The title 'sunny San Diego trip' describes better about how I felt rather than the fact. Although the weather was actually cloudy when we were in San Diego, the pleasure of going from 25'F to upper 50s still made me feel so light-hearted and free. "Sunny california, here I come!" I whispered to myself. Well, I could not really see sunshine, but I could feel it living in my heart.
Since the trip was in name of neuroscience, I think I should start this article by talking about the Neuroscience conference ( oh, are you about to skip this paragraph? ha! I got you! But I promise this will be the least nerdy scientific paragraph you have ever read!) To me, the most amazing parts about the society for neuroscience (sfn) were networking and people watching. I actually felt that the main purpose of the conference was to provide an environment for people to meet old friends, to have non-rat/non-monkey/non-machine interaction, and of course to watch big names you always read about in papers. For example, even me, some quiet, non-alcoholic, social phobic grad. student went to several social events. At first, it just seemed strange not to do so. You would not want to stay in hotel after flying all the way from Ann Arbor to San Diego. It turned out that I actually had a not-so-bad time talking to people and hanging out with people I work with. Of course it was not fantastic in terms of depth, but it was simply good to get out of daily routine with screaming rodents and have some interaction with primates that talk back. Another interesting thing at the conference was "star watching". All those big names we always read about suddenly became so real and substantial. I even had dinner in the same Mexican restaurant with some Nobel prize winner, and as usual, heard some gossip about him. I actually wondered if Conventional Center in SD was the spot that had the highest density of Nobel prize winners in the past few days! ( I saw two...just by walking around)
Other than the conventional center where sfn was held, I also visited UCSD, Old Town, Tijuana in Mexico, and Conorado Island in SD.
Since the trip was in name of neuroscience, I think I should start this article by talking about the Neuroscience conference ( oh, are you about to skip this paragraph? ha! I got you! But I promise this will be the least nerdy scientific paragraph you have ever read!) To me, the most amazing parts about the society for neuroscience (sfn) were networking and people watching. I actually felt that the main purpose of the conference was to provide an environment for people to meet old friends, to have non-rat/non-monkey/non-machine interaction, and of course to watch big names you always read about in papers. For example, even me, some quiet, non-alcoholic, social phobic grad. student went to several social events. At first, it just seemed strange not to do so. You would not want to stay in hotel after flying all the way from Ann Arbor to San Diego. It turned out that I actually had a not-so-bad time talking to people and hanging out with people I work with. Of course it was not fantastic in terms of depth, but it was simply good to get out of daily routine with screaming rodents and have some interaction with primates that talk back. Another interesting thing at the conference was "star watching". All those big names we always read about suddenly became so real and substantial. I even had dinner in the same Mexican restaurant with some Nobel prize winner, and as usual, heard some gossip about him. I actually wondered if Conventional Center in SD was the spot that had the highest density of Nobel prize winners in the past few days! ( I saw two...just by walking around)
Other than the conventional center where sfn was held, I also visited UCSD, Old Town, Tijuana in Mexico, and Conorado Island in SD.
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