ISDCI Conference, Day 1

So as not to bore everyone, I’ll try to keep the conference stuff brief. Unfortunately, most days I'm here I'm doing mostly conference stuff, but there may be some other fun things thrown in there for good measure.

Since last night, I met my roommate for the week. He’s from Japan and isn’t a very strong English speaker, but we communicate well enough. He seems to be a really cool guy, so I’m sure there won’t be any major problems while we’re roommates.

I also found out that the room they moved us to because our original one had a leaky sink is actually a downgrade. We were supposed to get superior rooms, but now we’re in a standard room. That’s all they could put us in. I think we should get some sort of refund or something since we paid for a superior room. Maybe there will be more money in my reimbursement (though I doubt it).

A strange thing happened last night. The TV spontaneously turned on at 1:30AM and woke us both up. We have no idea why it did that. Neither of us set up a timer. Ghosts in the room, I guess.

This morning we all had a free buffet breakfast, then were welcomed to the conference. After that, there was one one-hour plenary talk, followed by a coffee break. Then the actual science presentations started. There are multiple topics of talks to choose from each day, and you’re free to keep switching rooms throughout the day to hear what you want to hear. I just decided to stay with the “Innate Immune Cells, Apoptosis, Growth Factors” section since they had the more interesting talks.

Free lunch was provided by the conference. Just like breakfast, it was buffet style.

Tonight, we all went to the Brevnov Benedictine Monastery for a welcome cocktail party. It’s pretty amazing that they managed to fit all 400+ of us in there. The place was beautiful, and the food they served us was delicious. They had everything from ham and pork, to pasta, to fruit and salads, to various h’ors douvres (spelling?), and to a cheese plate. I almost overloaded on cheese! The dessert try was also varied but everything was really good. I had some sort of cherry pudding and a peach parfait. We also had a string quartet as entertainment. They know how to throw a great welcome party here.

I managed to walk around the monastery some and get some pictures. Otherwise, there weren’t any pictures to be taken. I should be able to get a ton on Wednesday, though, when I go on a tour of the city.

Tomorrow, more conference…

(This post was actually posted at 11:03PM Prague time)