I'm home!

I got back into town Friday night but due to not having a house key (I was going to meet my husband at the airport, but his flight got delayed and he missed his connection, so didn't land until Saturday afternoon) I ended up staying with some friends. I had a busy weekend doing laundry and trying to get caught up on stuff.

I had a great trip and the conference was wonderful! I have never been to one like that before, where they take such good care of you! They fed us lunch everyday and had 3 planned dinners so we didn't have to worry about stuff. Plus because you see the same people for 5 days straight you actually get to meet a lot of people and connect a lot of faces with names and the work you know. It had a really interesting panel discussion where experts were really candid about issues in our field of study and then the audience participated as well. Plus, the organizers had asked the speakers to address some big picture questions in their talks, so it wasn't just method, result, discussion, but larger themes and theories. You can learn so much more that way about perspectives, overall lab goals, and directions certain PI's/labs are moving in. It was definitely a worthwhile conference and I really hope I can go to it again someday!

The conference was in Germany so I went to Berlin for a couple days after the conference and E met me there. I really enjoyed the city even though I wasn't really expecting too. We toured as many museums as we could in that short time and saw some amazing pieces of history and art, such as the Pergamon alter from 180 B.C. We then flew to Milan and took the train to Florence. Which was E's and mine favorite place. It is beautiful city and the people were friendly and the food was fantastic! We took the train to Venice and although the city is fascinating there were just too many tourists for me. We took the train back to Milan, and flew back to Berlin and then the next day flew back to the states. It was fast trip, but a really great one and I'm thankful we got to do it. We saw many elderly couples in Florence and Venice walking slowly on the cobblestones and we were both thankful we got to experience these places without the additional complication of old age aches and pains.