VCBM conference in Sweden
It's been a while already, but I thought I'd post a couple (= lots) of words anyway. :)
End of September, just after moving to a new flat (which is right next to university), Peter (friend, office mate, fellow medvis person, previous tenant of my new flat) and I flew to Sweden for the VCBM conference in Norrköping.
After getting up crazy early (my bus to the station went at half past six), and riding to Frankfurt, we took a plane to Arlanda airport in Stockholm. When we arrived, it didn't take long until the suitcases arrived. All but mine, that is. After all these flights I've taken, this was the first time this happened to me - and I was surprisingly calm about it. It was only lunch time, and I even saw a good chance of the suitcase arriving at Norrköping before I did.
I received my "Female Overnight Kit" consisting of deodorant, soap, toothbrush and paste, brush, an XL see-through white tshirt, and two plastic packs containing laundry detergent and an assortment of cotton-based hygiene products (q-tips, cotton pad, tampons). These plastic packs turned out to be almost indestructible with tools you're allowed to put in your carry-on luggage. Fingernails and teeth only showed effect after applying some serious force (resulting in a tiny hole which I had to tear open with even more force using a pen - incredibly tough material!).
Without worrying too much, Peter and I went on with our plans and had a look at Stockholm. I bought some underwear (just in case), and then we went to see the Wasa museum. It was really quite impressive to see that massive ship towering up right next to you. It sunk during its first tour, a short time after it left the haven. Cause: Construction fail. Due to the chemical properties of the water in that region, the ship was incredibly well-preserved over the centuries.
While we were walking through and absorbing all the information, I got a text message stating that my luggage had been found. Great - it was only 4 p.m.! Then, it was time to go to Norrköping. After little sleep the nights before, I spent most of the 1.5 hours on the train sleeping.
We arrived at the hotel, and after checking in I asked about my suitcase. It hadn't arrived yet. It was only 8 p.m. but I was starting to worry about my mobile phone's battery. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't have any microUSB chargers (two boxes of miniUSB ones though). While we had dinner at the pub next door, I received another text saying that the suitcase had arrived, without specifying the location. Probably Arlanda, because it wasn't at the hotel.
The next morning, it still hadn't arrived so I knew I'd have to present my paper in my travel clothes (comfortable, but not very pretty). The good thing about being a computer scientist is that nobody really cares about (or comments upon) your clothes. ;) Also, my (btw very cool) session chair Charl told me not to worry about that (certainly good to hear in that situation).
I was second in line after the keynote, so I didn't have much time to get nervous about what was going to be my first conference talk. Losing my suitcase did have its up-side: it kept my mind off the presentation itself. The talk itself was okay but not great. I didn't embarrass myself, but I also know I can do much better, too. Keeping in mind how chaotic the days (and weeks) before the conference were, I was quite satisfied. After that, I could fully enjoy the pretty awesome conference. There is a great sum-up of the sessions over at medvis.org! I should mention that it also features my talk, and since I'm boasting anyway: the same image you can see there is also on the cover of the proceedings! ;)
Apart from some really great scientific work, one of the highlight was a tour of the universe in the dome. The conference took place at the Visualisation Centre, in a Dome. And after all the paper sessions of the first day were over, Anders Ynnermann gave us a 3D tour of the universe, with imagery based entirely on real data from the NASA. Let me repeat that. REAL DATA. FROM THE NASA. \o/ We started at the ISS, saw a visualisation of the Earths magnetic field moving (really beautiful!), had a closer look at Mars, and then left the solar system (looking at the planetary movement), the galaxy, and finally, the universe (ok, so that last step was simulated), all while Anders fed us loads of really exciting information about all that. I've always been fascinated with space (and space travel), so that was a real treat for me.
This is the earth's magnetic field
There was still some time left before the conference dinner, so I got to charge my phone a bit - thanks to Alexander (a LiU student) who organised a charger for me! The conference dinner was quite tasty, and we got to know some great people a bit better. Also, apparently I ate boar - never had that before. If I had had to guess, I would have said beef rather than pork. ^^"
The next day had a lot of paper sessions again, and yet another Dome demo (and more information about how the dome was built), this time in 2D, for those who came back early after lunch. This time, we saw a (pre-made) movie going in the reverse direction, from macroscale (earth) down to microscale (sub-atomic level). Let me tell you that a several metres tall E.coli and HIV can be quite intimidating to look at ;) The capstone talk was given by the person who made all the nice illustrations for THE cell biology book (Pollard, Earnshaw), and who is working on a tool do create 3D animations of cell processes. Pretty cool, too. I talked to him a bit afterwards :) (Now that I think of it, I should have asked him to sign one of the illustration bookmarks for my cell biology professor.)
After that, Peter and I went back to Stockholm. Both of us still had most of our cash (almost everything we had to pay had to be paid by card), so we actively tried to get rid of it. Since we had to get up very early again the next morning, the main option we had was to go to a restaurant. We ended up at a nice Japanese place. When we were on our way to the door, we ran into Linn and Veronika from Bergen. We had already gotten along well with them during the conference, so we sat down for another drink and had a great chat.
Back at the hotel, I sat down on my bed and did some paperwork. My hotel room was on the ground floor, right next to the pavement. At some point, a couple stopped in front of my window and waved to me. :)
The next morning, we went back to Germany. It is quite notable that, in fact, we didn't have to show our passports a single time during the whole travel. We did both get full pat-downs though.
Around 3 p.m. I was back at my apartment... and had only slightly more than 48 hours to do laundry, and pack for my 3-month trip to the USA. XD
Here's a couple of more photos :)
Thanks to Peter, without whom I wouldn't have any photos of the first two days!!!
