Well, that sucked.

The conference in Germany was definitely one I'll remember.  Not so sure in a good way.  the train there was ridiculously long due to construction.  It only takes 2-3 hours to drive, but I got a 7 hours train trip.  Also, one of my trains was late, causing me to miss a connection and get to the conference an hour and a half late.  Oh. And you can't forget the car that almost hit me!

The lectures were intellectually stimulating, but most didn't stress the main point enough to really get what they were talking about.  It was also aimed to an audience with more background knowledge than me.  So I only understood about half of what was going on.  However, there were 15-20 people out of about 60 that have less background knowledge than me.  These were the people who told me that my poster was the only thing in the WHOLE conference they understood.

So, I was the only Bachelor student there.  And apparently, that was a problem.  NOWHERE does it say that I CAN'T come or even that I SHOULDN'T come.  But I got treated like a child and an idiot by almost everyone there.  NORMALLY when someone presents a poster, other people come over and talk to them about their project and ask them to explain the poster and clarify a few points.  I had people come over and QUIZ me on what they think I should know!  Just who do they think they are all high and mighty?!  I also had someone come over, fully intent on asking questions, he asked what degree I was pursuing.  I told him, and he left!  Just left!  Apparently I wasn't WORTHY of speaking with.  And after word got around that I was a bachelor student, not only did a lot of people refuse to speak to me, some even wouldn't make eye-contact.  How ridiculous can you be?  I am a student who needs to learn!  You should be teaching me!  I can deal with not being respected as a scientist because most of the people there knew a lot more than I do.  But not to be respected as a person?!  COME ON!!! GET OVER YOURSELF!!!!!

Ok.  That's enough ranting.  I did find a few people to bond with who were quite nice, a little on the awkward or unexperienced side, but nice.  I even got to practice a little Japanese (Lord knows I need that!).

Needless to say,  I will definitely NOT go into this field in Europe.  Maybe I'll find a conference in the states and hopefully it's better there.

Well, tomorrow we leave at 8:15 am (gross!) for the group retreat.  That means a purely social retreat with my colleagues.  We're going boating and playing a traditional Dutch game which is called "Farmer's Golf." It involves a typical wooden shoe on a stick and a large ball. lol.  I can't wait.  We're also going to a pancake restaurant on a pirate themed ship.  Too cute!