants don’t want one.

At the end of the conference, there was a panel to discuss whatever topics people were interested in. I had been wanting to hear more about technology, and so when someone asked, “Does technology really change behavior?” I perked up. He used PowerPoint as an example, that while it helps make you more efficient, it’s still a series of slides.

Someone argued that PowerPoint has ruined writing, and that some people can only now “write in bullets,” when actually the problem is a lot of people don’t know how to write for PowerPoint, and throw up full text on a slide so you can’t get anything out of it.

Rather than technology changing behavior, I think the more provocative question is if behavior shapes technology. Look at e-ink – it’s been developed to be easier on the human eye. Look at the cool tech that British Library uses to let you turn the pages of rare book you’d never be able to touch in real life. Look at the audio tour of the Tate Modern, which is actually an audio and video tour because they employ a smart phone with a touch screen, where you can see other works of art to compare to the one you’re looking at in real life, as well as “touch” different parts of the work to hear more about it. It was really awesome.

That was sorely missing from this conference – designing tech to fit humans, rather than retraining humans to fit tech. Then again, this wasn’t a tech or design conference. The only thing someone was said was that the systems haven’t been designed with the way scholars work kept in mind.

Afterwards, our class and some faculty had a farewell dinner at the Spaghetti House right on Goodge. The food was very good. I had the puttanesca, which I basically inhaled, and cassate, a sort of ice cream cake with layers of Italian ice cream and sorbert.

Near the end of evening, Andy sang us a funny song, and then we all got certificates and wee gifties for having completed the course.

It was all very sweet.

I left pretty early, along with a few others. I always have a hard time saying goodbye. I get embarrassed, but I did manage to give out all my Moo cards.

I’m basically done packing. I’ll be up early tomorrow to throw in some last minute things, and then I’ll leave here at 10. New York here I come!

body / library school london / london / sick / travel — Comments Off
25
Jun 09

London, Day 12

Hey whaddya know, I still have internet. I thought it would be shut down by now. Maybe I have it till midnight.

I’m totally coming down with a cold. At least three of my classmates are either getting over and are in the middle of colds. I asked the one who’s still suffering, “You came down with something?” and he said yeah, it seemed a bunch of people are sick. I thought, Not me! and literally an hour later my throat started hurting.

The sessions today were boring as hell. I thought the e-publishing conference would include more about books and trade publishing, but it seems to be all academic, which in small doses is fine, but for almost eight hours, is way too much.

It didn’t help that the room was too warm and I had dressed too warmly. The temperature shot up to almost 80 today, though it’s cooler now of course. And I was sitting next two people who didn’t think to move down into the empty seats so that we three weren’t sitting right next to each other. As soon as a seat opened on the other end, I got up and moved. The woman kept looking at me, and I was like, Fuck you, you didn’t think to move, I’m not going to sit up right up next to a 6 foot tall man radiating body heat in this 80 degree room.

So the cold is making me grouchy.

Afterwards I stopped at the reception for a short time, and then had dinner with one of my classmates. We invited people, but no one showed up, and sometimes it’s easier with fewer people anyway. We got Szechuan food, which was pretty good. I had a sweet corn and chicken soup, very nice for my throat.

No pictures today.

library school london / london / travel — 1 Comment
25
Jun 09

London, Day 11

A day behind.

Today’s my last day with internet since I’m a cheapskate and refuse to pay for a full extra week when there are only one and a half days left of my trip.

Yesterday was just a regular day of lectures. In the morning we had Camelia Csora from Elsevier and Ruth Jones from Ingram Digital. Both presentations were very good, but Ms. Jones’ had to be the best of the course. She didn’t just pimp her company but talked about e-publishing in general, trends, and her opinions about what was happening now. She was really smart and funny.

The afternoon visit to Nature Publishing bored me. Not sure why. I think because the room was so warm, it was after lunch, and the presentations were sort of general. I find that when marketing people speak, it’s not as dynamic since the marketing people don’t work directly on the projects (at least in my own marketing experience).

But when the people who are directly involved in the projects speak, like the guy at ProQuest talking about the Paley Center database, then it’s interesting because they’re excited and know all the cool stuff about the project.

I’ve also found the Scottish speakers to be much livelier. Though a few of the Brits were good, a few were basically talking comas.

We were near King’s Cross train station so I went in to find the Harry Potter replica. There were some girls there also taking pictures, and one insisted on taking mine:

I think you can see me blushing from here.

