The Vancouver Interviews (1)

Ok. I am here in Vancouver and I am nervous as fuck. But I am excited. But I am nervous. Anyhow, so I have 9 interviews lined up, starting tomorrow. I got in late yesterday, woke up the girl I was sharing the tiny but thoroughly equipped room with, because i have no room keys. the receptionist said she will make me a spare later today. Checked out the shared bathrooms on the floor, not bad, not bad. Was hoping to sleep in a bit, but woke up to weird interview dreams at around 5 and decided there was no point going back to bed. Because I am staying bang in the middle of the city, I decided to scout around for a convenience store at around 6. Stopped by "my convenience store" which had an Indian guy at the counter, seemed a polished fellow. Grabbed some milk, soap (which I didn't realize the hostel provided), kinder surprise (banned in the US for moronic reasons) and then walked back. Indians/ South Asians seem to monopolize the taxi scene here, much more in line with the 70s image of the Indian immigrant in the west. Girl in room was getting ready for that goddamn awful doctoral consortium, which I had a go at last year. Advised her to not be like me and socialize, though I don't know if even that would help. Got talking about this research q shes interested in, but which the profs advised her against, primarily because it would take more time than the 2 years she has remaining (less than a year if we think in proposal defense terms). I actually really liked the q and had been wondering about it from  a very different angle. Told her I will sign up with her on it as an independent project if she ever decided to do that. I'm beginning to realize that while I primarily hate and loathe attending conferences, one thing it does, though sparingly, is get me excited about new ideas.