Albuquerque!

2nd day in Albuqurque, after a full day of lectures on radioastronomy, correlators, polarization, etc... Going for dinner soon, which is a very good thing, since I am very hungry.

I had only 2 days inbetween coming home from Calgary-conferences, before leaving ultra early again on the monday (thanks for the ride, Angelo!!!). Had time for practicing landings, reviving plants and doing laundry, and that was about it. I was actually not even in the mood to leave. But after a long nap in minneapolis, and while heading south, I looked out of the airplane window and studied the desert-y landscape, and realized how amazing my life is. New place, new sites, new people... and no camera to document it with! (due to a certain lack of smartness last week, when wanting to change the format of my photos, but that's another story).

I just love it when you walk out of the airplane, and get a quick sense of the outside temperature and smell just when entering the tube-walkway (does it have a name?). 35 degrees of desert heat - now we're talking! I wasn't picked up at the airport as was previously announced, so instead I grabbed the luggage and took a bus to the campus of university of new mexico. It brought with it the excitement of travelling.

Some impressions:
- Sizes (people, pop, amounts of sugar in everything you might want to eat etc. I always forget, and it's always somewhat baffling...)
- Auto-mode on everything (ARGH! Why, oh why?? esp airport "restrooms". Stupid sensor stupid notices every movement, and FLUSHES when you least expect.. (well, you get the picture). One of my most major pet peeves. Then you try to magically wiggle some soap out of "automatic" soap dispenser, and almost taking off, waving your arms in front of the stupid tap. I don't get it. There are no automatic toilet doors anyhow, so why the stupid flush?).
- ID's. Apparently you can't be served at a bar unless you have american ID. French didn't work, nor swedish driving licences (there's another swede here too, a friend from Onsala!), OR, believe it or not, swedish passport. !?! Not that I care, in my case, of course, but that was the alltimehigh of stupidity... You can enter the US with the passport, but not use it as ID. (well, to be honest, some places do accept it. But only the passports, nothing else.)
- Customs! On the other hand, believe it or not, the US customs were totally nice and civilised towards me this time! First time, I think. Perhaps because I was being rather grumpy, rolling my eyes when they scolded me for not having taken off my belt while going through the metal detector? Anyways, it was really refreshing for a change.
- Temperature! YEEHAA! It's 35 degrees! Or was, right when I wrote that and finished it halfsentence, and now, at 22:35, it's 32. I haven't had this kind of heat since Italy 2003, and I LOVE it.
- Bugs. Apparently I was quite lucky with the room - it's the "coldest" one, it's one of the few with functioning internet connection, and it's not supplied with big 2/3 cockroach sized bugs who crawl along the wall in bugwarpspeed, as in one of the other rooms with sauna temp.
- camera: I bought a new camera today (hooray for low dollar value and tax). Photos from my precious will be online soon. On friday and saturday we go to Soccorro, and VLA, so I assume there will be some nice ones.

And, talks. Some people are magical, and can make you listen for 80 minutes continuously to a talk about polarization, while having fun and learning, while for others, all your energy is taken up by following the talk, and none is left for actually understanding, even thought the topic is simpler.

But, most of all, again, the warmth. Common sight during break outside the lecture building (or: how to pinpoint the scandinavians in the crowd): everyone is sitting/standing in the shade of the huge pine trees (the campus area is amazing!), except for the two swedes, standing facing the sun, leaning backwards a bit to increase the solar exposed area as much as possible, with goofy smiles on their faces, trying to save as much as possible for darker times to come.