Wisconsin

Like any other scientist, I have to attend conferences once in a while. After going to San Jose last November, I had now the chance to bring up my state count to five. I currently live in Illinois, I went to Georgia to meet my friends Heather and Jon, I went to California for another conference, and finally I spent the New Year's Eve and Day 2010 in Michigan. (I didn't write about the last one, but it was very nice!) The Physical Electronics Conference 2010 was held in Milwaukee, WI, so there was not much traveling needed. My colleague Jun (who later made the second place in the poster presentations) drove us about 100 miles north, always following more or less the lakeside. The first night there was just a welcome reception. Fortunately I had the opening slot for the entire conference, so soon enough I could get over with my talk (which went okay, should anyone care). Then I could relax (and wear more comfortable clothes, even though I enjoyed being able to show off my posh outfit another time) and follow the other presentations without worries. Fortunately the first World Cup matches of each day finished just in time for the first session of the day, so I could even watch Germany-Serbia live! Unfortunately the game was just the worst case scenario for Germany - after about half an hour they had to play with one man down, due to a red card, then one minute later Germany scored the only goal of the game, and to conclude a truly abysmal experience, after about one hour Germany missed a penalty kick. Then I was ready to go home to Chicago!