(November 11th-16th) As you may have surmised from the title of this post, shortly after returning from my marathon I was off again, this time back across the pond to Houston. Somehow the middle of my trip to Oxford had already passed me by, a theme that has been fairly constant throughout my time in England.
Every year I attend the IMECE conference, so it's become an event that I look forward to as I catch up with colleagues, make new acquaintances, get to hear myself talk about my research in front of semi-captive audiences, and of course all of the other fluff associated with visiting a different city (such as new running trails, restaurants, cultural events to take in, etc.).
I must admit, Houston was a bit odd this year as most of my colleagues showed up towards the middle of the conference if they showed up at all. That left a few days of taking in Houston during my spare time alone...though little did I know that that was really going to be the only time that I would have to take Houston in.
My first day in Houston was pretty much the only chance that I had to eat out. Starved for authentic South-Western food, I found myself wandering into Irma's Southwest Grill. It managed to do the trick. One thing that impressed me about the meal, though, was the lentil and black bean soup. A little spicy and flavored sublimely. At least compared to what I had been eating in England and Germany.
Salsas (two types!), guacamole, and tortilla chips! Oh how I missed thee.
Tamales and real iced tea? Oh, it was good to be back in the states. Oddly enough, the one thing that I didn't photograph was the lentil and black bean soup...
That night, having a bit of time to kill, I decided to head off to the Houston Rockets game since I could see the arena from my hotel room.
How could I resist? After all, basketball games were something I always enjoyed seeing as a kid growing up in DC. And, amazingly, the game wasn't sold out even though the defending champions, the Miami Heat, were coming to town.
I really did like that view from my hotel room, oddly enough.
As you can see, lots of empty seats...so strange. But I didn't complain about getting to see the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, and the Rocket's own James Harden. I'm still shocked that OKC traded him away. Two nights later I found myself heading the same way again. My good friend from grad school, Annie Tangpong, had arrived mid-week and wanted to take in a game too. So, being an old pro at getting tickets quickly and easily, we headed off to see the Rockets play the New Orleans Hornets.
And yep, that's James "The Beard" Harden taking free throws with Anthony Davis in the low post.
As you can see above, Annie is nowhere near as big as Yao Ming. The Rocket's arena had a lot of interactive areas for fans...very neat to see as I can't remember the Cap Center (later US Airways Arena) ever having anything of the like.
Anyways, that's pretty much it for Houston...well, that and 30 miles of running through Buffalo Bayou park and other, less pleasant neighborhoods. Lot's of work really which I shall not go into detail about here.
Next up: Another Layover in New Mexico! In the mean time, somehow I'm only one month behind...how did that happen?!
Every year I attend the IMECE conference, so it's become an event that I look forward to as I catch up with colleagues, make new acquaintances, get to hear myself talk about my research in front of semi-captive audiences, and of course all of the other fluff associated with visiting a different city (such as new running trails, restaurants, cultural events to take in, etc.).
I must admit, Houston was a bit odd this year as most of my colleagues showed up towards the middle of the conference if they showed up at all. That left a few days of taking in Houston during my spare time alone...though little did I know that that was really going to be the only time that I would have to take Houston in.
My first day in Houston was pretty much the only chance that I had to eat out. Starved for authentic South-Western food, I found myself wandering into Irma's Southwest Grill. It managed to do the trick. One thing that impressed me about the meal, though, was the lentil and black bean soup. A little spicy and flavored sublimely. At least compared to what I had been eating in England and Germany.
Salsas (two types!), guacamole, and tortilla chips! Oh how I missed thee.
That night, having a bit of time to kill, I decided to head off to the Houston Rockets game since I could see the arena from my hotel room.
How could I resist? After all, basketball games were something I always enjoyed seeing as a kid growing up in DC. And, amazingly, the game wasn't sold out even though the defending champions, the Miami Heat, were coming to town.
I really did like that view from my hotel room, oddly enough.
As you can see, lots of empty seats...so strange. But I didn't complain about getting to see the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, and the Rocket's own James Harden. I'm still shocked that OKC traded him away. Two nights later I found myself heading the same way again. My good friend from grad school, Annie Tangpong, had arrived mid-week and wanted to take in a game too. So, being an old pro at getting tickets quickly and easily, we headed off to see the Rockets play the New Orleans Hornets.
And yep, that's James "The Beard" Harden taking free throws with Anthony Davis in the low post.
As you can see above, Annie is nowhere near as big as Yao Ming. The Rocket's arena had a lot of interactive areas for fans...very neat to see as I can't remember the Cap Center (later US Airways Arena) ever having anything of the like.
Anyways, that's pretty much it for Houston...well, that and 30 miles of running through Buffalo Bayou park and other, less pleasant neighborhoods. Lot's of work really which I shall not go into detail about here.
Next up: Another Layover in New Mexico! In the mean time, somehow I'm only one month behind...how did that happen?!
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