Beautiful BC

It's been a while since my last post and I thought I'd get another one in before December starts. A number of very exciting things have happened in the last 6 week or so. I've presented at my first major conference (the topic of this particular post). I've contacted some scarily brainy people about potential PhD projects (hopefully the topic of the next post). And I've booked a one way ticket back to Blighty at Xmas. Big things people. Big things.

So the conference I went to was the Geological Society of America's Annual Meeting, which this year was in Vancouver. I was super excited to see another of Canada's cities, especially one I'd heard so much about. I was also really excited to go to my first big conference. As well as presenting a poster about my own work, I was fortunate enough to be awarded the History and Philosophy of Geology 2nd place Student Award, and so was allowed to give a presentation on "The Origin of Granite".

When we arrived at the convention centre, boy was I blown away. Walking through the doors we were greeted by a giant globe hanging from the ceiling. We navigated our way through the huge building to where the Student Breakfast was being held (free food!) and the view across the water was stunning. It was grey, and it was still beautiful. I've eaten breakfast in worse places.

The huge glass windows that stretch right across the shoreside of the building became my little haven when I had a break between sessions.

I spent every opportunity I could playing tourist and taking photos. 
This was one of the many boat plane tours that I saw leave from the harbour.

Standard lego-esque Orca statue.

Lots of skyscrapers.

Olympic torch from Vancouver 2010.

There were so many sessions that I wanted to attend that there were inevitable scheduling conflicts. There was just too much good science to learn about! The abstract program was a huge booklet that never left my grasp, and if people noticed me wandering around they would see my frantically flicking through its pages trying to figure out where I should go next.

As for my presentations, I think they went well. My history talk was first and despite not making a couple of points that I wanted to, I was really happy with how it went. Everybody laughed at N.L. Bowen's quote about how the transformists can't handle their liquor, and I got some really engaging questions at the end. Not bad for a geologist masquerading as a historian. My poster also went down a treat, everybody being excited about the use of the snazzy "Split Stream" technique. I even had someone who was at my history talk come and find me at my poster, as he was a colleague of the late Bruce Chappell, who featured prominently in my talk. A lovely, lovely moment.

There was also time to catch up with fellow St Andreans as there was an alumni event being held, a talk about The History of Geology at St Andrews! I was the youngest graduate that attended, and overcome with how fabulous Peter made the department sound I piped up at the end of the Q&A session to let everyone know just how proud I was/am to have studied geology at St Andrews. I almost brought a tear to my own eye.

After the conference had finished we had two days to properly play tourist, and myself and Will jumped at the opportunity. There was so much we wanted to do so we had to pick our battles. The rain was coming down hard on the first morning so after grabbing another free breakfast we headed over to Science World! I had read some reviews that had claimed it is only fun when you go with children. Well those adults clearly don't know how to have fun, because the place is fantastic. We had a blast! It's one of the interactive science museums I've ever been to. Between learning about biometrics and seeing how high we could jump (Will is very springy) to playing with polarisers in the Light exhibition, to being constantly frustrated at the Puzzle section, I honestly don't know how you wouldn't have fun.

Looking out over False Creek, with Science World looking
glorious to the right of centre.

Why aren't all walkways adorned with trilobites?

Next port of call was Granville Island Market. Literally though. We took the boat there. I had forgotten the true wonder of really fresh produce and the variety of things to eat there were a little overwhelming. I settled on some perogies and a Scotch Pie (I had to test if it was authentic, it was!). And as the trip had largely turned into a beer tour by this point, we stopped into the Granville Island Brewery. It would've been rude not to.

The sunset was too tempting so we played Hive while I set up a timelapse.

Day 2 started off with Waffles for breakfast at the reputable Nero Belgian Waffle Bar. Good job we were doing a lot of walking because boy those things were big. Stanley Park had been staring at us from across the water all week and we finally had chance to visit. I'm so glad that I got to see it in all its glorious fall colours, although I bet it's gorgeous all year round. I'll let my photos do the talking on this excursion though.

I took this photo about 100 times.

Will sees water. Will skims stones.

Mr Heron was hunting but in the 10 minutes I was watching him
for he didn't move from this position...

I took a multitude of panoramas.

The totem poles were pretty darn cool.

We put the B into BC remember?

Wait, where am I?!

The one attraction that was consistently reputed a "must see" was the Vancouver Aquarium. And yes, yes it is a must see. Going on a Friday during half term break meant the place was littered with small humans running around frantically, but our patience lasted longer than there's at any given tank so it wasn't too bad if you waited it out. There were caiman,a gazillion jellyfishes, the arse of a sloth (that's all we saw of it) and all the other things you would expect to find at an aquarium. And then we went outside. and the cuteness meter went off the charts.

There were penguins who thought they were going to get fed and then didn't.

And sea otters (who were being fed).

Multiple sea otters, thus multiplying the cute.

And a cool white sided dolphin that I attempted to snap jumping in all it's glory.

I came back from the trip having fallen in love with Vancouver. I'd been told that I would love it, but people say that about a lot of places. They were right about Vancouver though. I'd eaten so much good food, and drank some truly excellent beers, found the best pub in the world (where I won drinks for tweeting during a bingo game), seen some amazing scenery, and I'd kicked ass at a huge conference and totally geeked out about studying my science. That's pretty much what I'm about in life. If I'd been to a Canucks game or any other live sporting event during that week, I don't think I would've ever gotten on the plane to come back. Thanks Vancouver. You're awesome.