translation woes begin

When I arrive in France, I will leave Paris almost immediately for a conference that is on the French Riviera. This is, of course, awesome. I love conferences and I am excited to meet a whole bunch of really cool people that I admire while having the gorgeous background of the French Mediterranean. The conference website is nicely written in English but when I registered for the conference either I flipped my "nom" and "pronom" or the site was reversed in translation, so currently my first name appears as my last name and my last name appears as my first name on all of the conference information. I already emailed a month ago (in French, thank you French-speaking-roommate) to ask to have it changed and still, I am listed as Firstname, Lastname. I can barely say "Hello, my name is" in French, how the heck am I going to explain this mixup in another language? Ah well, here comes another adventure!

28 days to go and counting

I was completely not nervous until about a week ago, then the shear quantity of things that I have to finish before I left hit me and I started to panic. Luckily a late-night shopping spree equipped me with power adapters and luggage (thank you Amazon and LL Bean).

I will be gone from June 17 to Aug 10. Before I leave in June I must pack the entirety of my apartment into a storage unit, find a new apt for when I get back to Boston, do research, prepare for a conference, learn French, and somehow make my UROP (undergrad who works for me and is so awesome that we're bringing her to France too) less nervous as well. Yea. Obviously "learn French" has already been abandoned and "find a place to live when I get back" will soon be a casualty as well. (I've got great friends and they have sofas). I'm still running around trying to do administrative stuff for the trip as well. My UROP's wire transfer to her French dorm got lost, I have to fill out 101 forms from MIT for international travel, etc. Well, at least I have the awesome support of my French roommate (who luckily will move back to Paris about two weeks after I get there, so he can help me get sorted out if I need help!) and an awesome BF who manages to put up with my hyperness. Well, GET READY PARIS, HERE I COME!!! (in 28 days)