I have just a couple minutes before we run out to forage for some dinner-type food, but I thought I’d check in. My poster is now done. As is the whole conference. It was a great conference, and I had fun with the poster. I tend to forget how tiring it is to give a poster, though, and I actually lost my voice for a bit. What with the talking for an hour and 40 minutes. Plus I was, and this may come as a bit of a shock, a bit sleep-deprived. But, it went well.
It was actually quite remarkable that we had the physical poster to put up. One of my co-authors was bringing it, and had left it in her office in Massachusetts. Her husband went and retrieved it, and FedExed it. It was due to arrive Monday. And it did, in fact, arrive in Germany by Monday. But not to the correct city. Somehow, it managed to find its way to us yesterday, in time for today’s poster session. I did not need to resort to scribbling a poster with crayons
We head to Paris tomorrow, which I’m very excited about. By TGV, if all goes according to plan. (We do have the tickets this time…)
I’d hoped to post a bit before now, but have had sort of minimal access to computers. We brought John’s laptop, but there has been little “free” time. Then somebody, somebody cute and small, though I won’t name names…somebody stepped on the laptop yesterday. Leading to a compressed trackpad button, requiring some purchasing of some tools, and then some taking aparting of the laptop. But it’s better now, though still a bit crushed.
Now we must go find some dinner. It’s been a bit of a challenge to find tasty food, as German cooking tends to be rather meat-oriented. And we are not. Meat-oriented. The various university places have had vegetarian options, but, well, it’s pretty much been cafeteria food. We found a good restaurant Wednesday night, while off on an excursion to a nearby city named Völklingen. (I’ll hopefully write about that trip soon.) There is also a vegetarian restaurant here in Saarbrücken, but the food is pretty heavy. Maybe we’ll head back there. I’m also bound and determined to get me some tasty baked goods, which I have yet to do.
collecting tokens 
Your poster story reminds me of when I gave my poster in Japan last Feb. I had mine in hand, and managed to get it all the way there, despite my 4 plane changes. My colleague, Jeff, forgot his poster in Boston. I had forgotten to make handouts. Jeff was able to find a FedEx-Kinko’s–in Japan–and hilarity ensued.
Walking into a Japanese Kinko’s is quite bizarre. It looks just like an American Kinko’s, but no one speaks English. And generally, my Japanese vocabulary for office supplies and hey, can you photocopy this for me is a little rusty. I walked in, held up my thumb drive, and said,
photocopy-wa…
photocopy-TOP
As for photocopies..?
It also doesn’t help that the Japanese phrase wakaremasem means both “I don’t understand” and “I don’t know”. So every time the Kinko’s girl asked me a question, I replied with wakaremasem. She probably thought I was having a conversation with her. In the end the photocopies were made, and not a word of English was spoken.
To celebrate my photocopying success, I went to the “Mister Donut” next door and got me a green tea donut.
Until the next adventure, bon voyage…
Hello, nice to see someone post from Germany! I know Saarbrücken, really not the most beautiful city in the world, but Völklingen is impressive. As for the food, you are definitely in the wrong part of Germany for vegetarian food! Local fare in the Sarre region tends to be meaty.
Have fun on the trip to Paris!
Best wishes,
Sedha.
Alejna —
Re German food: It must be difficult to be not into meat and in Germany. OTOH, hope you’ve been taking advantage of the preponderance of wonderful bread(s) and other baked goods that can be found in Germany!
jeanerz-
I love your 3-line format example. Photocopy-wa. Ha! And a green tea donut. Neato.
sedha-
Völklingen was indeed impressive. And Saarbrücken, while not exactly pretty, was pleasant, and the people were very friendly. I was sorry not to have had a bit more time there. (Thanks for stopping by, by the way.)
YTSL-
It was a bit of a challenge, the non-meat-eating. And I made sure to at least make one extra trip to a bakery on our last day–I didn’t get as many yummy baked goods as I’d hoped, due mostly to schedule constraints of the conference, and other time pressures.