Wiscon, Day -1
May. 22nd, 2008 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daidoji_giseiI finally arrived at the Concourse Hotel in Madison at 2 or 3 in the morning--I was too travel-tired to care enough to check. My train was running four hours behind schedule yesterday, a result of it having gotten stuck behind a damaged freight train for some distance on its eastward journey. As I had missed all the buses to Madison that Amtrak was affiliated with they refunded me my bus money, gave me cab fare, and shipped me off the the Greyhound bus terminal to catch one of their buses to Madison. Once in Madison I called the hotel, who helpfully called the cab company for me. (It was this point that I was extremely happy that I had 1) bought a cell phone and 2) had programmed the hotel number into its phone book.)
I woke up this morning somewhat after 10 am, and was greeted by a Helen who cheerily asked, "Do you want a cup of tea?" This made today about 1000% better than yesterday. After tea and email brousing we got dressed and hunted for lunch. We wandered around for a bit and settle on some place that had offered food from India, Nepal and Tibet. It was very good--I had the aloo chops and she had something involving skewered, broiled tofu. The we took a long walk by the lakeside, followed by as stop at an ice cream shop offering "genuine Wisconsin dairy goodness". How can anyone pass up something like that? Helen has something that involved a little of everything; while I contented myself with the darkest chocolate ice cream I'd ever had. It was advertised as having been made with special cocoa (from Zanzibar, I think), and the taste really lived up to the hype. Helen and I decided that this is a place we need to go back to.
Then we went hunting for the grocery store that was supposed to be in the area, as I need frosting for the cakes I bought. After some casting about we located it (along with a gaming store!) and bought apples, orange juice, potato chips, and Dr Pepper. The careful reader will have noticed that frosting is not on in that list, something that we did not notice until we got back to the hotel room. I pointed out that we could go back with Yoon, and then discuss which kind of chocolate frosting to get. "No!" Helen replied in mock-horror. "No more choices!"
I'm not sure what is happening the rest of the day. Helen has volunteered for some set-up duties, and will be off to them shortly. I'll probably write, as I have a fiction due soon. At some point dinner will happen, and then Yoon will show up. Hilarity will ensue, as I will almost certainly model the Hanbok of Cultural Appropriation.
I woke up this morning somewhat after 10 am, and was greeted by a Helen who cheerily asked, "Do you want a cup of tea?" This made today about 1000% better than yesterday. After tea and email brousing we got dressed and hunted for lunch. We wandered around for a bit and settle on some place that had offered food from India, Nepal and Tibet. It was very good--I had the aloo chops and she had something involving skewered, broiled tofu. The we took a long walk by the lakeside, followed by as stop at an ice cream shop offering "genuine Wisconsin dairy goodness". How can anyone pass up something like that? Helen has something that involved a little of everything; while I contented myself with the darkest chocolate ice cream I'd ever had. It was advertised as having been made with special cocoa (from Zanzibar, I think), and the taste really lived up to the hype. Helen and I decided that this is a place we need to go back to.
Then we went hunting for the grocery store that was supposed to be in the area, as I need frosting for the cakes I bought. After some casting about we located it (along with a gaming store!) and bought apples, orange juice, potato chips, and Dr Pepper. The careful reader will have noticed that frosting is not on in that list, something that we did not notice until we got back to the hotel room. I pointed out that we could go back with Yoon, and then discuss which kind of chocolate frosting to get. "No!" Helen replied in mock-horror. "No more choices!"
I'm not sure what is happening the rest of the day. Helen has volunteered for some set-up duties, and will be off to them shortly. I'll probably write, as I have a fiction due soon. At some point dinner will happen, and then Yoon will show up. Hilarity will ensue, as I will almost certainly model the Hanbok of Cultural Appropriation.
