In Chicago again

Here we are in Chicago again and its completely living up to its 'Windy City' reputation. It's freezing cold and so windy that our money nearly blew away when we tried to pay the taxi driver from the airport last night. 

Ying Lin couldn't get any funding to come in the end, although she did get married to Steve down in Falmouth a couple of weeks ago (lovely pictures on facebook) so she has not exactly been a slouch since finishing her EdD.

There are 9 of us here this year : Jonathan Wyatt and Ken Gale (EdD graduates), Myself, Artemi Sakkelariadis (PhD graduate and director of CSIE) McLain Percy (EdD student), Donna West (PhD graduate and research asst in GSoE) , Sue Porter EdD student and research fellow with Norah Fry) and Glen Hall (Sue's partner and everybody's main 'techno man' for the conference). I'm not sure if we are all here yet actually as we are all in different hotels, but we all be here by tonight I think!!

Injuries so far (just to keep you up to speed) are that I hurt my back before I came and cannot easily sit down for any length of time, so I spent most of the plane journey wandering around the aisles, irritating the crew. Meanwhile Jonathan twisted his ankle playing football last week, so he is limping and cannot easily stand up for any length of time. Early days yet though - so watch this space for falls, scrapes, disasters and expensive brushes with 'medicare'.

This morning (its early here, six hours behind) we are going to the wonderful Art Institute  as we are just down the road from it. I'm not going to the Kings, Queens and courtiers exhibition, even though its about the French Renaissance - we've had too much of that kind of mullarkey over our side of the pond recently. Herumph!!

Yuyi Morales. Illustration from Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book. A Neal Porter Book published by Roaring Brook Press, 2008.

Anyway, I've got to to go and see the 'Real and Imaginary' exhibition of Latin American paintings, not least since my  'psychology day' keynote on Wednesday is entitled 'Magical realism and the Psychotherapeutic Imaginary' .  [I've got some great magical realist paintings in my powerpoint presentation actually- mostly European rather than Latin American though. I'd up load the slides, but I don't have copyright for them all - and even tho I've acknowledged and referenced all the artists, I don't think its kosher to blog them.]

The Art Insitute exhibition blurb says:

    "Three Latin American artists share the beauty and richness of their cultural heritage in this exhibition  of art from picture books. In a book of Latin American folktales, Raúl Colón layers washes of paint and etched lines, finishing with colored pencils. David Diaz’s brightly colored illustrations portray true stories of Mexican heroes and artists. And with a flair for humor, Yuyi Morales paints hauntingly beautiful, mystical pictures that resonate with the importance of family."

Even if I don't get to that exhibition, I'll just enjoy wondering around the Institute really  - its the most beautiful building, full of light - and then of course there's the gift shop - and lets face it I absolutely deserve some new earrings. I do!

There was talk of going on the river on a tour of the extraordinary downtown buildings again (see QI blog, 2009 in 'older posts--) but is its still this windy I might just have to go to the amazing art shop and  Russian tea rooms opposite the art Institute, at the top of this street and sit eating blinis and sipping lemon tea all afternoon.

Every time I've been here I've meant to go and sit in the Russian tea rooms, whose decor has not changed since the nineteenth century (What's the point of having a Jewish  grandma if you don't sit in the Russian tea rooms every once in a while calling the waiter a 'nebbich' who think's he's a macha?')* - this could be the time I actually get there.
I need to go and sit somewhere actually, because i haven't quite finished tinkering with the paper I'm giving on Saturday. Well, okay, lets be honest, its only half written - so this afternoon could be my moment for catching up.

This evening I think there might be two groups meeting at the lovely Italian restaurant Giocco's. I think the Bristol group as a whole is meeting there tonight, but also Jonathan, Ken and I are meeting up seperately with Tami Spry from St Cloud State University and Elyse Pineau from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale  to talk about plans for the 'fall'. Both of them will be joining us in Bristol at some point in the Autumn so I want to talk timetables, events, etc and we also want to talk about a bid for a shared international ESRC seminar series between Plymouth (Ken), Oxford (Jon) and Bristol - exploring ideas around pedagogy as/is performance. Elyse isn't coming to the congress this year as its at the same time as her son's graduation, but she's kindly driven all the way up to Chicago just for this meeting with us, so we'd better come up with some good plans.

Okay that's all for now...over to the rest of you for a few comments/contributions
Jx

* a classic yiddish put down - a nobody (nebbich) who thinks he's a really important person in the community ( a macha)