From King’s Cross I walked to Russell Square. I had heard there were a lot of shops around there, but there weren’t, at least not that I could find. It was no loss because there was a pretty park with a lovely arbor:

From there I walked to Somerset House, which one of my friends had recommended. I walked on King’s Way, which totally got me lost the last time I walked it, or rather I got myself lost. But this time I knew where I was on the map and made it to my destination.

It was a beautiful day.

It’s only as I’m nearing my stay that I’ve finally figured out my immediate area. In the beginning I’d keep walking all the way down Tottenham Court Road, past my turn off so that I ended up looping around to get to Charlotte Street. Finally yesterday I realized where to get onto Goodge Street, where all the restaurants are.

For dinner I picked up a curry chicken katsu for 4.90 with a side of Japanese pickles for 1.90. In the morning I had an OJ for 1.50, lunch was Pret for 3.94, and then a snack of Pret yogurt and water for 3.49. Grand total: 15.73, still under budget.

I spent the evening doing laundry, Skyping with MB, and playing with my pictures. This morning I ironed my outfits for the rest of my stay. Today and tomorrow we have an e-publishing conference, and I’m wearing business casual, though I’m not sure what the dress code is. We don’t have to be there till about 10.

This morning I also Skyped with MB one last time. He was still up at 3 in the morning. I heard the weather is awful in New York, rainy and chilly one minute, then rainy and hot the next. Bummer, but I’ll be so glad to be home.

All London Day 11 pictures.

library school london / london / rant and/or rave / travel — Comments Off
23
Jun 09

Two things I forgot

From yesterday.

1) Remember that woman I wrote about who’s not a student but very involved with academic journals? Well, she was in fine form yesterday. While we were at ProQuest, she completely took over the question and answer portion of the presentation.

First she asked a long drawn-out question that wasn’t really a question but a comment. The presenters responded, then she counter-responded, back and forth, till it was basically like her own personal meeting the rest of us were forced to listen to. Of course the ProQuest people were too polite to say anything.

Finally Anthony interrupted and said, “Does anyone else have any questions?” and of course someone did.

That woman gets on my nerves. She has this snotty look on her face all the time and walks around like a princess. During lunch when she went to get some fruit, she asked, at large, “What are these?” without looking at anyone but with an attitude like she expected everyone to answer.

2) While we were at the pub yesterday in Cambridge, we were sitting next to these young people, probably students, from the area. There was an Asian woman who was really loud, and at one point she said, “Idaho? That’s not a real place, is it?”

Cambridge – isn’t that in Massachusetts?

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23
Jun 09

London, Day 10

Ten days are more than enough in London. I am so ready to go home.

Today was a good day. We went out to Cambridge and heard presentations from ProQuest and the Royal Society of Chemistry. All were very good. ProQuest talked a lot about their project with the Paley Center, putting the center’s seminars, interviews, and show/movie clips online in a database, all with transcripts and subtitles, and indexed. You can even download clips, edit them, and email them. It’s pretty neat and launched today, in fact. I think it’s only available through universities, and maybe the NYPL.

After the talks, Anthony took us on a tour of Pembroke College Cambridge, his alma mater. It was very pretty.

After the tour, we all went off on our own, basically splitting into two groups. Of course in library school there are a lot of women. Today it hit me that I’m used to hanging out with men, between MB, YP, my brother online, hell even my boss. Of course there are all my other good friends, but I don’t see them as much.

So when I somehow ended up in the group with three men and one other woman in her mid-40s – ie, a grown-up – I felt a huge sense of relief. I think it helped that there were just five of us as well, instead of a giant group with three or four conversations going on at once. It was very relaxing sitting there with our drinks and chatting.

For dinner we went to Queen’s Head. It was a very nice pub. I got the fish and chips since I’ve been wanting to try it all this time.

It was GOOD, especially after having had a drink. I got a nice big piece of cod, and the batter was crispy and thin. The fries were tasty as well. 9.95 pounds. That plus 2.75 for the wine made a total of 12.70 (they gave us lunch at ProQuest).

While hanging out at dinner was fun, I was ready to go back way before most of the others. I’m definitely someone who needs her quiet time. It’s tough to spend a nearly solid two weeks with the same group of people, and to be away from home.

Tomorrow is a lecture in the morning and a visit to the Nature Publishing Company in the afternoon.

All London Day 10 pictures.

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22
Jun 09

London, Days 8 & 9

Now I have to two days to write about.

Day 8

Again I had a leisurely morning, getting up at 8 and fooling around on my computer till I left at 10.

