Biology of the Immune System, Phoenix

For all of you in Switzerland complaining about the cold: Heat is not much better! I was in Phoenix, Arizona for the week. It was the Faseb Biology of the Immune System conference. Honestly, this was the best meeting I have attended so far. The drawback was that I was there as the projectionist and had to be at every session... But this was probably good, as I didn't miss a talk and had no excuse to stay in bed. And I tell you, I desperately needed sleep! But one after the other. When we arrived I was assigned a double room with a Taiwanese professor who was snoring all night. I had originally requested a single room and planned to share it with Nico. So he had to sleep on the couch of another friend. Of course we complained but it was only on the second day that there was a room available, which turned out to be an apartment with bedroom, living room, balcony and terrace. Nothing to complain about this one! Only that I didn't have any time to enjoy it. We had a great scientific program even though it was only a small meeting. 150 participants but all the big shots were there. This gave me the chance to meet them all and talk to them. Very nice experience when you meet the faces behind all these Nature, Science and Immunity papers. But then there were also numerous postdocs and PhD students and it felt like hanging out with the future generation of immunologists. Michael my boss pointed this out to me after midnight of the last evening when the crowd was singing Karaoke in the bar. He thought it was a little scary, but he was definitely part of it! After the poster session in the evening we always moved to the hot tub and continued discussions and drinking there. Interestingly, all the prizes (for best poster, talk) went almost exclusively to the hot tub crew... So the science was outstanding, people fun and the nights rather short.
Friday we arrived back in San Diego and I desperately needed sleep. That's what I did in the afternoon before picking up Selina at the airport. Her suitcase was heavily loaded with chocolate and cheese and I just enjoyed a "Sprüngli Truffe". So now I enjoy her company and she enjoys mine (I hope) and especially the mild weather.