Pretty Princeton

As we are collecting ivy-league universities, we take the metro into New York and then change to the New Jersey metro for Princeton, where Hugh is giving a talk and meeting up with some colleagues. It is a beautiful day and Princeton looks lovely in the afternoon sun - all the magnolia trees are in flower and the pink contrasts well with the greyish stone of the buildings as you can see. The campus is tranquil and free from cars and people yelling on street corners - makes a nice change! We are staying in a lovely old Inn in the central square of the town, which is rather quaint and full of Einstein memorabilia as this is were he worked until his death. So I take the opportunity to view the outside of his house (second photo) and to see his statue before heading off to the amazing Princeton Art Museum which has some lovely pieces of art to add to my imaginary art museum with a gorgeous Angelica Kaufmann portrait and one of Monet's famous water-lilly paintings. It also has a wonderful antiquity section and soon I am thinking about which pieces I could add to our little UQ Antiquities Museum in Brisbane. More fantasy I'm afraid!

For lunch we are treated to the Princeton Staff Club in historic Prospect House overlooking the fountain. Pretty posh stuff and I wish I wasn't wearing jeans! Apparently I was sitting next to the most famous ecologist in the world and I didn't even know! While we are there, we hear about the horrible Boston marathon bombs and I am a little anxious about getting home through New York, as no-one is sure yet whether it is an isolated incident or not. The police presence was very strong however and Times Square had temporary barricades around parts to deter crowds forming and becoming a target I guess. All very unnerving and it was a relief to get back to our apartment in New Haven.

 The next day we have our own little drama as Hugh gets a burst blood vessel on his nose which will not stop bleeding, so we have to go to the emergency room to get treatment. Luckily it is not that busy and we only spend a few hours filling in paperwork and sitting around waiting. He is fine but will have a black nose from the silver nitrate treatment for a few days. Unfortunately it happens just before his seminar so he has to explain his odd appearance at the beginning of the talk. It is a really good talk and is well received. It is fun going to work together and his office is so big that we can work together quite happily except for Hugh's sighs and my muttering. The picture below is of his buuilding. I am getting a lot of Latin and Greek done which is good. We have a great dinner in a nearby groovy restaurant with Yale colleagues Walter and Celli, where there is a huge cocktail list and we choose wisely and well I think. Our time in France has given me a taste for French wine, so I was pleased with the wine list too. Walter is German and studied Ancient Greek for seven years at high school (how amazing) and can still recite whole passages - I am very impressed and hope that I can be like that some day.