Tag Archives: conference

Canadam 2015

Last week I made a flying visit to Canada for this annual meeting (it’s hard to imagine any other type given the distance, but it was particularly short – less than 72 hours in the country). I was invited by Steve Melczer, an impressive PhD student who seems to have read my coauthored book better than anyone alive, and with whom I hope to collaborate this year. Despite the arduous travel, it was a worthwhile experience and should lead to some nice joint publications.

I noticed that many of the buildings at the beautiful campus of the University of Saskatchewan are connected underground, giving a clue to the winter weather. Even though it was early June, the weather was not particularly warm. On my return via Calgary Airport, I noticed that it was 12 degrees and raining at 4pm (in summer, or close enough). The next morning in Auckland at 4am, it was 13 degrees and raining (in winter).

Krakow trip

Last week I was in Krakow, Poland for COMSOC 2012. The meeting itself was intense (perhaps too many talks) and useful – I need time to digest it. The day before I walked around the central city as a tourist. My expectations were initially low, then built up by a little reading of Wikipedia. I found the Wawel Cathedral to be a good introduction to Polish history, which seems to have been rather difficult, full of invasion and struggles for nationhood. The Schindler factory museum of wartime Krakow was overwhelming, and emotionally draining, but very worthwhile. I didn’t manage to go / couldn’t face going to Auschwitz / Oswiecim, one of the main tourist attractions nearby. However I now have a better appreciation for the day to day brutality of Nazi occupation and more sympathy for the concept of Israel.

Krakow seems to have a large tourist infrastructure and overall it seemed to be doing well economically. English is widely spoken, which was just as well because my efforts to learn Polish were fairly ineffective. It is much harder than I had guessed. I recommend a visit to the city if you are intending tourism in Central/Eastern Europe.