Random stuff I liked:
End of September, just after moving to a new flat (which is right next to university), Peter (friend, office mate, fellow medvis person, previous tenant of my new flat) and I flew to Sweden for the VCBM conference in Norrköping.
After getting up crazy early (my bus to the station went at half past six), and riding to Frankfurt, we took a plane to Arlanda airport in Stockholm. When we arrived, it didn't take long until the suitcases arrived. All but mine, that is. After all these flights I've taken, this was the first time this happened to me - and I was surprisingly calm about it. It was only lunch time, and I even saw a good chance of the suitcase arriving at Norrköping before I did.
I received my "Female Overnight Kit" consisting of deodorant, soap, toothbrush and paste, brush, an XL see-through white tshirt, and two plastic packs containing laundry detergent and an assortment of cotton-based hygiene products (q-tips, cotton pad, tampons). These plastic packs turned out to be almost indestructible with tools you're allowed to put in your carry-on luggage. Fingernails and teeth only showed effect after applying some serious force (resulting in a tiny hole which I had to tear open with even more force using a pen - incredibly tough material!).
Without worrying too much, Peter and I went on with our plans and had a look at Stockholm. I bought some underwear (just in case), and then we went to see the Wasa museum. It was really quite impressive to see that massive ship towering up right next to you. It sunk during its first tour, a short time after it left the haven. Cause: Construction fail. Due to the chemical properties of the water in that region, the ship was incredibly well-preserved over the centuries.
While we were walking through and absorbing all the information, I got a text message stating that my luggage had been found. Great - it was only 4 p.m.! Then, it was time to go to Norrköping. After little sleep the nights before, I spent most of the 1.5 hours on the train sleeping.
We arrived at the hotel, and after checking in I asked about my suitcase. It hadn't arrived yet. It was only 8 p.m. but I was starting to worry about my mobile phone's battery. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't have any microUSB chargers (two boxes of miniUSB ones though). While we had dinner at the pub next door, I received another text saying that the suitcase had arrived, without specifying the location. Probably Arlanda, because it wasn't at the hotel.
The next morning, it still hadn't arrived so I knew I'd have to present my paper in my travel clothes (comfortable, but not very pretty). The good thing about being a computer scientist is that nobody really cares about (or comments upon) your clothes. ;) Also, my (btw very cool) session chair Charl told me not to worry about that (certainly good to hear in that situation).
I was second in line after the keynote, so I didn't have much time to get nervous about what was going to be my first conference talk. Losing my suitcase did have its up-side: it kept my mind off the presentation itself. The talk itself was okay but not great. I didn't embarrass myself, but I also know I can do much better, too. Keeping in mind how chaotic the days (and weeks) before the conference were, I was quite satisfied. After that, I could fully enjoy the pretty awesome conference. There is a great sum-up of the sessions over at medvis.org! I should mention that it also features my talk, and since I'm boasting anyway: the same image you can see there is also on the cover of the proceedings! ;)
Apart from some really great scientific work, one of the highlight was a tour of the universe in the dome. The conference took place at the Visualisation Centre, in a Dome. And after all the paper sessions of the first day were over, Anders Ynnermann gave us a 3D tour of the universe, with imagery based entirely on real data from the NASA. Let me repeat that. REAL DATA. FROM THE NASA. \o/ We started at the ISS, saw a visualisation of the Earths magnetic field moving (really beautiful!), had a closer look at Mars, and then left the solar system (looking at the planetary movement), the galaxy, and finally, the universe (ok, so that last step was simulated), all while Anders fed us loads of really exciting information about all that. I've always been fascinated with space (and space travel), so that was a real treat for me.
This is the earth's magnetic field
There was still some time left before the conference dinner, so I got to charge my phone a bit - thanks to Alexander (a LiU student) who organised a charger for me! The conference dinner was quite tasty, and we got to know some great people a bit better. Also, apparently I ate boar - never had that before. If I had had to guess, I would have said beef rather than pork. ^^"
The next day had a lot of paper sessions again, and yet another Dome demo (and more information about how the dome was built), this time in 2D, for those who came back early after lunch. This time, we saw a (pre-made) movie going in the reverse direction, from macroscale (earth) down to microscale (sub-atomic level). Let me tell you that a several metres tall E.coli and HIV can be quite intimidating to look at ;) The capstone talk was given by the person who made all the nice illustrations for THE cell biology book (Pollard, Earnshaw), and who is working on a tool do create 3D animations of cell processes. Pretty cool, too. I talked to him a bit afterwards :) (Now that I think of it, I should have asked him to sign one of the illustration bookmarks for my cell biology professor.)
After that, Peter and I went back to Stockholm. Both of us still had most of our cash (almost everything we had to pay had to be paid by card), so we actively tried to get rid of it. Since we had to get up very early again the next morning, the main option we had was to go to a restaurant. We ended up at a nice Japanese place. When we were on our way to the door, we ran into Linn and Veronika from Bergen. We had already gotten along well with them during the conference, so we sat down for another drink and had a great chat.
Back at the hotel, I sat down on my bed and did some paperwork. My hotel room was on the ground floor, right next to the pavement. At some point, a couple stopped in front of my window and waved to me. :)
The next morning, we went back to Germany. It is quite notable that, in fact, we didn't have to show our passports a single time during the whole travel. We did both get full pat-downs though.
Around 3 p.m. I was back at my apartment... and had only slightly more than 48 hours to do laundry, and pack for my 3-month trip to the USA. XD
Here's a couple of more photos :)
Thanks to Peter, without whom I wouldn't have any photos of the first two days!!!
Random stuff I liked:
- tour of the universe in the dome!!!
- restrooms that are not gender-segregated
- Wasa
- conference in a dome
- interesting talks at VCBM
- meeting lots of nice people (again)
- oh and did I mention the dome?