Sunday, October 18, 2009


What’s happened since the last post??? Well, the last post was right before the Italian odyssey. How did that go? I spent one week in Turin at the meeting of the European Society of Evolutionary Biologists (yes, I am a member). The conference was both interesting and disappointing. Given that there were 1400 participants, most people could not give a talk. On the positive side, though, most of the talks were of high quality and I really learned a lot. It was humbling going to a conference full of so many extremely clever people, most smarter than me, the humble parasitologist. As for my research, I presented, along with 800 other people, a poster. That was disappointing because, as there were several hundred other posters, people didn’t take much time to stop and discuss my work. I actually spent more time discussing my long forgotten PhD work with a few French acanth researchers than my current work detailed on my poster. Oh well. I’ve decided that the next conference I go to will be much smaller. A colleague of mine says the next international fish parasitology conference is somewhere in S. America…

After “working” in Turin, my holiday began. I flew to Rome to meet Ines and my parents. We spent several days in Rome taking in sites like the Vatican, the Spanish steps, and the Colloseum. Rome was less dirty and more charming than I anticipated, and it is certainly a must-see for any world traveler. But the most memorable part of the visit to Rome was the brutal heat. I’ve spent the last few summers in N. Europe, so I although I yearned for scorching summer temps, I was prepared for the 30 plus degree heat. I am just glad that my folks survived the hikes around Rome without passing out from heatstroke. After thoroughly exploring the treasures of Rome, we headed north to Florence, hometown of Michelangelo. Florence is all about Renaissance art…too bad that we were all sick of the Renaissance after Rome. Nonetheless, we did go to see Michelangelo’s Dave, which was deserving of its reputation. It’s a breathtaking piece of art. We also visited the church in which Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli were buried, which shows what an intellectual center Florence was. After a couple days in Florence, Ines flew back to Germany. On the same day, my sister arrived from Spain, and it was great to see her. The last time we had seen each other was in New York for Christmas 2006, but that doesn’t mean that our sibling rivalry has been settled and forgotten. Whenever she got a bit snotty I had to reestablish my authoritative position as older brother and smack her around a bit. She puts up more of a fight than she used to . The evening before we left Florence, we had a memorable dinner at the corner restaurant Quattro Leonies. The whole fam was tipsy enough after two bottles of wine to engage in a group hug…there’s just something about Italy. The next stop on our trip was Five Chimneys Bed and Breakfast in the Piemont. This little B&B caters to Omahans, of all people, because the Italian owner worked in Omaha for 13 years before getting fired. The newspaper in Omaha did a story on his B&B and he’s been inundated with Nebraskan guests ever since. Situated between the Alps and the Mediterranean, it is in the middle of red wine country. Our host took us on two very nice excursions, one to the mountains and one to the sea. I particularly enjoyed the trip down to “La Cinque Terra”, the five lands. These are 5 little villages located along the Med that look as if they’re about to fall into the sea. They were so charming that my mom wanted to puke, literally…ok, maybe it was sea sickness rather than charm. The highlight of our stay in the Piedmont, however, was not the excursions; it was the food. The wife of our host was a master chef, and she treated us to the best of Italian cuisine. On our first evening, we had a 5-course meal (yeah, 5!, appetizer, pasta, meat dish, cheese, dessert). My dad picked up numerous tips, while I picked up a few pounds. Our hostess went all stereotypical Italian mama on me. She didn’t ask if I wanted seconds, she just piled it on.

Reality was waiting for me after returning from Italy. At the end of September, our Institute was visited by the scientific advisory board. Every two years, the board writes a critical report about the research we are conducting. Their job is to decide whether we deserve the generous government funding we receive. In the summer, we wrote a long report detailing all the spectacular research we’ve done the past two years, and during the board’s visit I, among others, had the job of convincing the board that we’re gonna keep doing great research the next two years. I was surprisingly nervous before this talk to the board, as I felt like my job depended on it. In the end, though, it proceeded like most other talks. All I can do now is hope that the talk was well-received. If not, then I should probably start looking for new work…

So what’s up next? Experiments, yes, but more importantly another fantastical trip. Ines and I are trying to put together a holiday in India. My brother has been in Chennai since September, and we are keen to visit him. Exciting.