A fun day off

I was busy yesterday working away on lots of different stuff, so now, all I have to do is finish the rest before I go to work today. Whenever I have some time on my hands, I tend to be digging into something (literally or figuratively...it doesn't matter!)

Here are a few of the interesting things I discovered yesterday.

I met this guy, the French Ambassador to the US at a lecture at SLU. As a student of people in general (and an alum), I like to see who shows up at these lectures, and today's collection of attendees was an interesting group.

First, you had the usual SLU professors and administrators from the business school. There were even a couple of profs from other disciplines, such as philosophy, which surprised me. Next, you had the students. I was kind of surprised that there were so many this close after graduation, but perhaps this was part of an intersession course or something, for French or international business. Then you had the Alliance Francaise contingent of people, who like to roll out the red carpet when anyone shows up here from la France. Lastly, you had everyone else--some alums, some business people rolling in laptops and even some World Trade Center folks.

The lecture and Q&A session was heavy on lecture and less on Q&A because of time limits, and the fact the the hors d'oeuvre in the ballroom next door were probably melting. The only thing that really, really irritated me was that all the questions posed were by men. Yep, every single solitary one. In fact, one guy kept jumping from microphone to microphone when his efforts to ask a question were thwarted by the students giving the wireless mike to other guys in the crowd. As usual, all the questions were highbrow. I was rooting for the elderly lady on my side to get her question in, but, alas, we ran out of time.

Needless to say, I got my hors d'oeuvres, ate them, and had a cup of coffee before the Ambassador came over. By a stroke of luck, the only bar table free was the one by the door. I waited my turn as the good Ambassador came in with Dr. Kim, the head of international business (and my old advisor). I introduced myself and had a nice chat. The Ambassador was very charming, and it turns out, in the family business, which I found out when I asked what region his family was from (Normandy). "My family's from there, but I was born in Tunisia." he said. I replied, "Well, what do you know...so you went into the family business, eh?", "Ah, yes, I sure did."

Finally, I even chatted with my old philosophy prof, who mentioned to me that he's now been with the university for 40 years. He threatened to look up my grade in Greek philosophy. Hopefully, he won't. I never really liked that class. It was too Wittgensteinian for me! I also talked to one of the French profs who started the year I graduated. He's still sending people over to France, but now to Poitiers and Angers.

It was fun to escape the nursing scene for a little while and go back to my old international business/French roots. I may have to do it again sometime soon.