Let's went to Slovenia !

I've done it ! My first International (capital letter because it almost deserves it) Conference !

But let us start with the middle... Actually, my first connections with the Slovenian culture occured on Tuesday, once my talk was done. Paul and I met Simon who kindly suggested us to come with him and his friends. So we went. And there he was, the owner of the place, The guy who showed me the way (or at least the Borovnica) : Iztok the First, aka The Eastern Wind. By the way, we also met Andrej, aka The Green Worm, Gabor, aka the Green Glass ; Sylwia, Sandra, Petra, Janja, and Tadeja, aka the A's girls. Once the introducing thing had been done, it was time for us to taste the Slovenian wines and try to communicate in the same time. Basically, Slovenian students, do not speak, they sing or laugh... So we tried to get the Slovenian way of being by laughing together and singing an international (lowercase, it is not the conference) version of "Frère Jacques". The result was pretty good so we decided to see each other again... That was the first thing I had to say, and I'm really thankful to all the people aforesaid for wenting made of this week a delicious one.

But let's continue with the start. Our first view of Lake Bled folllowed a 10 hours driving trip across Italy which had followed a not so sleepy St-Jean night which was also preceded by the strankarski of the glasben. Thus, you can guess we have not lasted long before testing the Slovenian beds of the Crime Hotel. Our aim for the first day was to make connections with researchers, and I must admit that Paul was of great help for this game which took us for lunch with Doug R..l and Bostjan B....r. We enjoyed our pizza and went back to the conference. First nap... After this, my mind was entirely focused on the talk I had to give the day after. Back to the hotel after a first (and not last) Chinese dinner, I checked my slides and went for a rehearsal of the show. Lights off. Snoring time. Wake up. As I was one of the last speaker of the day, I had a lot of time to be sure I hadn't forget anything. 6:55pm, here it goes.

thinking : Do not feel pressure, try to look relax

speaking : W.. Well, ziss ize a vörk I have went partely dooing weese my PhD advisor Sylvain G.....r and

thinking : OK you feel the pressure indeed. Just imagine they are your students.

And the pressure left the place. I almost reached 70% of my allowed time before stopping and getting the once applause !

The following chapter is actually the one before.

To conclude with the end, we had the pleasure to go to Bohinj with Andrej, Iztok and his friends, we enjoyed the Chinese food and its Olympic contest of Chinese stupid games, I could experiment the one-liter glasses of beer, and Paul, as a natural born sportsman, reached the island swimming with Sylwia. Spleen around the lake... All those small tiny little things which build strong memories. But it is already time to went back home. Bye Slovenia ! See you soon !

Hugs for free for everyone.

Laurent, I'll keep my promises

PS : I've been checking before leaving, you were right, Slovenian cows have an a.. !

PS bis : the video low-quality version.

PS ter : here is a piece of approximative French translation for French people or Slovenians who want to practice

Voilà c'est fait ! Ma première conf internationale !

Mais commençons par le début. Après dix heures de route à travers l'Italie, précédées par quelques nuits fort courtes, nous arrivons Paul et moi à Bled, où nous accueille le lac féérique, orné d'une église sortie tout droit de Shrek. La fatigue prend le dessus et nous ne tardons pas à rejoindre nos pénates. Les choses se corsent le lendemain. Nous somme chargés de prendre contact avec les chercheurs présents à la conf. Tâche ardue pour deux jeunes thésards orphelins de leur chef, resté en France pour quelque obligation quadratique. Paul s'en sort plutôt bien et on se retrouve à table avec Doug R..l et Bostjan B....r pour partager une pizza et discuter domination et recouvrement. Je dois parler le lendemain et dès le lundi soir, je m'organise une répétition dans la chambre d'hotel pour voir ce qui ne vas pas. Bien entendu, la liste et longue et comme je ne peux pas retoucher mes slides, ça ne fait qu'augmenter la dose de stress. Le mardi arrive donc. Je parle en dernier, j'ai donc toute la journée pour sentir monter la pression. Et finalement ça passe. Une fois de plus je parle un peu vite mais les échos que j'ai eus sont plutôt bons. J'ai juste eu un peu peur quand Bostjan est venu me voir après pour me dire que mon corollaire était faux. Ce n'était pas le cas et quelques dessins plus tard, j'avais retrouvé ma crédibilité !

Pour la suite il faut lire l'anglais... mais en gros c'était super !