New York? Nebraska? It's all the same.

This is among the many things I learned in Atlanta while attending FSE-16, a top-tier conference for software engineering research. This gem of information happen to come from our cab driver on our way to dinner one evening.

It was my first conference and I had the pleasure of meeting many brilliant people and hearing about many threads of new research in the field. It was a great experience that formed new ideas and inspirations for my research, which is always a good thing! It was great to catch up with some people and get to know others. The "thumbs up" picture on the left essentially sums up how I felt about the conference. It was taken at the Atlanta aquarium where we had the opportunity to walk around after-hours and view the marine life; it was a meditative experience, to say the least. I never would have guessed that a conference would be so exhausting, but all the research and new ideas eventually put me on academic overload. It was a good thing the conference only lasted two and a half days!


After the conference I went off to East Atlanta to visit Aunt Katherine and Dave. That was quite a fun visit! I became friends their two giant rottweilers who were as sweet as can be. We also went to a wonderful theatre production put on by women who survived Katrina. It was a very powerful event. Otherwise, it was great to catch up with family, eat thai food, drink lots of coffee, and eat delicious baked goods from an international bakery. In fact, it inspired me to make macaroons this year for Christmas. All in all it was a wonderful end to a wonderful trip.