in Barcelona

I was mainly at the meeting today listening to talks.  Some were good.  Another guy looked like he had watched one too many TED talks.  He was loud and annoying and waved his hands a lot.  I walked out.  After the talks were over, I joined a few thousand people from the conference at the very large and new banquet hall on the east side of Barcelona for a fine Catalan feast.  Sat with many friends:  ND graduate student Temistocle Grenga, ND colleague Karel Matous, former UIUC colleague Jim Stewart, my student Ashraf's boss, Tod Larson (president of Khalifa University), Duke Prof. John Dolbow, and some faculty from UIUC, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins.  Lots of crazy Catalan medieval instruments and dancers with big paper mache heads.   I placed a couple photos of the banquet hall below.