Coming Full Circle

Today we went to visit the Universidad de Talca, the Chilean hotbed of quadratic forms. As such, several of the mathematicians from the conference are based in Talca, so I took the opportunity to go around and pay my respects this afternoon. I also got a chance to play around on this very famous statue, which was actually featured on the poster of our workshop in Lake Ranco.





That's me walking around in the picture on the left, you can barely see. The University is very beautiful, although the damage from the earthquake is very severe. In fact, the university library has completely lost its roof, when you look in the windows from the outside, you can see straight up to the sky.

Now, not to beleaguer this, my favorite point, but the meat here is outrageous. For dinner tonight we went out to a restaurant in the mountains above Talca. This restaurant was plopped right in the middle of a vineyard with views to die for. But the view out the window was the least of my concerns when this amazing meal arrived. Meat, on a platter, over a bed of coals. Enough meat to feed an army. Beef, Pork, Sausage, and Chicken (as though you could really think of chicken at a time like this...please!)



This was a feast for a king. Literally, I think this is how kings in the medieval times must have eaten. A huge pile of meat, and one lone boiled potato, no distractions.



So I sharpened my dirk and filled my tankard with the finest Austral ale, and went to town.

It seems I've fully settled into vacation mode, gone are the thoughts of lattices and forms. These days it's all about sunshine and good things. Oh, what a difference a week makes.

<3