Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Baltimore, Day 1

Good day. Thought I would give a short update about what has been happening so far on my trip. The flight was good although hours 9-13 get a little rough. They only change the entertainment (i.e. new movies) every month, so since I flew back on March 3, to Baltimore March 23, and back March 30…I think I will have about everything on the plane watched.
I got to the airport and my stuff was waiting by the baggage claim. How cool. There were a lot of people in the US citizens line, then I realized that it was a lot of college and high school students. Ahh…The last Sunday of spring break. I did get stopped at Customs because I brought some food home for the Family (and some of you, if you stop and see them next week). Although I just went to another desk, told them what I had and was out the door in no time. Pretty painless.
My work had arranged a van for me so I met them outside. There were 2 people going to Baltimore so we had to wait almost 2 hours for the other girl. Oh well. The trip was uneventful and I was the first stop. I got to the hotel and headed downstairs for a beverage and to watch ESPN for a few. I was starting to drag, because I don’t sleep when I travel west on a plane…it helps me to overcome jetlag. I was soon in bed.

So let me tell you about the next morning I tried connecting to the internet. Well the modem in the room was not lit up so I called the front desk to tell them I thought something was wrong. They referred me to a 1-800 help line. I called them and after about 20 minutes they said…we think it is a router issue, let us call the front desk and get them to send a technician. Really? Who knew? So about 20 minutes later a technician came up and said my router was dead, they brought another one up and BAM! Everything works. To add to my frustration, I am in the process of applying for the fellowship program I told you about a few posts ago. So I made some final adjustments to my letter and CV and went to the business center to print it. Well, the business center would not take my card…however they did have a printer that you could hook up a laptop to and print that way. I went and got my laptop and was able to somehow circumvent the system and was able to print everything I needed. I went downstairs to the front desk to get postage and of course, you have to go to the gift shop. Not wanting to put a few cents on my debit card I walked to the ATM…which was Out of Service. So I ended up putting it on my card. I thought this type of frustration was only supposed to happen in Doha…

So I decided after working out to head into the city. Baltimore is actually a really cool city with a lot to offer. Growing up we explored some, but there is really so much more just past the inner harbor. As I was walking towards Fells Point I thought I would stop by the Wharf Rat and have a MicroBrew. No Dice. By the looks of it..they are just closed on Mondays. So, I was going to wait till Carrie got here, but I could always stop at Capital City Brewing…they are out of business. What the crap? So I headed to fells point I stopped and looked for some new swim trunks (mine are really old…like 1999/2000ish) especially since I am going to be floating in July… The Fells Point area is really cool with lots of shops, bars, restaurants, etc. I was looking for a brewery that I knew was there, but I walked up and down every block of that whole area (more good exercise). ( I found out later that I was about one street and a left turn away from it…arrgh!) Anyway, headed towards the hotel and ducked into a nice Irish pub. I rocked out some house brew along with some mussels, and fish and chips. MMMMM. On my way back I saw 2 women walking down the street in Abays. What? Where the heck am I. Baltimore is a multicultural city, so they were not turning any heads. Plus, it just looks like 2 women in black dresses with their head covered. Now, a male walking down the street would certainly get some heads turned. I headed back to the hotel to watch the girls really run out of gas…oh well. It was a good year.
Today I am off to get my stuff for the conference and hopefully do a few museums, plus get back to that pesky brewery!

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