half-done IMC diary

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -157,3 +157,4 @@ the "right button" would not work. -->
                 Web](diary/spring_2024_ideas/rethinking_the_web.md)
             - [Rust](diary/spring_2024_ideas/rust.md)
         - [Spring 2024 Activities](diary/spring_2024_activities/index.md)
+        - [IMC '24](diary/imc_24.md)

src/diary/imc_24.md

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+# IMC '24
+
+I am on an A380 flying back to Los Angeles at 0.9 mach.
+IMC '24 just concluded yesterday.
+It was nice in that I heard several interesting talks, met enthusiastic people,
+and ate random Spanish food at the conference.
+I also gave a talk, which mostly went as planned.
+It was unfortunate in that I got sick midway through the trip and
+struggled with jet lag despite having stayed in UTC+1 for
+4 days before the conference.
+
+Let me recall the mishaps I experienced leading to the conference and
+the journey in Europe.
+
+## Funding issues
+
+The \$2000 trip was originally not funded at all.
+
+After my paper was accepted, I asked three departments of DKU for travel funds,
+and got none. The main argument is I have graduated.
+I offered a proposition to the executive vise chancellor, saying that
+I would put DKU as my institution.
+Apparently, they did not recognize the significance of having papers in
+conferences this prestige, although I did not find any DKU papers in
+conferences at this level.
+With that, DKU officially have zero direct contribution in my paper, so
+I decided not to list them as my institution.
+
+This was at one point a huge time eater and upset moment.
+It is especially upsetting because I got a personal offer to
+partially fund my travel, in exchange for DKU being listed as my institution,
+which would have looked very shameful.
+However, this is understandable because I know DKU is experiencing a decline in
+administrative efficiency.
+Though, Italo also thought it looked bad, and listed DKU in his institution.
+
+Eventually, I followed Harsha's advice to apply for a student travel grant from
+IMC, and fortunately got it.
+This twist, however, caused delays in my preparation for the conference, and
+had time implications I would discover later.
+
+## Visa shopping
+
+IMC '24 was in Madrid, Spain, but I did not got a Spanish visa.
+This would normally have meant I would not be able to enter Spain at all.
+I was at the conference thanks to a workaround for Schengen visas.
+
+I applied for the Spanish visa through their official agency,
+got rejected because of minor issues, and estimated that the time line for
+visa appointment rescheduling was unrealistic.
+Not only that, they appeared to not now what they were doing when
+I was at the visa center, and blocked my rescheduling due to
+their government-grade service website.
+This is when I started to think about giving up with the Spanish.
+
+I checked the rules for Schengen visas and countries that
+process visas quickly, and eventually chose France.
+The visa went through smoothly and quickly.
+The only downside was I needed to stay in France for the same number of
+nights as I did in Spain. So, I was forced to tour Paris for 4 days,
+a strange thing to say.
+
+This is not exactly visa shopping because
+my 4-night stay at Paris makes the visa application legitimate.
+This is apparently a thing.
+Later in the community session in IMC,
+I heard Christophe talk about how one could get a visa appointment for
+Norway or some other Nordic countries when the visa topic was brought up.
+
+## Paris and how I got sick
+
+The flight to Paris CDG went via Dallas DFW, and
+the DFW-CDG flight was an uncomfortable 8 hours.
+I got the worst seat, between the window and the aisle.
+No posture was comfortable.
+The food was also pathetic; both my neighbors left most of
+their meals untouched.
+
+What was worse?
+American Airlines people had very little tolerance for
+passengers hanging around.
+To relieve the stress in these long-haul flights,
+I usually do these small standing sessions for
+around ten minutes at the back of the plane.
+This plane, however, was configured to have no room at the back, so
+I hung around the food lounge and the emergency gates in the middle.
+Flight attendants would just go by and tell me to go back to my seat.
+One of them even stopped by to say they cannot have people camping around.
+
+This could have been a cultural thing.
+There was a fat man in a suit sitting near one of the gates I hung around.
+I was standing there leaning on the jump seat drinking juice, and
+he stared at me.
+After a while, he got up, so I left him some room to go to the lavatory.
+Instead, he stood on my face, and said "go somewhere else".
+"This guy thinks he owns this place," I thought.
+I stared at him, had some more juice, and walked to the gate on the other side.
