A difficult, quiet, and reflective Fall Break

I've returned to London after our week long Fall Break and we are headed to Scotland tomorrow. So, here's a recap of the last week or so.

Last Monday night, before heading out of town, I went to see the European premiere of the film x+y as part of the London Film Festival. This is a film about an autistic boy who earns a place on the British International Math Olympiad team. It is very well done and I enjoyed it so! The director is a Morgan Matthews who happens to be a documentary film maker. This is his first feature film and I thought it was splendid. It was fun to see the red carpet and get to hear a bit from the stars post film.

However, I left the post-film Q&A a bit early, as I had checked my email after the film and heard news that my undergraduate advisor/first college math professor/friend Dr. Wayne Bell had passed away. For those of you on Facebook, you've heard this story, but I wanted to place a bit here so that I can remember it later. His death was surprising, and difficult to hear about 1000s of miles away. He was a big influence on my chosen career path and helped see me through a difficult time in my personal life and for that I will always be grateful. His service was on Friday, and I really wanted to attend, but getting from Turkey to London to Murray was no easy task. However, I am thankful to a dear friend in Murray who sent me some of the info from his service. It certainly helped.

So, with thoughts of Dr. Bell on my mind, I headed off to Turkey in the early hours of Tuesday AM. Flew from Stansted to Antalya and then (after an hour long wait at the airport) arrived in Belek at my all-inclusive resort, The Bellis Deluxe Hotel. Here I would spend 5 nights attempting to "do nothing." I had great weather. About 80 degrees everyday and sunny. Now, this is not my normal vacay. I like to be doing 17 things a day and running all around, so the thought of lying on the beach all day seemed like a crazy one. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I don't think I would have been up for normal crazy Alison vacation. Here's how my day went most days: Wake up at 8AM. Buffet breakfast 9AM. Beach or pool time: 10AM Lunch: 12:30PM Naptime: 1:30PM Beach or Pool time: 3:00PM Shower: 5PM Tea time: 6PM Dinner: 7PM Room time: 8PM Sleep: 10PM. That's pretty much it, with some slight variations. So, I don't have a lot of pics for you. Mainly the sea views/pool views/cocktails/teas/dessert bar. I was certainly bored by day 2, but toughed it out and made it! I really wanted to do some excursions to see some of Turkey, but it was off season, so I couldn't find a company that was running tours (or would do a tour for 1). So, I read a couple of books (including Harry Potter 4) and caught up on my DVR back home. It was probably a very good choice for a Fall Break. Just a few quick notes on resorts in Turkey: swimming with cats! So fun to see cats. I miss Reese. Also, so much smoking. Ugh. Smoke everywhere. I like being outside (to eat, to sit on my balcony, to lay at the pool), but I had to move quite a bit because people were smoking in all my nice clean outdoor air spaces. I even woke up in the middle of the night one night and felt like I was sleeping in a cloud of smoke. My neighbors must have been smoking on their balconies. Ick! Also, people didn't drink much. At all-inclusives in Mexico, people seem constantly wasted. No. Not here. I barely ever saw people with alcohol. Very strange.

The little town a few miles from the resort. Saw it from the shuttle bus window.

My room for 5 days.

The view from my balcony.

Tea time

Or sometimes cocktail time

The desserts were beautiful. This doesn't even do it justice.

Beach views

Slides. I conquered all 5 of them. The one on the far left was insane. Body slide, so no tube. Probably what it would feel like to be flushed down a toilet.

Cocktail by the pool, of course

Paid a bit extra one night to do the sushi/Chinese restaurant

This place had a sad, sad zoo. These were the least sad creatures.

Magic show on Friday night. This guy was good!

The only pic of me on vacay

Look! Fish! Not sure you can see them, but there were 3 different schools of three different types of fish on my last morning there. Super fun to watch them from the dock for a bit.

In other vacay news (I should be calling it a holiday, but whatever.), apparently I don't look/act like an American. On the flight there this super adorable older Turkish couple were sitting next to me. When I woke up from a nap, the man asked if I was Turkish. I said no. He just lost a 50quid bet with his wife and to pay up. So offered me delicious homemade pastries stuffed with meat later, so it all worked out. Then, at the resort these two men were walking down the stairs and they asked where I was from. I said America and they said "Really?". Then, at the zoo while I was walking about one of the zookeepers asked if I was Russian. Fascinating.

I returned to London on Sunday night ready to DO things. Monday's adventures included a little run, a trip to the Courtauld Gallery, the Twinings store/museum, and afternoon tea at The Modern Pantry. The Courtauld is a small museum you have to pay for, but I think it's worth it. I liked the size of it and it's mainly impressionism, which I like. They also had a great Jasper Johns exhibit that I'm totally in love with. The Modern Pantry tea was fab. More a foodies tea than traditional tea, and the tea was yummy.

I like both of these Degas pieces.

Bandaged ear Van Gogh!!

OK...so this is the pic that all the pieces in this one room were based upon. You can somewhat make it out in each of them. Just loved it!

 Tuesday's adventures included class, lunch at Hummus Bros, a trip to King's Cross and Platform 9 3/4, and a quick visit to the Wellcome Collection, dinner at Jamie (Oliver)'s Italian and War Horse. The Wellcome was kind of a bust. They did have 1 exhibit (total) and it was on health which was interesting for the Global Health Paideia cluster I'm a part of at school. I got some interesting ideas for things we could discuss in our seminar next year, so it wasn't a completely wasted trip.

Part of an exhibit on obesity at the Wellcome Collection

Jamie's Italian

In cryptography class yesterday, we talked about counting and all the possible ways to set up an Enigma machine. We rushed through it a bit, so I hope the students got out of it what they needed. That's a lot of counting!! When we get back from Scotland, we'll be moving on to more modern stuff so that should be exciting. Stats class doesn't meet this week, so I'll miss them. But, I will meet with my upper-level cryptography students today. We'll play with divisibility theorems and also introduce them to induction.