Full

I have just had an amazing 5 days at my astro conference - 3 days of papers, 2 days of outings. The last outing was Banff National Park and the Columbia Icefields to see analogies to Martian landscapes here on Earth. I will never look at the Rocky Mountains the same way ever again. I had a chance to hold pieces of Mars and Vesta in my hands. I got to learn in detail many things I didn't have good coverage on, blind spots in my knowledge. Best of all, I got to pick the brains of live experts in those fields.

I also got to meet some very interesting people. Some were nice and friendly, others were stand-offish or rude. All very bright people with a great variance in people skills. I re-learnt an important lesson over the weekend: being smart is great but being personable is better. Why? Simple: science needs to be communicated well and if you can't do that or if you put people off with your attitude, what you know will be deeply depreciated because no one will care what you do.

I also got a pretty good map of the political situation of the various organizations. I'm a little saddened that there's so much politics going on; I'm no stranger to it but I had hoped that we could set aside our pettiness and focus on the science. *sigh*

I admit that I was feeling a little nervous going to the conference. There's a lot of very intelligent people there, most of them leaders in their field. To give you an idea of the caliber of the people there, we're talking about the Galileos or Newtons in their fields of research. So yes, it was quite intimidating and I really wasn't sure if I was going in over my head. While I can't say I understood everything, I did absorb about 90% of what I heard. I guess all that extra swotting over the past few years hadn't been a waste of time after all.

I'm totally exhausted. I'm more tired now than when I started. When I close my eyes, I see light curves. I can't wait to go out with my telescopes and see familiar things in ways I have never seen them before. So distant, yet a tiny bit closer now that I understand them a bit more. I've learnt so much it'll take at least a month to fully grok what I've learnt, including extra reading to fill in the gaps.

I have a headache.

But I'm full. Oh so gloriously full.