A herpetologist meets Victoria

This pass weekend( 26 Oct-29 Oct 2006), I found myself in Victoria attending the yearly CARNET (Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network) meeting. It was my first time visiting Victoria and attending the conference.

Victoria
This is a city that will always stand out in my mind. The thing that first jumped out at me was the perfection of the buildings and streets. If you dragged your index finger across the stone of any building, you would not find a speck of dirt or dust. The city is spotless, every building, sidewalk, lawn, or tree is flawless. During the day the buildings show their beauty through they exceptional architecture. By night darkness usually blankets buildings, however in this city, night is bright. Unlike cities I have been to, majority of the buildings are lit up. You have to see this city during the night and day to see how beautiful it really is.

The city contains a lot of cute things that can draw a person in. During Friday a bunch of us walked downtown, taking in every little thing. We saw horse and buggies (which included a zebra), jelly fish in the harbour, a wax house, museum, various little shops and cafes. My favourite store was literally 3 feet by 6 feet called Smoking Lily. This is a quant little shop containing exceptional clothes that are made by the owners. Every piece is unique and distinctive, giving individualism to every article. The best thing about the size of this shop is that there isn’t a change room but a drape that stretches across the entire room. I would have to say that the saying “size doesn’t matter” works with this store.

Conference
For weeks leading up to this conference I was so excited. This would be my first amphibian/reptile conference in Canada and I was not let down. These conferences are a way to meet herpetologists (professors, grad students and government/non government employees) from around Canada. During the weekend I ran into Jackie, David, Billy and other professors and students (including a cute new student) from Laurentian University, who all study herps. It was a great experience. I was able to catch up with old friends, build new ones, compose new connections, network through the herpetology world and learn about current research. I attended some great talks however I didn’t like how Sunday’s talks strayed away from science. In particular there was one girl (SA) who really worked the audience. By doing this she neglected her talk. She was funny yet annoying. Others didn’t have a hint of science in them, only an advertisement of their study site.

Saturday a bunch of students from U of A, U BC, and L.U went out to a pub called Sticky Wicket. Here we drank $5-$6 dollar drinks, danced and socialized with various ghosts, goblins, and witches, for it was the weekend before Halloween. We were all dressed up as grad students. The funny thing was, there was no cover charge at the door. However you had to pay $3 dollars to get onto the dance floor. I never ended up paying this ridiculous fee because the music SUCKED. As most of the girls danced, I caught up with Billy and Chris. In the end, all of us herpetologists had an entertaining night.

On another note, I have to say that there were a couple guys that caught my eye. There were two guys in particular; one had great manly arms that had large tattoos in which I found myself always staring at him, the second guy was tall dark and handsome, yum yum. Boy do I wish they went to U of A. You would think with a school as big as U of A, we would a least have more cute guys in the biology department.