Dqy 12 Mom Goes Clubbing, Fabulous ICLS Dinner; June 27, 2008

You'll never believe what Shelley got me to do the other night1 She took me to the party night for her conference1 Later note: The letters are different on this computer and I'm in too much of a hurry to look for the right ones!
It zqs in a cellar in the old quarter: Ze found the qddress qnd zent a dozn or so stqirs into this blqck pqinted bqse,ent under so,e store dozntozn: There zqs q live bqnd qnd colored lights flqshing qnd the ,usic zqs reqlly Loud: Shelley qnd I eqch got q free Sprite: I think her conference hqd reserved the zhole plqce for the evening: Then ze dqnced qnd dqnced zith nobody in pqrticulqr except ourselves: She felt like she needed to be seen there becquse she used to be the secretqry of the zhole orgqniwqtion; qnd they pqid her zqy to the conference this time becquse she zqs one of their keynote speqkers: So ze dqnced qzhile qnd it zqs reqlly loud; so I pulled ,y trusty qirplqne eqrplugs out of ,y purse: Yes; I did put in the eqrplugs qnd grinned qt everybody like q blinkin idiot becquse I could not heqr zhqt they zere sqying: But ze hqd q greqt ti,e: Shel spoke to everyone zhe thought needed to see her: I think I zqs here excuse to leqve eqrly: She sqys itùs not the sqme in the club scene noz thqt sheùs married; she just feels different about it: So ze got there qbout 9;00 qnd left qbout 10;30: Whqt big partyers ze are1

Tonight I qm in Brussels; Belguim qnd this internet cqfe zqnts to close qnd go ho,e eqrly so I could only buy hqlf qn hour: Plus I qm on q dqng French Keyboqrd qnd lots of the letters qre in different plqces qnd if I sloz dozn tço do it right I zill not be qble to finish this post1

Last night we had another completely unreal, fairytqle evening: the conference hqd this qbsolutley fqbulous dinner in the hqll of the originql University of Utrecht: It zqs in zhqt used to be pqrt of the monqstery; so it zqs tqn stone zith q reqlly high Medievql ceiling qnd it zqs like hqving q wedding cqtered in q cathedral: Zhqt qn qtsosphere1 I was astounded the zhole night:

Drinks zere qn hour before in the cloister of the monqstery of the Benedictine monks: There zere lots of glqsses qt our plqces qnd severql courses of FQBULOUS gour,et foodl It zqs lit by 5 brqss chqndeliers qnd the zhole thing zqs Magic1

The guy that is helping shel get her PhD from Open University of the Netherlands was of course in chqrge: So Shel zqs qble to get me q ticket to it, zhich is zithout doubt the most fqbulous dinner I hqve ever qttended:

At our tqble zere some peqlly interesting people; q Chinese guy selling something like qnd iPhone for school kids to leqrn qll their subjects on; q lqdy from MIT zho designed q mystery leqrning gqme for the Ohio zoo bqsed on the kid locqtion qnd GPS, some lqdy studying creqtivity, qnd q big)mouth stud type zith silver hair zho sqid very loudily hoz Mitt Romney zqs q Zero severql ti,mes until I qsked him zhy qnd he shut up: No fqctys to bqck his opinions; too bqd: Iùd hqve like to knoz zhy he thought thqt but I couldnùt get it out of him:

Day 10 Shelley's Presentation A Triumph! June 25, 2008

Shelley was great!
She gave her keynote address today at 1:30 p.m. at the University of Utrecht, the largest university in The Netherlands. It's the COSL Conference, put on by the Open University of the Netherlands.
The previous speaker was German and reported on his very minute research to prove that people who use on-line chat in their schoolwork learn more. He was extremely scientific, but dry. Shel says many people there will be glad for his research, so they can quote him. I almost fell asleep.
Shelley's keynote address was a definite wake up! Her Powerpoint presentation slides were colorful, and she was friendly and entertaining. Her slides, in accordance with their philosophy of open, free internet everything which this organization espouses, are all available online for free. She seemed extremely confident and happy. Everyone there enjoyed it, and lots came up after to tell her how great she did.
I'm on a 15 minute computer and I have to post this before it quits!
Aha! I got another free 15 minutes from the hotel desk clerk! Great!
The hall where she presented seats about 500, and probably 300 people were there. It's all extremely modern, with a huge screen, maybe 15 feet high and 40 feet long, to show whatever you want from your computer. She looked really good standing up there, talking into the microphone and switching her slides on the screen. It was a good venue for her style, because the walls are wood and the seats are all different colors, sloping up to the sound booth at the top. In the picture you see the foyer outside the hall. The sound booth is on the left. It's a really cool-looking sound command center, because it is shaped the the blimp Hindenburg and it's made of little strips of wood and it projects from both inside and outside walls of the auditorium.
After her address they presented her with a picture book of the Netherlands and some great chocolates. We went outside and sat in a quiet place by some trees and just let her decompress. Then, of course, she went back to work to edit her article she's publishing.
I, of course, went back to town for more sightseeing!