When sister #2 got her doctorate, she had a lovely party and then a week later had a huge wedding. The wedding was the night before my finals week started. (I think I actually failed the test I had the next day, but, because I was among the department favorites and had been doing well up until that point, I still ended the course with an A.)

When sister #1 got her doctorate, my whole family went to Boston for her graduation. Then my parents and she and I took a month-long European vacation. (Not that I'm complaining, or anything. It was a great trip.)

Now I'm getting my doctorate. Sister #1 says she can't come, because (and, yes, I'm paraphrasing here), the last day of 3rd grade is more important than my graduation. Sister #2 can come, but is choosing not to, because "Liza's wedding is going to be more fun" than my graduation.

Just saying. Times have changed...

Tuesday morning was overcast but dry. Having run out of bread for sandwiches, I went across the street (more or less) to Starbucks and picked up some pastry for breakfast. Matt came over to the hotel, and he bought his ticket for the trolley. (The company was having a special, so my ticket was still good for another day.) We walked over to the Hyatt and were soon on our way. It was interesting to see how different the tour was with a different driver. I'd experienced three drivers on Saturday, and now we had a new one.

We stayed on the trolley for quite a while. Matt took some video (see the bottom of this post). Finally, we left the trolley at the totem poles. As you remember, I'd visited the totem poles on Saturday, but I thought that Matt might like them. He did, actually. We hung out there for a little while, took some movies, bought some stuff in the store, took some pictures, chased a bird (Matt, not Kathy), and then got back on the shuttle.

Monday morning was raining in Vancouver. Luckily, by the time I went outside, it had stopped coming out of the sky, and, though it was cold, it did not rain on me for the rest of the day. I got dressed and walked across to the street to visit Christ Church Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in Vancouver. It is a quite beautiful church. It is small but very nice. I took some pictures and left. Matt kept wondering why I was going to church on Monday. LOL

It was finally time to go to the Convention Centre. I snagged a comfortable place on one of the couches and worked on my paper a little bit while I was waiting for Dr. Mitchell. Oh yes, I still had to work on the paper. The discussant from Friday's presentation actually emailed me with some comments and recommendations for the paper (since he'd actually read it). We took some of his suggestions, so I had to make a few changes to the document before getting it ready for publication.

Dr. Mitchell showed up close to the appointed time, and we talked about the paper for a couple of hours. It is kind-of weird. At some point I realized that I am part of it all. I'm not just some student anymore. I'm a real researcher with real things to say. It's a kind-of weird feeling. I've been savoring it for some time now.

Dr. Mitchell went to do some souvenir shopping before going home, so I grabbed a quick lunch and went to another session. This one was on a new commissioned report on Title III. Also, Dr. Kenji Hakuda was the discussant, one of Matt's favorite researchers on bilingual ed. Matt was already at the session when I got there, since I was a few minutes late. The session was interesting but did not really tell me anything new. Also, the researchers did not even acknowledge that Title III has to do with immigrant students and only focused on English language aquisition. So that really just underscored the results of my research, that no one gives a damn about immigrant students and even the research community thinks it's enough just to teach them English. Matt got to shake Dr. Hakuda's hand, so he was all excited about that. I gave my email address to the researchers, so that they could send me the final report and also an older report that discussed distribution of funds. So far, I have not heard from them.

After that session, it was Matt's turn. He was part of a roundtable on charter schools. The room was packed with people and tables, probably 20+ tables in the room. Each table had about 10 people around it, including the presenters. Matt did a good job. I wasn't terribly sold on the other people's research, nor on the moderator, but it was a good discussion. Matt made a good show of it, and was even able to show off his smarts by giving suggestions to the other presenters. Sadly, Dr. Thorson could not be there, due to family issues. So Matt was on his own. But he did just fine.

Afterward, we were feeling triumphant. It was time to celebrate!


