One More Week of Lab!

Actually, not even that.

I'll be there Monday through Thursday, but apparently there is an International Stem Cell Conference at Taipei Medical University on Friday and Saturday. I believe John is giving both the opening and closing remarks, and hot-shot scientists from all over the world will be in attendance. (This inevitably means it will be in English, yay!) In addition, another UCSD professor, Dr. Larry Goldstein, will be present. I have heard his name before and he is a huge authority on stem cell issues at the UCSD med school. There will also be a professor from the Yale-New Haven hospital, and I recognized that name because Alice was talking to John about calling her a couple nights ago on our way to dinner. Hmm, I smell networking opportunities.

Then next Sunday is the bus tour I was invited to with the other conference presenters. While I hardly think I will see anything new, I intend on going if nothing more than to make contacts and meet others in the field. You never know how someone you meet even briefly will impact your future, so I'm preparing to go and turn on the charm-o-meter to the max.

So given those activities, next weekend is pretty much blocked out, which means tomorrow and Sunday are my last true sightseeing days. Tomorrow I am planning on going to Jiufen, an old gold-mining town in the north which was apparently used for a lot of Taiwanese movies, and in the evening going to Keelung night market, supposedly one of the larger night markets in the area.

And then when the weekend is over, I'll have exactly one week before I'll be back home. Whoa.