We made it!

We have arrived in MI and are settling in sooooo happily. But there's a small bit of catching-up to do before I can share our new existence as proud Michiganders. And Michigeese.

I went to London too! I didn't take many picture at the actual conference, because the PR people were taking pictures, posting them to twitter, and they were immediately displayed on the giant screens of live twitter feeds - too much cognitive feedback!

I gave my talk a few hours after I arrived after an overnight flight, so almost an out-of-body experience - especially since they hadn't gotten the AC working yet and there were bright lights shining right in my face, hoo boy that was hot! But the talk was well-received and immediately posted to social media. I began by saying "Seeds are not rocks" since (almost) everyone else was talking about human biology, and that got picked up on the twitter feed. Surreal! And then I wandered around the conference for a few days, listening to people talk about their human genetics problems, and wondered what exactly I was supposed to do there.

But the best part was I had a free Saturday, and got to visit Dani at the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. I rode the train down and that was impressively pleasant. I got in trouble with the conductor for having a ticket to Hamstead Heath instead of Haywards Heath, but his machine was broken so I got off with a warning only and didn't have to pay their exorbitant fines. When I got there, I strolled around the grounds and felt at home immediately. And then Dani and I drove to Brighton! Where Lydia partied down with the redcoats! It was exactly like Ocean City, but through a mirror.

And now, the proof. I tried to emulate Eric's excellent selfie style.

Green walls at the hotel!

The Thames and old London Hospital, directly across the river from the conference

London Bridge

Dani had to make liquid nitrogen ice cream all day for attendees of Kew's Science Days.

Ferns for lunch!

Giant sequoia. Just chillin'

Who wants to go for a bathe? (It was not actually stinky.)

Fowl.

Handsomest azalea (still blooming at the end of May!)

Hut made of rooted willow(?) canes

The stream feeding the bathing pond

Even the roadside gravel was different!

Who's looking at me?

Gimme five!

These trees are crazy: Araucaria araucana.

A magnolia!

Adorable hydrangea

Now I entered the forest and things got real.

There's a pheasant to the left of the two trees at the right. He was a real jerk about getting photographed and kept faking me out!

Oooo!

Brighton

The best/worst memento

Our home office is now all set up so I can post freely. Yay!

European Science Tour: Part II. London

I woke up in England and had to run downstairs to meek Paul Neve who was giving me a Ride to Rothemsted Research.  Once there I did a lot of thinking, talking, and touring.  I took no pictures because it was so busy!  I was even asked to go to the on campus pub for dinner with some British and French students.  It was fun but I forgot to take pictures!  The only one I got was of some blackgrass plants:

They grow a lot of blackgrass, real good...

The next day was Saturday and I had the day to myself.  To be honest I had mixed feelings. On one hand I got to go see London which was pretty high on my bucket list but doing it alone can be kind of boring....especially eating!  I started a text document on my phone with some observations.  Maybe I will share those in a later post. I also entertained myself by trying to take selfies with famous monuments.  I experimented with many facial expressions (Please see below).  I dont know how social media bloggers do it!  

I was all ready to get going and I walked out of the front of my hotel and BAM! Farmers market. It was immense and I had to go directly through it which sent me on quit the detour to the train station.

Finally made it to the trains. Navigating the trains and tube the first time was difficult but once I convinced myself that there was a logic to it, I could find the cryptic patterns. By the end of the day I was jumping on and off trains like a Londoner.

St. Pancras station is immense!  It is where my train and the underground intersected so I spent a long time walking around this mall.

Off the metro and near Hyde park I started to be bombarded by monuments. I guess if your country has been around forever and you have fought almost every other country you need to have lots of monuments to remember. This was the first on my way to Buckingham palace.

The beginnings of my selfie experimentation. I gave this one my best serious expression.

