Last 2 weeks

Last week, I went to Marseilles for a conference on visualizing the immune system at le Centre d’Immunologie Marseilles-Luminy. It was more or less entirely paid for by my program, which was cool, but we basically spent the entire week sitting in a lecture hall, which was not. We did get to spend a little time in the city center and were able to walk out to the coast where I did a little bouldering.

On the way back, we had a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam, so we caught a train into the city and wandered around. It’s a beautiful city, but in order to experience it fully, I think I have to go back when it’s not Sunday morning. When we got back, I was picked up from the airport by my roommate and we drove directly to Washington D.C. for Obama’s inauguration: a grand total of 28 hours of straight traveling (with 2 hours sleep in that time). We woke up Tuesday morning around 6am and walked into the city from Virginia to get a spot near the Washington monument. We could see the capitol building from where we were, but had to watch the actual events on the jumbotrons.

Now it’s back to work. Classes start on Wednesday, but I already have like 8 papers assigned. This semester is gonna be rough…