The tube to the Natural History Museum was much calmer than the one to London Bridge. Once I got out, however, I was as always confused about where I was, but managed to figure it out. The next problem: hungry and not wanting to spend a lot, especially after the previous night’s expensive dinner. I was still on a grilled cheese sandwich kick so I got one with a mocha from a café nearby for less than 5 pounds. Not bad.

I meant to go to the Natural History Museum first, but ended up in the Science Museum (which explained why I kept thinking, This is a lot like the Science Museum in Boston). It’s very much for kids, but it was very good. I liked the History of Medicine exhibit, though it starts out chronologically then gets totally mixed up, and the Listening Post, in which bits of real chat room conversation are captured via light and sound. It was pretty neat.

After finally realizing I wasn’t in the Natural History Museum, I headed over there, and was immediately overwhelemed by the zillions of kids. I kind of zipped through it, though I did go out of my way to see the animatronic dinasours, the coup de grace of which was T. Rex:

It was pretty neat despite the mob. One little kid got really scared when he turned the corner and saw what he was in for.

I also wanted to see the Blue Whale, which is touted by my Time Out book. I have to say: an utter disappointment. It’s humungous, of course, but the room is so tiny and jam packed with other mammals. It’s not like the American Museum of Natural History, where you have this enormous room and the blue whale suspended from the ceiling.

Next was the Victoria & Albert Museum. Thankfully there were no kids on the top few floors, only running around the ground floor. I loved looking at the royal collection and all the Victorian-era stuff. It was such a peaceful atmosphere, a huge relief after the madness of the Natural History Museum. My energy waned as I made my way down so that by the time I reached bottom, I’d see yet another wing and think, No more!

There’s a nice courtyard, where I sat for quite some time, eating my Balance bar and chilling.

Afterwards I walked over to Hyde Park, through Mayfair, where I found another nice courtyard to sit in, and over to Picadilly. Used the bathroom again at the Meridian, and was much less conspicuous this time around.

Over the weekend I had suddenly remembered that I regularly read a blog about food in London, duh! Su-Lin’s latest post was on Malaysia Kopi Tiam, which I realized I’ve passed a billion times since I’ve been here. I was excited to try good, reasonably priced food so I made a beeline there after all my sightseeing.

It seemed authentic what with all the Chinese-speaking people hanging around, and, unlike that damned Japanese place from yesterday, there was no minimum. I wasn’t sure what some of dishes were so I went for the menu with the pictures and picked the laksa mee with chicken, basically a mildly spicy coconut curry noodle soup with chicken on the bone and fish cakes.

It was soooo good, and at 7.50 pounds definitely the right price. Since I was well under my 25 pounds for the day, I got a lychee drink too – with real lychees – for two pounds.

My total food spend for the day: 13.49 pounds! A huge improvement from the day before.

Day 9

This was today. Lectures were really boring. This morning’s was supposed to be a discussion but it just meandered and never really focused on one topic. It was really torture, to be quite honest.

This afternoon we went to the Office of Public Sector Information, where the guy talked about government documents. Again: snoresville. I mean, the information was somewhat interesting, but he was such a dry presenter.

I felt so burnt out on sight seeing today that I did absolutely nothing. After lectures I went with one of my classmates back to our dorm, and hung out playing on the internet till we went to dinner.

Finally had Indian food: Diwana on Drummond Street, as recommended by Anthony. It was very good! We shared a chef’s sampling of appetizers for about 4 pounds, got paneer dosas for 7.05, and a mango lassi for 2.

Chef's sampling of appetizers

The coconut chutney was so good; I’ve never had it before. And the dosa was extrememly filling and tasty.

My total food spend: 16.30.

Tomorrow we’re off to Cambridge.

All Day 8 and Day 9 pictures.

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21
Jun 09

London, Day 7

Writing about Day 7 on the 8th day. I was so tired last night, I got into bed before 10 and slept till 8 this morning. Today’s agenda: Victoria and Albert and Natural History Museums.

Got a good amount of shut eye the night before, from about midnight to 8 AM. I wasn’t sure if there was cafeteria breakfast and I didn’t feel like having it, so I just stayed in my room, drank instant coffee, ate part of an Odawalla Bar and played with my pictures, some of which are up on Flickr. I’ll also put links by day in the earlier posts, and perhaps some actual pictures.

I left around 10. Getting to the subway to take me to London Bridge was absolute madness. There were zillions of people coming and going from the airport, on top of just the regular tourists and Londoners. But the actual ride was super short, about 10 minutes.

