Count-down to France

In two weeks I depart for France to attend a scientific conference - The International Ethological Conference. The line-up of presentations looks very impressive and I'm quite excited about the meeting and the chance to travel to a new place. This meeting of animal behavior scientists occurs every two years or biennially. I have attended two previous conferences of this society, one in Brazil (2003) and another in Halifax, Canada (2007).

I have been amazingly blessed to travel and see places my parents and grandparents never dreamed of being able to visit. Science has afforded me the opportunity to travel to South America - Guyana and Brazil - and throughout North America - Mexico and Canada. Now, I will travel to Europe for the first time in my life. (Fingers still crossed for visiting Antarctica.)

I'm preparing my presentation "Animal personality: Promise and problems for the investigation of mechanisms and functions". You can visit the website and will see that I am the second speaker in a series of 8 speakers. Haha. No pressure.

I am also packing my 'bags' or in this case my travel wish list.

• an internationally capable broadband internet card
• perfect, weather resistant, no-muss no fuss hair
• an ipod with great tunes for the overnight flight and high-speed trains
• my calorie grabber for all of the delicious food, desserts, and beverages I will try
• a big pack of Lithium Ion Batteries for Digital Cameras - those things work
• knowledge of how to properly use Skype (I have it downloaded on one of my thumbdrives)
• a mini-handbook of French and Dutch
• a meet-up of English-speaking bloggers & tweeters in Paris while I'm there sight-seeing
• lots of well-wishes and any suggestions for places to stay (like a nice hostel, afforable, yet very comfortable) eat or check out.

I intend to take lots of pictures, do interviews with scientists and blog/tweet while I'm in Europe. I hope to share with you all an inside view of the professional side of science and some great urban ecology in Europe.

Merci beaucoup