The St. Louis Chronicles - Day 4

This conference thing has been a pretty good gig so far.  I went to a session on Wednesday morning, put in some time at the booth, and then met up for lunch with a person I worked with in South Africa.  We went and had St. Louis style pizza.  They have deep dish here too. Here is the difference: cornmeal in the crust.  Instead of just using the cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking to the pizza stone in the oven, the cornmeal goes into the crust and gives it this extra sweetness and crunch.  Also, in their deep dish they put the sauce on top and they use Provel cheese, which I can't really explain except to say that it's not provolone and it's not mozzarella.  My pizza though, was delicious, and I plan on eating it again.  

I had such a good time with my former colleague that I got locked out of my afternoon session because I got there too late and there were too many people already.  Since I didn't have anything else scheduled for the afternoon and the booth was covered, I headed out to do see the City Museum at long last.  

In all my research before coming to St. Louis, the City Museum was at the top of everyone's list.  Each person I talked to that had been here said do not miss this place.  I can see why now.  Walking into the space is like walking into a petri dish of creativity.  I always wonder how things like this get started.  Did someone just have a leftover school bus, some oil drills, a jet plane, and lots of pieces of buildings and thing, hey, this could be a museum!  If that's how it happened, then I am in awe.  I am still in awe though because it seems to me that the museum is made of entirely recycled materials. In one room they have a collection of old doorknobs.  In another room, old opera posters are on display, along with the door of a bank vault leading to a hall of mirrors.  There are kid sized tunnels and slides connecting all the rooms that make it so that only the little ones can spelunk between rooms.  They have ball pits and ropes to climb on.  An enchanted forest maze that is big enough for adults, an aquarium, a ten-story slide, an adult-sized ball pit, and so many other things to climb and play in.  The rooftop is particularly awesome.  They have a chute that you climb up and slide down, they have a birdcage that you can climb up that overlooks the whole city.  

I would counsel anyone going to the city museum not to wear a dress, as I did.  I had to get creative to avoid flashing people as I climbed, crawled, slid and hopped my way through the tunnels, chutes, and ladders.  Conferencing and the required attire do not lend themselves well to playtime but if you only have a few hours, you have to make the most of them.  Thanks to stretchy fabric and some strategic knots, I was able to enjoy the museum and not be forcibly removed for exposing myself to minors.  I was absolutely the oldest person in the museum who was not a parent.

After the city museum I had about 2 hours before I had to be at the reception our co-op of Gulf Coast countries was throwing for our partners that evening.  I had heard good things about the Missouri Botanical gardens and since it was halfway to my destination already, I decided to go for it.  

A word about public transport in St. Louis: it is very easy to use but is based on most people having cars, therefore it does not run very frequently.  Even during rush hours, the buses come every 40 minutes.  But everyone who uses it is very nice and it provides a look into the city I don't think I would have ever gotten otherwise.   I took a bus to the brewery on Monday and witnessed a very interesting interaction.  A young guy had been sitting all the way at the back of the bus and moved to the front of the bus after an older woman sat down.  He immediately started hitting on her.  He couldn't have been more than 22, she was at least 40.  She sat down, we sat down, he immediately moved up and struck up conversation with her.   They engaged in pretty lively conversation from what I could tell.  She sounded like she has been chain smoking for at least 20 years.  My stop came up before theirs so I don't know how they left it, but props for boldness!  I've been conversing with security guards and housekeeping staff about how to get here and there and they have without exception been so kind and helpful.  St. Louis has hospitality down and some of the best evidence of that is in the public transport system.  Everyone seemed excited to have the conference in town.


So I took the bus to the botanical gardens.  Even though I have only been off my feet to sleep for the last three days, the walk twisting through the gardens and the "Climatron" were an oasis of calm and restorative.  Botanical gardens have turned out to be some of my favorite stops in many of the cities in which I have found them.  St. Louis's is no exception and is one of the most impressive I have seen, complete with community vegetable garden and many different kinds of climates represented.  The Ottoman Garden was one of my favorite parts.  Spending some time by ponds, waterfalls, and beautiful natural things was really lovely and necessary to recover from the crush of being in close quarters with 8000 people for days on end.

After the gardens I hussled over to the reception.  All the GCC countries get together at every NAFSA to host an event and this year we had it at a fantastic Syrian restaurant in The Loop.  The food was incredible and the people who ran the restaurant were from the hometown of the organizer and my colleague.  It was great to meet so many different people and hear about different impressions of NAFSA conferencing from first timers and seasoned attendees alike.  After the reception I was so exhausted I couldn't muster the strength to join some people for drinks.  Apparently the 360 bar at their hotel provides one of the best views of the city, second maybe only to the Arch (and the rooftop of the City Museum!).