Rome'08

May 4, 2008

I finally was accepted to La Sapienza's SEAI'08, to be held from May 25th. to June 25th in Rome (Italy). This is something really cool because, though it might feel like really boring (it actually is if one's not interested in the topic), it has three nice points:

First and most important, it was the best excuse to spend one month in the italian capital, a city where I still keep very good friends fom Sweden and where I've been a couple of times but never really get to know well. I hope by late june I can't stand for the latter :)
Second, the stuff I'm gonna learn is really important for my PhD. and not that easy to pick up at my department, since there's no one working on it, so you need to read by yourself (as I've been doing all over this year).
Last and by far the least important, there's also something to do with my little honour: when I applied in winter, we were all required to send some more info about our academic background and perspectives in order to make a little bit of selection, as there were only 30 vacancies and 100 applications. I wasn't accepted. Instead, I received the typical "you are on a list, just un case someone fails, we'll take you into account, next year...". I never thought that was gonna be true: a couple of months later I received another mail from the guy at La Sapienza saying I could go. Yeah!

So, once I was in, it started the process of looking for a place to stay. Not that easy, provided I was in Spain and had no idea of how to look for an appartment there. Luckily, I found two partners attending the SEAI as well and in something like a week we were done (the process of looking for it was kind of funny as they both live in the States right now and me in Spain). So if anyone is thinking of coming around Rome next June and feels like sharing a coffee (capuccino, of course), just let me know :)