San Francisco Day #2

International Studies Association
Annual Convention 2013
The Politics of International Diffusion: Regional and Global Dimensions
San Francisco, California
April 3-6, 2013

The day started out very raining and foggy, which was not fun as the Marriott Hotel is 6 blocks away from the ISA Hilton Hotel. The first lecture up was “Presidential Theme Roundtable- Variations in the International Diffusion of Power and Their Consequences: The Politics of International Diffusion: Regional and Global Dimensions” with chairs Richard Rosecrance and Arthur Stein with participants Andrew Moravcsik, Andrew Hurrell, and Joseph Nye. The talk was packed with people standing at the back and sitting in the aisle.

I had a ticket to the CFR discussion and lunch on globalization and democratic deficit with Charles Kupchan and Francis Fukuyama, but instead I took a Segway tour of San Francisco with the City Segway Tours with fellow IDV PhD student Majid (Majid had previously Segwayed with his wife in Europe and I had Segwayed in Minneapolis by the Mississippi with some family friends and my Mom a few years ago). Luckily the rain had stopped and the sun tried to peek through the fog and clouds a few times, so basically it turned into a nice, sometimes chilly, but very windy day. We took the 3 hour San Francisco Segway Tour and it was fantastic. After a safety video and training, we practiced in a parking lot and then hit the streets. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf, saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz at a dozen different locations, drove though Hyde Street Pier, Aquatic Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Marina District. We went up a hill, which was fine and then down a hill, which was fine. One time when we stopped to look at Alcatraz, I had one foot on the ground and one on the Segway and the Segway started to spin and spin and spin. The Segway hit me and the curb and then I got some help and everything was fine. Later on going down the second to the last hill I almost lost control and died. Nope, not exaggerating. The hill was really steep, I was going too fast, there were cars, and we had to stop for a stop sign. I called for the guide and said ‘Ann I need help’ very calmly. Ann told me to lean back to slow it down and when that did not work she grabbed the handlebars of my Segway to get me to slow down and stop. Later she said that was the first time she had to grab the handlebars of anyone’s Segway to get them to stop. She also said that she was amazed that I was so calm and that I did not scream. Then we had one more hill to go down and I also needed verbal directions to slow down. I don’t think I will be ready to take the Segway tour of Lombard Street anytime soon. But Segways are so much fun! I cannot wait to try them again. Then it was off to supper to Scoma’s where I had the Petrale Dore- which was nice. I am not a seafood fan, but as we were at a restaurant that specialized in fish and catches their own, I went with the fish. Besides being the place for fish, Scoma’s also has walls filled with signed photos of famous people (Sinatra, Lee Marvin, a few astronauts, etc).