From the London Bridge station, I wandered over to Borough Market, as recommended by my brother. It was a lot of fun. There was such gorgeous food:

Plus the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had.

It was greasy and crispy and melty with pieces of sweet red onion. Yum!

Next was the Tate Modern, which I loved. There seem to be just two free floors, but those floors go on forever. I’d think I was done, then discover two more ginourmous wings. Of course I got the audio, though I remember little, except:

• I liked the Richard Long and Robert Smithson pictures. Robert Smithson did the Spiral Jetty, which I was obssessed with when it was at the Whitney.

• Meshes in the Afternoon was a totally bizarre surrealist film, but it actually kind of made sense. I could totally see how David Lynch has been inspired by it.

• Francis Bacon died in 1992. I thought he was much older and that he was a contemporary of Max Ernst. They are actually 20 years apart. I really like Francis Bacon’s stuff though a lot of it is disturbing. Maybe because I love horror movies, and see how a lot of them are influenced by his work, like when a face changes to something horrific for a split second.

• Then there was the whole series of works on the manga character Ann Lee from Ghost in the Shell. I’ve never heard of either, but it was still fascinating – the idea of person as a commodity, of having no identity. Of course we couldn’t take picures but I managed to sneak one in:

After the Tate Modern, I needed a break so I headed over to the Cut, which Anthony said was a cool area. It looked like a fun place to hang out, but aside from one bookstore, I just sort of walked around, then turned around and headed right back.

I wanted to walk back over to where Dali Universe was but got completely lost. Somehow I ventured off the Thames Path, and ended up in a quiet (too quiet) residential area. I saw signs for the Tower Bridge and followed those, but the signs led right onto the Tower Bridge and soon I found myself crossing back over. Dammit!

I was probably kinda museumed out anyway and just took my time walking back to my area. I passed the Tower of London, but didn’t feel like going in, and found St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Very pretty and peaceful, at least not at the main entrance. Too bad it was too late to go inside.

Then I just meandered my way back. I was wearing my new Keds, which sort of hurt my toes by the end of the day.

For dinner I tried the Japanese place next to the first Korean place I went to. While the food was pretty good, it was overpriced. And there was a 10 pound minimum, boo! I got tamagoyaki, fried noodles with veggies and meat, and a soda for 16 pounds, almost $30! Way too much. I guess it’s not that easy to find cheap eats around here.

All Day 7 pictures.

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19
Jun 09

Now London, Day 6

It’s only 8:30 but I’m in for the night. It’s rather cloudy and chilly right now so I don’t feel lame.

This morning, after the strange dreams, I got to breakfast a little later and ran into a few people. It was nice to chit chat before the lectures.

The first talk was excellent. Alastair Dunning from JISC talked about digitizing “cultural heritage,” which is complicated by the problems of proper metadata (adding the proper info to, say, thousands of digital photos), data modeling (eg, putting pictures with metadata in Excel – not feasible!), dissemination (eg, trying to play a video from PowerPoint), and accessible files.

He illustrated each with concrete examples – a digital file of his great-grandmother’s postcards, a video link from his presentation that wouldn’t work, etc. It was one of the best talks so far.

The second talk was all right. It was interesting to hear how the university system is set up in Greece, but the whole thing went on too long, especially for a session before lunch.

In the afternoon we went to Thompson Reuters. Some of the info was interesting, but it was essentially a sales pitch. Another proud of myself moment: that division does a lot of work with my company and others like it, so I went up and introduced myself at the end of presentation. Score one for the shy girl!

Afterwards a group of us walked over the Trafalgar Square. One woman wanted to take the train from there, one wanted to walk around that area, and two of us went to the National Gallery, though once we got in, we each went on our own.

I sort of breezed through the museum. I was tired and wanted to get back into time to Skype with MB. (We had an 8 PM Skype date.) I spent about an hour there, then a shorter time at the National Portrait Gallery.

View of Trafalgar Square from the National Gallery

On my way back I stopped for Korean (yes, again!) and ordered the shin ramen, which turned out to be very similar to those spicy instant Korean noodles. That plus dumplings and a soda was 16 pounds, the priciest meal I’ve had so far. I figured what the hell since I spent less than 9 pounds earlier in the day for lunch and snacks.

Skyping with MB was fun, though, like I said, I felt all self-conscious. It almost felt like it wasn’t him, like it was a date with someone very much like him. A virtual date, I suppose.

Tomorrow: the Tate Modern, the Dali Museum, and the South Bank.

All Day 6 pictures.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.