The Sieve and the Sand: The Life Austin

I've been waiting to post about my trip to Austin, TX until I could upload pictures onto my computer, but I had been missing my computer-camera cord... It's a funny but uninteresting story where it went, but suffice to say it made a long trek from Austin to Oklahoma to Indiana and back to me a month later...

Anyway! I went to the AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting again this year (last year it was in Seattle). This time it was in Austin, which is awesome because it was 70 degrees in Texas in January. Woohoo! I flew in on a Saturday, though the conference didn't start until Sunday. I got to reunite with my buddies from my REU last summer. It was great to see them all again, and I got to see Jenny too, who is now in her first year of grad school at U. Colorado! The meeting kicked off Sunday with a huge opening reception at the Austin convention center. Imagine thousands of astronomers getting together to eat h'ordervs, drink alcohol, and talk about science... sheesh.

Monday-Thursday was spent waking up early to attend astronomy talks, splinter sessions, peruse the free shwag, talk to national institutions and universities about job positions (yeck), and talk to professors, students and others. Social overload! Oh, and I guess the whole reason I went to AAS was so that I could present a poster one day about my summer research :P (which went very well!)

Notable non-astronomy events are limited to great restaurants I ate at. One was Max's Wine Dive (slogan: Fried chicken and champagne... why the hell not?!). I had an outrageously delicious sandwich that had fried eggs, gruyere, lettuce, tomato, and truffle oil all between sourdough bread. No words can describe the magnificence of this sandwich.
Another great place Jenny and I ate at at least 3 times was the Cafe Crepe which had amazing sweet and savory crepes (mmm nutella).
Last, I had a great burger at Stack Burger Bar where I had a veggie burger with a fried egg (what's with Austin and putting fried eggs on all their sandwiches?), a parmesan crisp, tomato and lettuce... Yum! If you ever find yourself in Austin, be sure to try these places! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention the most important aspect of the trip: the hotel. NOAO put all their employees up in the Hilton. Ritzy lobbies, overpriced coffee, and complimentary door-openers were just some of the free benefits included in the several hundred dollar bill. The best part was the pool. It was on the roof of the ~10th floor and looked out to the skyline of Austin. Jenny and I went swimming at night, where the chilly 60 degree weather forced us into the hot tub (too much sarcasm?). Needless to say, we felt extremely empowered, and the situation could have only been improved if we had martinis and a smooth jazz band was playing under the bamboo tent.

Sunset1 from the hotel room window.

Sunset2 from the hotel room.

THE POOL.

After the meeting, I stayed around Friday-Sunday (as I did last year). I explored downtown Austin, attempted to go to the children's museum (which was utterly pitiful compared to Indy's, not to mention meant only for children under the age of 10), visited the Texas Capitol Building, and stopped in a few other landmarks. I stayed with a friend who used to work at IU and now attends UT-Austin for astronomy grad school. I had lots of fun exploring the university campus and area, sleeping in, and meeting some of the grad students there. I also went and saw an Austin Symphony concert with a friend I met during my trip to DC last year!