Martin um die Welt: 1) Young Scientist Conference in Taichung

Montag, 20. Oktober 2014

1) Young Scientist Conference in Taichung

Thursday, 16th of October, I started my trip to Taiwan. I was awarded a fellowship by the IUBMB to attend the Young Scientist Program (YSP) 2014, a conference for young scientists. The fellowship provided free access to the young scientist conference in Taichung 17th-20th of October and the main IUBMB conference in Taipei 21st-26th of October as well as accommodation. Additionally I was to receive 1.500 USD after I arrived in Taichung to cover my travel expenses.
I was lucky on that thursday as German train drivers had just stopped their 2 day strike and I got from Leipzig to Hamburg airport in time :) Emirates brought me via Dubai to Taipei. At the Taipei airport (17.10.) two young students from Taichung University welcomed me with my name written on a welcome sign. Along with me on the same flight also Kyle from South Africa and Bruno from Portugal arrived. The warm welcome was followed by a bus ride to our hotel in Taichung. In total it took me ~30h from Leipzig to Taichung... the check-in was smooth and I was astonished to receive the 1.500 USD in cash on arrival^^ Bruno turned out to be my roommate for the meetings. And the hotel in Taichung turned out to be a 5 star Splendor Hotel. We were almost last to arrive, while an awesome dinner buffet was waiting for us :D
The young scientist conference was very nice. I quickly felt comfortable with most people and as we were only 37 fellowship awardees together with some professors, it was easy to get to know most people in short time. The talks were ups and downs... the food always great when it wasn't for lunch, which was when they served bubble tea^^. At saturday evening (18.10.) the local students took us to a Jazz festival. Though it didn't sound much like Jazz after all, we enjoyed the evening a lot. This was the evening when I became friends with Simon from Slovenia - we simply both love beer a lot... The next day (19.10.) I gave my talk. I was extremely nervous before, but when the talk started I was confident and the talk went quite well. Afterwards several other fellows congratulated me for a great talk. At the evening we had another great dinner during which the fellows with best talks were awarded. I was delighted to have receive a certificate for the 4th best out of 37 talks :) After dinner we went to the Taichung night market, which is supposed to be the biggest in Taiwan. At the night market Boopathi, an Indian PhD student from Taipei, told us that the disgusting smell around night markets stems from "stinky tofu", a delicacy to Taiwanese... solely to them! Simon and I quickly became familiar with the best bars in Taiwan serving beer: 7-Eleven and Family Mart :P

YSP 2014 frame with all countries represented

me giving my talk :)

me asking... almost professional huh^^

On monday (20.10.) we sadly have to leave our precious 5 star hotel in Taichung. We went on a bus tour to the famous Sun Moon Lake. The bus ride included mandatory Asian Karaoke... The lake is very touristy but truly charming place. We were given bicycles to ride along a part of the lake's shore. However, that part turned out to be solely 15min, but we had 1.5h in total. Still, our tour guide rather used an electronic supported bike - lazy Taiwanese :P In contrast, some of us decided to go round the hole lake. Quite a nice tour. Due to some climbs on the way it took us like 1:40h :) But the vistas were gorgeous and my legs thanked me for being moved again after all the sitting... train, fligh, bus, conference... after the ride we enjoyed dinner, Simon and I had a beer and then all of us went across the lake by boot. We had already visited this little temple they brought us to when we cycled round the lake... the bus then brought us to Taipei to a guest house where we stayed during the main conference. During this bus ride Taiwanese taught us again that they can mix great food and make it ugly... it amused the hole bus of western young scientists... take tasty milk, tea and sugar and have ugly bubble tea. Take tasty eggs and whine and have most disgusting whine eggs.
In Taipei we stayed at the campus guest house of Academica Sinica that hosted the main IUBMB conference.