The world is a book...

...and those who do not travel read only a page.

**INSERT** Okay so it's been a week since I've gotten back from my trip to Asilomar. I started writing a huge entry, but got distracted and soon enough, I completely forgot about it. Since it's been so long, it'd just be weird writing about the trip as if it just happened. So I'm just going to post what I had, and if you have questions, you can ask me about it later. There are some pics, but I failed to bring them to work, so I can't upload them into this post...sorry! **END INSERT**

So I have safely arrived back home after my travels to the Mid-winter Conference of Immunologists at Asilomar in Pacific Grove. The 4 day/3 night stay was quite an experience for me, the newbie at Dynavax, since I had never been to an academic conference like such. I was literally surrounded by hundreds of researchers, post-docs, and scientists, many of whom flocked in from around the US, and some from other parts of the world like the UK and Japan. It was a plethora of science geeks, so naturally, I felt right at home. But before I continue, here's a little warning. The entry will be long and somewhat detailed, so if you just want the gist of it, here it is:

The conference was interesting, with lots of scientific jargon, a couple head scratchers, and more than plenty of "wtf did they just say?" moments. Asilomar is beautiful and despite the rain and cold, the scenery was breath-taking. The conference wasn't all work, and when we could, we played. Food tastes better when you don't have to pay for it, otters are sickeningly cute, always roll your pants up above your knees when you wade into the ocean, and lastly, just because you're a science nerd, doesn't mean that you can't be smoking hot.

That was my Asilomar trip in a nutshell. For those ready to brave the longer, more detailed version, let us start from the beginning.

Day 1:

The start of my trek began by making my way to the secret location of HMK’s lair. The coordinates of her house were deemed classified under the whole "if you tell anyone, I will shove a pipette down your throat" protocol, so excuse me if I don't disclose that info. From there we picked up RGY, loaded up the car and headed down south. We made it to the edge of Fremont before we decided that we were hungry and since the food was being covered courtesy of the company, that we'd stop at a fine institution of elegant cuisine...and by that I mean Denny's. Normally, I never step foot into a Denny's unless it's between the hours of 2am-5am and there's been alcohol involved, but it was surprisingly good. If you're curious, you should try their bacon ranch chicken sandwich thing, and I'm pretty sure the garlic-bread buns was what made it amazing. After dinner, we hit the highway and soon enough, we were at our hotel and ready to go to bed. Deer Haven is where we stayed, and it was a quaint little place. My room was nice with a king-sized bed, lots of chairs (yay?) and best of all, a warm fireplace. My only complaint about the room was the bathroom. While their shampoo/conditioner/shower gel dispenser thing was cool, what wasn’t cool was their showers built for oompa loompas. No offense to the vertically challenged, but when the shower head doesn’t make it past your shoulders, there is something wrong. Sadly, my crappy POS camera is very temperamental, and only allows me to take pics when it feels like it, so I have no photographic proof of the abomination…you’ll just have to take my word for it. That pretty much summed up day 1.

(Imagine a picture of the dispenser)

Day 2:

Waking up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning should be a crime. While all of you were sleeping soundly in your bed, I was getting up to a wet and cold morning. We had a continental breakfast inside the tiny “lobby” before we headed to the conference grounds. We checked in, got our badges and reading material and headed to the cafeteria where they were (thankfully) still serving breakfast. It wasn’t stellar, but it was hot. The OJ had a weird aftertaste to it, but overall it was okay (by mass made cafeteria standards). Immunology lectures go from 8am-12noon and then pick up again from 7:30pm-10pm. The morning lectures made me feel like I was back in college, with a PowerPoint presentation in the background, and information that made no sense to me being spoken over a mic. I took notes on what I could, and when I was completely lost, I fell to my sanity keeper, the beloved crossword puzzle. After the talks were through, we headed back to the cafeteria to get lunch. It was decent, a nice Mediterranean steak salad with feta cheese and olives. We met some cool peeps there, including a very cute researcher from Stanford. She had a very “girl-next-door” cuteness about her, which made lunch more enjoyable to say the least. Anywho, as we decided to leave, the Heavens decided to drain the bathtub, and a torrent of water came pouring to the ground. HMK, being the wisest of us all, had worn a waterproof jacket with a hood. This intelligence, however, was also a curse, since it made her the prime candidate to walk back to the hotel, and bring the car around for myself and RGY, whom did not have waterproof hoods above our heads. RGY and myself did manage to run from the cafeteria to the main lodge, drenching ourselves in the process. Once in the safety of our SUV, we drove to the nearest Rite Aid and bough umbrellas…umbrellas that wouldn’t get the chance to be used for the rest of the trip (read: we got screwed and it never rained hard enough again for us to use them). A quick nap/rest at the hotel, and then it was time to get fancy for the poster sessions. And a blog wouldn’t be complete without a MySpace-esque picture.

(Imagine a picture of the most charming, handsomest, and dashing man you've ever seen. And then replace it with a picture of me.)

After mingling around the poster session, it was time for dinner, and for that, we headed to Carmel. We found a nice seafood place called Flaherty’s, where I had angel hair pasta with fresh clams. And nothing goes better with seafood than a nice bottle of wine. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, where we all passed out (too tired from our hard day’s work to attend the evening lectures), concluding day 2.

**INSERT** Yup, I only made it to the end of day 2. You're missing out on the adventures from day 3 and 4! Too bad, those were fun days. But to make it up to you, I'll add some quick pictures that I got from my phone. Enjoy.

This is a glimpse of Day 4, and what the world of immunology conferences are like.

I consistently find my desk toys in weird positions when I come into work. This mornings' was too funny to pass up. Vader got pwnd by Luke and Yoda, and Spidey getting raped by Anakin and Obi-Wan. I love my coworkers.