+Apparently, fat Americans simply get offended when you appear near them and
+get face to face.
+
+When I got to Paris in the morning, though, the chaos began.
+Since the AirBnB reservation starts from the afternoon, I decided to
+hang around a park between the airport and the place I stayed at.
+It was a very rural area with wind blowing across.
+I did not bother to put my puffed jacket on, and got a bit cold.
+Maybe I should have taken it more seriously at the time.
+
+The lunch at a random restaurant proved Paris' food to be much cheaper than
+that in Los Angeles.
+This continued to be true throughout my stay, even in more central areas.
+What annoyed me was the lack of local food.
+Near the place I stayed at, it was all Pakistani, Indian, and Turkish food.
+Even near La Louvre, I walked in a huge block of all Asian food.
+I was like "what the heck is going on with this city? Where is the local food?"
+
+On the second day, I toured Musée du Louvre for 4hr.
+Unfortunately, it turned out the museum sells tickets with time slots, which
+is basically reservation.
+Since I spent the time before the trip desperately preparing for my talk,
+I only booked the tickets on the day I arrived and
+got the late 13:30 entrance time. The museum closes at 18:00.
+
+Having a late entrance to the museum did not bother to
+make the whole tour ultra long.
+I only woke up at around 10:00 due to jet lag, and
+walked around the piss river after my breakfast.
+Paris is really coherent with the styles of roads and buildings.
+I kind of see why people like the city and find it romantic.
+In the museum, I saw beautiful NSFW oil paintings and took selfies with
+the tiny painting people line up to see.
+
+On my way back though, I got into trouble.
+I was taking the same metro line that I went to central Paris with.
+It stopped at a station and never resumed.
+Eventually, the driver said something in the announcement and
+people looked upset, some of them getting off.
+After a while, everyone got off and started waiting on the platform.
+The driver got of the train and walked to the other end, and drove it back!
+
+I assumed there was a problem with the train, and waited for
+the next one like many other passengers did.
+The next train came, and we got on.
+And, the announcement from the driver started…
+People were upset, and eventually got off. Some left the station.
+After a while, the driver said something to the crowd, and some people got on,
+so I followed them. The train drove back to the previous station!
+
+Okay, so I realized there was some problem with the line and
+what the driver offered us was to drive us back to the previous station which
+had transfer options.
+In the monitors that displayed information,
+I finally saw the English translation of the announcement.
+It said that the line was partially shut down due to an unattended bag, and
+that the service would resume after some time.
+I went to the platform to wait for the service to resume, but
+got systematically kicked out by the people shutting down the line.
+Some of them knew English and explained to me that I need to change my route.
+
+I had to take another metro line and transfer to a bus.
+That bus station for the exact bus line I needed to take was also moved, for
+some reasons, and it took me a while to figure it out.
+With the rush and mishaps, I also took the wrong direction once and
+missed a bus because of not waving for it to stop.
+The supposedly 50min trip took 2hr, and by the time I got to
+the place it was already 22:30.
+I apparently did not learn this lesson that public transport in
+a language I completely have knowledge of is a guaranteed disaster, and
+did it again later in my trip to the airport.
+
+This was when I woke up and felt something stuck in
+my throat the next afternoon.
+I realized it was almost a cold and it became dangerous to my talk because
+I lost my voice.
+I had had trouble speaking for extended periods of time in the days leading to
+the trip when I practiced my talk, but this one was finally the bomb detonated.
+I could hear my mumbling talk being very deep when listening to
+the recording of my practice talks.
+
+After a day of rest and not getting better, I decided it was time to
+do something other than hoping for self-healing. I asked my AirBnB host.
+She typed a line of text on my phone and told me to go to
+a medicine store nearby and show they this text.
+I went there, went in line, saw the guy behind a counter, showed him the text,
+and told him I had a throat inflammation in English.
+The guy replied in French, went to the back of the store, and came back with
+some medicine.
+So, I bought that medicine and took it according to my host's instructions,
+basically trying random drugs.
+I also aborted all my travel in Paris and stayed in bed until I left.
+
+## The talk