So finally I did what I left home to do a month ago...THE TALK. Tracey wouldn't like me calling it "the talk" she would say it's too vague, so for Tracey, who will never read this anyway, from here on in I will refer to the talk as the individual research paper presentation. Perhaps not...
Anyway, thanks heaps for the messages of support from home! It meant a lot so thanks friends! It went really well. I was last out of 6 in my stream (psycho-social aspects of cancer) so I was quite relaxed by the time it was my turn. I wore the t-shirt and got a good reaction to that, and also a good response to my presentation. A bunch of people approached me afterwards asking interesting questions and requesting handouts and getting my email address. Hours later in the evening, a bunch of girls actually approached me in the street and told me they were in the room for my presentation and how much they liked it, etc. It was almost embarrassing.
After my presentation I met a very interesting junior academic from the States who really shared a lot of wisdom and insight with me about the research world, and she gave me some good advice about where to send my writing for publication based on what she saw in my talk, so I am just so stoked at how it all turned out, because it led to me meeting some really interesting people.
I was also hugely suprised after my presentation to find my parents at the uni! They were in London for the last leg of their holiday, and had decided to day-trip to Bath and see me after I was done with my responsibilities. It was actually nice to have someone to celebrate with after it was all over. I was really touched that they did that, though if you had have asked me a month ago I would have said I didn't want anyone there. But actually, it was a pleasant suprise. They took me out to lunch, dad and I had a beer to celebrate, and then I felt like I could relax and just enjoy the rest of my time here. After lunch the 'rents took off to the city and I went to yet another lecture.
The conference has been really fantastic all round. It's so cool to be here with heaps of people doing the same kind of stuff. All other conferences I've been to have been so broad, it's hard to find anyone doing research in the same area as me, but here is so different. It's been a lot of fun. There's definitely some amusing celebrity status stuff going on here too. I was looking at someone's poster and there was a man standing in front of me, and he turned around and I was like "My goodness it's Gaston Godin!" Anyone??No, ok...I'm a nerd. I had this conversation at dinner with an academic who said to me "Did you know Mark Conner was here today??!! No-one saw him but apparently he called in briefly to one of the sessions. So apparently these people are so important that myths and rumours about their presence excite the plebs. I do know this is ridiculous, by the way.
Actually I've been surprised by how many non-nerds there are here. Perhaps they are neo-nerds, as opposed to the more traditional nerd, of which there have only been a few, and actually they tend to be the younger ones.
Last night the conference organisers had arranged for us to have an evening tour of the Roman Baths, with a wine reception and dinner out afterwards. I ended up at a restaurant with a bunch of PhD students from Sheffield! That's exciting because I did part of my undergrad degree there, and some of the best researchers in my field come from there, and these PhD students had those guys as supervisors. So that was really good fun, and there was more email swapping, handout swapping, and the all-important question..."Are you on facebook?"
My disease is gone, but I do have a very attractive eye infection, just in time for the formal conference dinner tonight. I'm eye-dropping like a crazy person to try and make it go away. I also didn't realise how dressy the dinner was when I packed a month ago, so I had nothing suitable to wear. So naturally I just HAD to go into town in our lunch break today and buy a (cheap) dress. I didn't have much choice because I have just 1 pair of not-very-versatile shoes so I had to find something to go with them...I ended up with something that I moderately like, that was as reasonably priced as I was going to find in pounds.
Better run, got another symposium to go to...chaired by Gaston Godin! Hooray! ;-)
p.s. I just realised that today is the 9/11 anniversary. Not sure what to say about that, just thought it deserved recognition.
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