A nice Indian lady wanted her picture taken in front of the Palace so I obliged, which made me realize "I can ask other people to take my selfies for me"...I guess then its an otherie but she reciprocated.  This felt more awkward then the selfie (look how I am standing/holding my hands) so I didn't ask anyone else the rest of the day and resumed me selfie taking

I took a picture of this couples butt. I wasnt creeping, instead I needed proof of there genius.  The lady was playing Pokemon Go, as was I. One problem with playing Pokemon Go in London is that you are very likely to get run over or run into by angry immigrants. The man hand a firm grip on her belt loop and was navigating her so she could be fully immersed in the game and not die. I think this is the clearest indicator of love I saw on display.  Otherwise I have not seen any British people touch each other.

Some random abbey I stumbled on ;) Trying out my casual happy tourist look.

Parliament...  I had been walking for a while at this point and this is my "my legs hurt but I am having fun face"

The Eye over the River Thames. Im fairly Neutral I would say.

This is my "I better move or get run over" face... Also big ben was getting a serious face lift so it looked rather post-modern

I liked this tree and it made me miss Margaret.  If she was there she would have been able to tell me about the all of the plants in the gardens that were everywhere.

This tree needed some help.  Industrial scale bonsai.

I dont know who this is but they gave him a nice garden full of tulips.

I had to get a picture with one of the four MASSIVE lions in front of the royal gallery.  I wanted to ride one like all of the other children but then who would take my picture?

I found 2 real life pikachu protesting the BBC to cover atrocities in Nepal....I don't get it either but they sure were friendly!

These guys were doing a martial art (something like Thai Chi?) Also to raise awareness of something terrible. Come to think of it there was soooooo many protesters in England.  Way more then I have ever seen in America.  Maybe its because I don't hang out on the Washington Mall. 

This is apparently a lightning rod in the middle of the road and shorter then everything else.  I didn't bother to investigate it further.

This is the St Pancras Hotel.  You can stay there for 250-800 pounds a night.

This is the church next to my hotel in St. Albans.  I took a picture of it on my way to get Thai food after I returned from London.  It was the nicest place of them all.  No damn tourists!

European Science Tour: Part I. Germany

I was fortunate to be invited to Europe for two separate science related meetings, back to back, which generated enough impetus for me to be allowed to spend Clemson money on a 10day trip! I first flew from Greenville to Chicago and then from Chicago to Frankfurt.  I landed at ~9:30 am local time after not sleeping. My friend Anita, who worked with me in my PhD lab, happens to work at Bayer CropScience in Frankfurt. She was able to meet me at the airport so I did not have to navigate hailing a German Taxi or talk any German besides "Danke". Unfortunately it was the beginning of her work day which meant getting picked up and going into work with her for ~ 8 hrs. Since I was there to visit some scientists at Bayer, I had many delirious meetings and talked a lot of weed science with some scientists who have funded my projects, past and future. I also got to get on the bench and help out troubleshooting some of there KASP assays.  Luckily Margaret and I do this on a regular basis... well Margaret does and I offer council if I can. As per usual with KASP they have been trying for a couple months with no luck.  I was able to show them exactly what Margaret and I do and it worked perfectly! 

The 777 that flew me to Germany... To big to pull up to our terminal so we had to walk over the tarmac.

Anita showing me her experiment.

Touching tubes and pipettes for the first time in over a year.

Feeling very silly following all of the extreme Germany safety protocols

A cool german pub where I was treated to dinner by Anita and Roland... We had traditional German food (Schnitzel, Spaetzle, and Green Sauce which is a Frankfurt specialty.) Traditional German food is incredibly bland. No Salt, No pepper unless requested. The beer is the best though.

Ancient walls that were part of some fortification and now houses shops.

More Old masonry.

Freaky Geese that wander the Bayer Complex.

I didn't get to see much in Germany hence no good pictures.  I had to fly to England the next night and I was in meetings 90% of my waking time there. It was exhausting but interesting.

After one night in Frankfurt I took a late night flight to England and took an hour long taxi ride north of London to St Albans to visit Rothemsted Research and my collaborators there. I was one worn out dude!