Puerto Vallarta – Day 4 Adios

Early Morning Pebbling
After grabbing a quick bite at the conference coffee table (it was out from 7:30a.m.), I headed out to visit the ocean again. First, I went to see the vermillion rocks again, and they were exactly where I left them. They were a tad heavy though, so I decided not to bring them along with me. I did, however, add a few larger and heavier rocks to my ‘Puerto Vallarta Rock Collection’ :P

Fishy Observations
Next, I went up to the ‘breakwater’ (there’s a technical term that temporarily escapes me. But it’s those long man-made formations that protrude out into the ocean to break the waves before they come into shore) to get a different view of the ocean. All around me, there was fishing going on. A man up to his waist in water fishing, a man in front of me on the rocks fishing, fishermen in a motorboat…and of course, those brilliant little pelicans. Today I was cheated of watching their graceful sweeps across the water surface looking for fish because they all ended up swooping in and sitting around the fishing boat. *wry look* They were trailing the boat, practically waiting for breakfast.

Ocean Spray
The waves were moderate this morning, but every now and then, a large enough wave comes in that creates quite a spray against the rocks on which I was standing. It was quite lovely to behold, but attempting to catch it on camera was a different thing altogether. The timing was so tricky that I kept missing the climax. After numerous attempts at multiple shots (try more than 100 shots), I finally caught a couple of good sprays on camera. Along the way, I also caught on film two fish that the man sharing the rocks with me caught, as well as a couple of crabs crawling around on a distant rock. :P

Philosophers Fight
Ha ha. Today, at a couple of sessions, there were such heated discussions, I couldn’t fall asleep. A couple of times, I was trying to keep from nodding off while the papers were being read (especially the session right after lunch). But when it came to question time, I was amused and alert.

One of the sessions I attended was titled “Intuition in Education: Teaching and Learning Without Thinking.” Now, the title already held promise for interesting discussion. Add to the fact that the one member most famous in all of PES for his unwavering stance on rational critical thinking was in the audience for this session, it practically guaranteed a fun session. The two of them could not agree, and in the end the presenter concluded that he was happy not to agree with Harvey Siegel (our resident rationalist). It was such a thought-provoking paper and discussion that people stayed to continue talking long after the session had ended. I was sitting next to Daniel Vokey (the organizer of this year’s conference and the professor who had invited me to be chair for that particular session which I ended up chairing). And we had a rather too brief (because there was another session coming up) but extremely interesting side-discussion about insight, intuition, the cognitive affect of emotions and their relation to reason and inference. That particular session was fun because of the disagreement that arose. Most sessions people are much more civil and polite. *grin* As an aside, I’m glad for this conference I’ve learned not to try and attend every session. That is a sure way of boring myself and/or falling asleep at the most inopportune times.

Burning
My sunburn, although not extensive, is turning out to be quite annoying. The worst spot between my neck and left shoulder is already a royal magenta – “almost purple” as Helen observed. Overall, the sunburn probably is already not hurting as bad as it might have because I’m applying the aloe vera gel 2-3 time a day. But last night when I stepped into the shower, I almost howled when the water hit my back and shoulders. It stung! And even trying to sleep was difficult because I had to keep very, very still or else my back and shoulders would chafe. *sniff* How am I going to carry my backpack tomorrow? That would be an interesting question. For now, just wearing clothes is uncomfortable. Let alone having a back-pack with a laptop and other things sitting on my shoulders *grimacing at the thought*.

Three Cheers for OISE/UT
We had quite a representation from OISE/UT at this year’s PES. And our brightest star was Helen Andersen who made her PES debut this year, presented a paper (that’s a big deal for a grad student), and did it wonderfully including handling questions like a pro. We’re all very proud of her…and apparently as a group, we’ve been impressing faculty from the other universities. I really don’t have much to do with this at all, especially not with the PES crowd…but still, it’s nice to know I belong to a group of fellow graduate students that are making such an impression. Besides, this can’t hurt me either :P

An unexpected bonus from this conference is that I got to know three of my fellow OISE/UT PhD students much better than before. Jim, Andrew and Helen…all three of which I have never shared classes with (Jim is senior to me and Andrew and Helen are one year my junior), which meant I never really got to know them before. In the last few days, I think I made up for lost time and opportunity quite nicely. And since I am working with them to organize the GSCOPE conference this October, I think this trip laid some nice foundations for us.

Adios, Puerto Vallarta!
Well, technically speaking, it will be tomorrow that I leave. But since the next time I make a blog entry I will already be back in Toronto, I thought I may as well put this down now :P It has been a good four days here. I think I made quite an endeavour to ‘work hard and play harder’ as someone had advised me to. It has turned out to be one of those fortuitous things that turned out more bountiful than expected. How can I not be grateful? I haven’t exactly caught up on sleep, but in a more important sense, I feel more rested than I have been in a long time. And whatever comes, I know these few days would have made a difference.

P.S. Wanting, don’t forget that I don’t have house-keys! :P My plane is scheduled to arrive at T.O. at 11:07p.m. so I should be home around midnight. See ya soon!