Sunday, June 04, 2006

SoCG 2006: Day 0

"God made the Grand Canyon, but He lives in Sedona"
I heard this from a fellow passenger on the shuttle from Phoenix to Sedona. It might overstate the case slightly, but Sedona is indeed gorgeous. The Hilton Resort faces the main red rock formations, and my room has a gorgeous view (no pictures, because I neglected to bring my camera download dongle).

It is very very hot here. People think that because I'm Indian, I have no business complaining about the heat or worse, that I should enjoy the heat ! I point out that because I'm Indian, I have a healthy respect for heat and spend my time as far away from it as possible. The low temperature here is higher than the highs when I was in Zurich a week ago. Yikes !

As a consequence, even simple things like taking a walk are tricky. I wanted to walk up to the Bell Rock, one of the standout examples of the red rock formations. It's a mile away, and quite doable under normal circumstances.

Alas, these are anything but normal circumstances. The concierge gave me the 'crazy foreigner' look when I proposed my plan. She did recommend that I try getting up at dawn and walking over, when it's cooler. I might actually do that, for the second time in my life (the first time was in Zion National Park, and the trek was well worth it).

It's hard to get around without a car. In fact, I wonder if this might actually not be an excellent place for the American equivalent of the Dagstuhl/Bertinoro/Oberwolfach workshops. It's hard to get around anyway, and in the summer you wouldn't want to !



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