07.25.06 evening and 07.26.06

And retire early I did. I took the long way home by the tall ship and made it back to the dorm around 9:30. I instantly fell asleep while I had a lie down, trying to figure out what I wanted for dinner. I awoke around midnight, took out my eyes, did five minutes of sudoku by streetlight and fell back asleep. Only to wake up again at 2 AM with a massive bout of insomnia. Not good since I wanted to be up at the convention center by 8 AM for the meeting/ breakfast with the executives of the Biochemical Society. I ran into the Sudanese student, who asked if he could come along. One coffee, one croissant and One Mohammed later, we joined the Brits for a sit down – talking about the conference, the perception in the eyes of the attendees, the future of science and biochemistry. Basically easy stuff.
I learned that this is the second to last large meeting, after which they will revert to smaller focused meetings.
Then on to the talks of the day, in which there were more that I was interested.
Lunch was with a Swedish Professor from the Karolinska who talked ad nauseum about the problem Sweden has with immigrants from Croatia, Serbia and Iraq. Apparently they all refuse to learn Swedish and demand Muslim holidays be observed in the schools. When she learned that I was from Brandeis, she started in on Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and how the Jews were the ones doing the persecuting now.
There was some interest in my poster. I had some walk throughs, not too busy but I was thankful for that because of the heat in the vendor room.

The boss came by and apologized for “abandoning” me this week. What?!? She was concerned about how I was fairing and offered me dinner. I said yes to the dinner but told her I not to worry; I was reveling in being single and independent again – if only for a week.
I rushed back to the dorm to deposit the posters and do a quick change – my shin splints were flaring and I managed to just miss the train that would get me to the boss’s hotel on time. Oops.
We went to a seafood/fish place called Gamba. It was a delicious, albeit pricey, meal.
We had ‘the Talk.’ What do I want to be when I grow up?
She wholeheartedly backs my having a lab, if that is what I want. I told her all about TSB. Her comment was that was everyone’s dream. I agreed, but with so much, there is so much to lose. Alas.
She dashed off after dinner for the Horror tour, sadly no tickets left for me. I am currently sitting in St. George Square in front of the statue of Robert Burns, who died at the tender age of 37.