We walked back to my hotel to drop off my stuff. While we were there, I remembered that, because of the fire alarm situation from Saturday morning, I had coupons for free drinks from the hotel. Yay for free drinks! :) We decided to check out the hotel restaurant downstairs, which was very fancy and very expensive. But, oh, so good! We ate, talked, drank, and had a very lovely time. At the end of the meal, I surprised Matt by picking up the tab. :)

Sunday morning I awoke bright and early to return to the Convention Centre and learn something new! The walk was easy, because the local newspaper was holding a "Sun Run," and there were no cars for most of my walk. I knew that both Drs. Mitchell and Lalas were presenting at 8:00am, but I actually wanted to attend a session on immigrant education. Go figure. While waiting for my session, I ran into Dr. Lalas and his student April (who, I suppose, is Dr. somebody, too). April didn't know me at all, though I've seen her around. She incorrectly assumed that because I'm working with Dr. Mitchell, I was doing a statistical study. Honestly, one would think that someone who has a degree in Leadership for Educational Justice would be better about not labeling students, but, sadly, maybe she did not learn that central lesson. The session I attended was interesting and informative. It was not as policy-oriented as I would have liked, but I did learn some things and was able to take some notes on a few things.

I had texted Matt earlier to see what he was doing, but he'd had a long night and was sleeping in. After the session, I went down to the exhibits and walked around a bit. It was mostly books and software. I have no need for any of that software right now, and I didn't want to bring any books home in my suitcase. So although it was interesting, I did not really feel sad when Matt finally showed up to the exhibit hall.

We decided to have lunch in the food court. Matt had Subway (yes, again), and I had a taco salad/tostada thingy. I hesitated to have something even pretend Mexican in Canada, but it wasn't bad. Typical food court food. We had lunch and then I went to see Dr. Mitchell's presentation. Matt went to another presentation with Dr. Thorson.

The session was interesting. It was about segregation. Dr. Mitchell's research was interesting and, I think, useful. About the time that he finished presenting, Matt and Dr. Thorson showed up and sat in front of me. Dr. Thorson didn't like the idea that the woman was presenting (that Rodriguez v. San Antonio was a race issue and should have been argued as such), and he said it was "stupid."

After the session, we talked with Dr. Mitchell and his dad, as well as with some of the other people a little. Dr. Mitchell was talking with his parents about dinner, so I was going to leave, but he told me to wait. While I was waiting, I had a chance to talk with Dr. Mitchell's mom. She looked at my nametag and said, "Oh, you're from the University. Are you a student?" Dr. Mitchell stopped in the middle of his conversation with his dad to say, "Oh, she's not just a student." Her eyes grew wide, and she said, "Oh, you're *the one*." I didn't even know how to answer that. I just kind-of laughed. She said, "My husband says you did a great job the other day." I thanked her, and she introduced herself to me as "The *second* Dr. Mitchell. *He's* the first one," she said, pointing to her husband. "I'm the second, and *he's* the third," indicating my advisor. I laughed again.

Dr. Mitchell (the third one) wanted to talk to me about submitting our research for an article. We made an appointment to meet the next morning, and I went off to find another session. I wasn't really into the roundtables, so I checked out the posters and then decided to go back to my hotel. I stopped by Staples and the drugstore and picked up a few supplies on the way back, and then I took a LONG nap. I woke up only to go to McDonalds and pick up dinner. Then I stayed in for the rest of the night, watching TV, hanging out online, and doing some research on education policy journals. It was a good day, but I was tired!

More adventures ahead. Stay tuned...

