by syaffolee

Conference et al.: Wednesday in Brief

*Discovered that a wall below one of the escalators in the convention center is plastered with porcelain bowls and soup spoons. Not a hallucination.

*Morning caffeine!

*Listened to post-docs complaining about Philly cheesestakes. “That’s all they have here! Except maybe pizza.” Decided not to interrupt the ranting with the Afghani place I ate at yesterday.

*First lecture: “What questions? You can’t question history!”

*Second and third lectures: Lots of interesting stuff about bacterial growth and gene regulation. Both talks from the same lab.

*Fourth lecture: Geez. Someone’s still studying the lac operon?

*Fifth lecture: Speaker says he is embroiled in a controversy with everyone else in his field. In the middle of the lecture, he accuses the audience for getting tired.

*Wandered around, filled out a survey, got a free Giant Microbe!

*Sixth lecture: Learned about some (relatively obscure?) certification for medical microbiologists. Apparently less than thirty percent who take the test pass. And in reality, most employers don’t even know the certification exists.

*Lunch!

*Seventh lecture: Scribbled like mad since speaker went a little too fast.

*Eighth, ninth, and tenth lectures: These were structured like a hybrid multiple choice test/game show where the audience got to guess the microorganisms causing weird and wacky diseases. It was hilarious and probably the highlight of the conference.

*Met up with advisor and a research scientist in another lab. Wandered around the old town and the waterfront.

*Dinner was at the City Tavern Restaurant. Yes, the waitstaff was in colonial costume. But the food was good, so who cares about the costumes?

*Taxi driver: “What are you smiling for?” Well, sooorrry. I was just trying to be nice.