Thoughts on a Journey

Plane ticket to Denmark: $1400
Expenses: $1000
Shipping your supersweet bike to Denmark: free from British Airways
Computer: free from Prof
Ride to airport and home packed lunch with candy and juicebox: free from Ian
Getting Caltech to pay for "educational trip" to Techical University of Denmark: priceless

Okay, so the annoying part of travelling -- packing, logistics, not speaking Danish, etc etc can be a little irritating. But seriously, I have an awesome deal that is still a little hard to believe. I wrote the Deans about how I was going to get an opportunity to see how international students rock out at DTU. I wrote up how much it would cost -- planes, hostels, food -- and they sent me packing with a check for the whole tamale.

Now let me share with you a direct quote from my prof, Henrik, who's the homeslice I'm going there to "work" with: "[excited]Oh! It's going to be great! You can ride your bike all day, come to classes [at DTU, where he's going to be teaching] when you feel like it, and do some work on the paper on the laptop at home in the evenings!"

This is the guy that's letting me stay with him at his house, which is being paid for by DTU, in a really nice place near the university. As in, right next door to a huge network of trails, which border a golf course and extend to the ocean on the other side. He's also the guy who is convinced the stuff we're working on can be finished in time for the deadline for Eurographics, the second biggest computer graphics conference, and that the paper will be accepted. I would be an author on this paper. And the conference? It's in Crete next year. And Caltech or UCSD would probably send me. Ridiculous.

It's almost enough for me to forgive the Deans for screwing over Ian and, in the process, the XC teams. Almost.