Mathapalooza!

So today was way too long and didn't involve a lot of math. However, it did involve me wanting to laugh at mathematicians at inappropriate times.

The day got kicked off when we had to wake up and call the Bulgarian Embassy. Guess what? Our visas haven't been approved yet. Even better, they told me to just keep calling back and they'd let us know later when we could get them. Well, we have plane tickets, but we still don't know when we get to use them. This is quite frustrating.

So...we caught a ride with other mathematicians staying at our hotel--awesome. Nathan went to another game tent and played math games. I made friends with a guy from Brooklyn who moved to San Diego a few decades ago.

Then...Nathan and I went and explored the Gaslamp District which is the historic downtown of San Diego.
We had lunch at Royal Thai and ate amazing spicy Thai basil with tofu and vegetarian spring rolls. Then we wanted a sundae from Ghiradelli, but they had a bad health grade so we went to FruBerry. Looking back on it, we should have known that no man would want to eat something that starts with the prefix "Fru." Oh well. I thought it was delicious.

They sold fat-free frozen yogurt that, oddly enough, still tasted like yogurt. You know--yogurt tanginess? They also only had three flavors--green apple, cheesecake and green tea. Nathan had cheesecake with granola and then he added his own trail mix. I had green tea with yogurt chips. I thought it was delicious--Nathan thought it was interesting.

Anyway, then we wandered back to the Convention Center. Nathan's friends, Carolyn and Debbie, had won the puzzle he tried to win yesterday, so the three of them spent a while trying to solve the puzzle again and they finally succeeded!

Then, Nathan had a ton of time to kill before going to a banquet, so Nathan and I walked around San Diego Bay. However, first a side note about banquets--super sweet Nathan wanted to make sure I had lots of fun at the math conference so a few months ago he bought banquet tickets for us so we could have some special dinners. Well, Nathan had no idea the banquets were themed so we ended up with tickets to Mathematicians for Educational Reform and tonight we're supposed to attend the Black Mathematicians banquet (but then Nathan found out he has to be at a different dinner).

Anyway, I wanted to laugh-- a lot--at the fact that we know nothing about educational reform. Oh, and everyone assumed Nathan already had a PhD--so that was fun. I also got to introduce myself to banqueteers as Mrs. Brothers. Oh! Oh! And our food was so transitional! It was tiny and served on mini-plates and one really big plate and all of the plates were square so they fit together like puzzle pieces. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.

Oh well. Back to the harbor. Here's some Dole fruit coming at ya!
And then we made friends with a pelican. I've never been so close to a pelican. It was awesome.
So...everyone else have a great East Coast day...and hopefully (if I convince Nathan) tonight I'll be able to report on pineapple wontons!