In the boondocks?

My hotel is nice, but it's located in a place with tons and tons of graffiti, which makes me wonder a bit about the area I'm in. Right now I am in my hotel lobby waiting for my roommate to arrive. I had a bit of an arduous, sweaty walk from the train station. (It had to be a bit circuitous because the sidewalks on some streets were completely blocked and I didn't want to get run over. The estimated walking distance was from the opposite corner of the train station where my train landed, and it went up quite a bit further with the twists and turns.) The concierge asked to see my passport to copy down some information, and he seemed a little offended when I said I'd wait to get it back instead of going to my room and then coming back for it in 10 minutes. (My attitude: I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be offended because that would just be a stupid risk for me to take.)

I saw a bit of scenery during my treck (including a few cafes and, especially important, gelato places). When my roommate (who I know from Caltech postdoc days) arrives, we'll do some touristy stuff and also explore a bit. Now that I've taken a shower, I'm in more of a mood to do it. I'm exhausted because my 6am flight required me to get a 2am coach from Oxford--Why do I do this to myself?--but I slept on the flight due to my exhaustion and (with the kind help of some coffee) I should be able to manage. The conference starts tomorrow, so today is going to be the main touristy day. In the meantime, I'm happy to chill out and read some box scores.

At the airport, I was able to get through security quickly. There were tons of people in the EU line and tons of people in the non-EU line, which actually meant people with European passports from my places not in the EU. (So the Brits got screwed.) I went to the line for non-European passports, which only had 3 of us in it. We were all allowed right through. In fact, the country in which it consistently takes me the longest to get in is the US. (Thanks for welcoming me home, guys!)