December 2006, Salzburg.

This week has perhaps been the most hectic one week since I came here. First, there were all the organizational and technical details of the international scientific conference that some of us grad students organized on Thursday and Friday and on which we had been working on for almost a year, then the data seminar I had to present in the lab on Wednesday, then the poster of my research work I had to design and print in time for the above conference, then gettting my passport renewed in time so that I can get my visa extended before it expires later this month, then the payment and delivery issues with the cameras I bought off ebay, then dealing with my ever expanding mice, etc etc! Somehow, in the end everything went off smoothly and successfully. Especially the conference. Even if I say so myself, everyone, from the invited speakers to the participants, were totally impressed with the quality and professional organization of the conference. We even had a live band for the welcome party whose music was liked by all, the food was delicious, the wine surprisingly good and the Caipirinha’s decent. I guess all the hard work paid off even if I almost broke a finger while crushing ice for the cocktails by hitting it with a wooden mallet! Next year it will be even bigger as apparently a Nobel laureate has agreed to give a talk.

Now, as I relax and unwind, I’m led to believe, after how this week passed off, that there is something called hope after all.