Finally Here...

Sharon and I arrived in Italy, an hour and 40 minutes earlier than we were supposed to. Kate had arranged for us a ride back to the conference center. It felt so refreshing to breath natural air. We had been indoors for so long.

Seeing the sites of Italy, from the airport to the hotel were beautiful. I have taken tons of pictures so far unfortunately, my trusty laptop that I always travel with, I believe has become short lived. It will not access Wi-Fi nor will it gain internet access with a network cable so the pictures will be on hold until I figure it out.

The delays were so worth the view from the balcony in my room (and here is where I would insert a picture). The hotel is located on the side of a mountain valley and it is simply breath taking. Okay..back to reality. When Sharon and I arrived we were warmly greeted by Kate with hugs and kisses and then told to eat and be ready in 30 minutes...lol. Oh everyone forgot for a second that I was here for work. Well Kate was nice enough to rearrange the schedule so that Sharon could present this afternoon since she missed her presentation this morning. Sharon did great, considering how tired she was.

Three students from Johns Hopkins had the opportunity to attend this conference, Tommy Tong, Laura Beasman, and Stephanie Fraley. Tommy and Laura are both supported through INBT by the IGERT grant and have Kate as their co-advisor. Stephanie is supported by Denis Wirtz. The students are presenting their posters as I type this blog (again this is where I would insert some pictures).

It is about 1 pm back home and 7 pm here in Italy. The students are being judged on the content, creativity, and discussion. Yes, discussion, because the students have to be able to discuss with the judges their research, what it means and why it is important.

After the poster session, we will have dinner and then because of serious jetlag, I will be going to sleep.

I hope to keep in contact but since my laptop refuses to connect to the internet it may be hard.