Japan/USA diary, day 7

Sunday, 7 June, 2015. 17:26

I am sitting at Boston airport again, waiting for M.’s flight from Dallas to arrive.

I slept through from 22:00 last night until 05:00 this morning, but was awake from then. Still, not too bad for the first night’s sleep after a 13 hour time shift.

I had some dry Weetabix which I’d bought last night from Trader Joe’s near the Mexican place. I didn’t get any milk or yoghurt for it since the room doesn’t have a fridge to keep it cold. I dressed and caught the train to the Hynes Convention Centre, where the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference is being held. It turns out they had breakfast supplied there! They had bagels, babkas, and fruit. After waiting in a queue for about 10 minutes to collect my registration package I grabbed a bagel and some fruit.

CVPR registration queue
Registration queue at CVPR conference.

I ran into Peter who recently left CISRA, and also Anthony who is still working there, both within a minute of each other. I had no idea either of them would be here!

I went to a morning tutorial session on computer vision applied to cinema. It was presented by five guys who worked on various aspects of applying computer vision methods to cinema production.

CVPR lunch
Conference lunch.

After that, the conference supplied lunch as well. I was surprised, until I remembered it cost $600 to register for the conference. They had packed boxes of sandwiches or salads or wraps, with a small bag of crisps, a cookies, and an apple. During the lunch break I went for a walk to keep myself awake in spite of the jetlag, heading east as far as Copley Square. Here I admired the open grassy square and the view of the striking Richardsonian Romanesque architecture of Trinity Church.

Trinity Church, Copley Square
Trinity Church and Copley Square.

After lunch I attended the first two hours of a session on applied mathematics applied to cinema, which was more theoretical than the morning session.

Then I left to catch a train from Back Bay station out to the airport again to meet M.

US Fire Engine
Fire engine outside Hynes Convention Centre.

20:13

M.’s plane landed early, just after 18:00. She came out of the security door I was waiting at, so that was all good. We did the bus and three trains thing to the hotel, where she freshened up a bit before we headed out for dinner. We were both very hungry, since it was after 20:00 by this time.

Hot pot and Penang curry
Dinner at Khao Sarn.

We went to a Thai restaurant just up the street called Khao Sarn. We had the vegetable tempura for a starter, followed by hot pot vegetables with crispy tofu and ginger, with brown rice for M., and Penang curry with white rice for me. I also had a glass of Malbec from Argentina to go with the beef. All the food was good, and the tempura serve was huge – pretty much enough to be a meal all in itself. We also spotted a Bruegger’s Bagels across the street from the restaurant where M. said she’d go in the morning for breakfast.

On the way back we stopped in a pharmacy to get some conditioner for M. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and sleep.

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