Just before 5am on Saturday morning, I was awakened to the sound of a bell, something like the sound that the elevator makes when it arrives at your floor. I got up, trying to figure out if my fancy hotel room had a doorbell. Then I wondered if maybe the sound was the fire alarm. I looked out in the hall and didn't see anyone outside. I went back inside to see if the noise would stop, but it didn't. So I opened the door again. This time another person was in the hall. "Are we supposed to go outside?" I asked. "I think so," she said, pointing to the stairwell. I went back into my room and grabbed my purse. Then I went back inside to put pants on. LOL

I joined the crowd making its way down the stairs. Since I was on the 5th floor (of many more), I considered myself (relatively) lucky. Nevertheless, I got dizzy before I made it to the ground floor, more from looking down for far too long and spiraling 'round and 'round than from the length of the walk. We finally made it to the ground floor, where we saw a fire truck and ambulance outside and the rest of the hotel guests. There did not appear to be any fire or any other sort of emergency, so most of us hung out in the lobby or in the lounge/bar area to wait for further instructions. Unfortunately, the hotel staff did a lousy job of telling us what was going on, which was a little annoying. More annoying was the attitude of my fellow guests, especially the American ones, who were very vocal about how things "should be" and what other people "should be" doing. After listening to one particularly opinionated and loud woman for a few minutes, I could stand it no longer and went in search of the restroom.

When I returned to the lobby, people were lined up for the elevator. I stood in line and listened to an amusing story told by the young woman in front of me. As we were riding up in the elevator, a man's voice said, "I hope everyone is done with their presentations." I laughed, partly because it was funny and partly because I WAS DONE!!!

I went back to my room and climbed into bed, but, unfortunately, I was unable to sleep. The whole ordeal had taken less than an hour, but I could not get back to sleep. I played with my computer for a while and watched some bad hotel TV. I finally got up for my day of sightseeing!

After making a sandwich for breakfast and another for lunch, I went downstairs to buy a ticket for the sightseeing trolley. I caught the trolley at the Hyatt hotel, and I was on my way. Sadly, Matt was still working on his presentation, so I had to do my sightseeing alone, but I was determined to go. The trolley made its way through the city, with the driver's running monologue about what we were looking at.

I got out in Stanley Park at the Vancouver Aquarium. The aquarium is quite beautiful and has a nice collection of animals. I especially liked the marine mammals--the beluga whales, otters, sea lions, and seals. I did not care for the frogs, but I did like the jellyfish. The aquarium also has an excellent rainforest section, which was very humid and hot but very beautiful.

I decided to go to walk to the next trolley stop instead of waiting for the trolley just to get off of it almost immediately. I don't know how far I walked. More than 1/2 a mile, I think, but less than a mile, I think. Anyway, I walked to the totem poles, which were pretty cool.


I hung around there for a while and took some pictures. There weren't that many totem poles, compared to the number of them that we saw in Alaska. They were all pretty cool, though.

Then I got back on the trolley and stayed on it for quite a while. I was considering going to Granville Island, which is one of the main attractions of Vancouver, but once I learned that I would have to do a lot of walking just to get to the island from the trolley stop, I decided I wasn't up to another hike. However, I decided that I did not want to miss Chinatown. I walked around for a little while, kind-of looking for somewhere to eat. When I couldn't find somewhere very close by, I decided to go back and check out some of the gardens. First, I went to the public Chinese gardens, and then I spent a bit to go to the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden. It is quite beautiful. I was able to take a tour and learn about the garden.

I got a good night's sleep on the VERY comfortable bed and was ready to go in the morning. I woke up and got dressed, making a few last-minute changes to my presentation, nervous about my presentation but as ready as I was going to be. My presentation was at noon, but I was so worried about everything that I made Matt go with me much earlier than that. We walked to the Convention Center, stopping to have breakfast along the way. Matt stayed at a much less fancy hotel than I did. Oh, to be young and male and fearless. LOL

This is the building in which I gave my presentation.

On the way back to my hotel, I was approached for the first time (but not the last) by one of Vancouver's very aggressive homeless people. He tried to sell me some story on how he was a teacher, how he was beaten up by the police, and how he needed to get to the airport and just needed the fare to get there. I told him no, but not after he had talked to me for too long and I had gotten a whiff of his stench. He seemed very angry when I said no.

My brother-in-law Ed is in Mozambique for several months, helping to set up a national resource lab. He is having some interesting adventures. Follow his travels on his blog.

Let me know what you think . . .