Saturday, July 1, 2017

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

KAU Library with the Quote
I found it refreshing that Karlstad University (KAU) spent a considerable amount of money to create an artwork, citing the popular quote, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" from the movie, Dirty Dancing (1987). You may read the story behind why Karlstad University choose to spend 170,000 SEK on this artwork, which I consider romantic. Interestingly, KAU considers this phrase empowering the women.

We also attended Putte i Parken, a free musical show in Karlstad, coupled with free public transport to the venue. What is better? We even secured the first line for many of the performances. :)

ACRO summer school and KAU gave very good memories. It is probably the best of conference/meetup/summer school travel I have so far. Previously I had ICWS 2016 as my favorite. This is my first time attending a summer school. Summer school feels more relaxed than a conference where I also have a paper to present. Moreover, I met many wonderful people, and made very nice friends this time. Sweden is awesome. I have been to Sweden in 2013, 2015, and 2017. I have also been to Spain in 2013, 2015, and 2017 too. Following this pattern, I believe I will be back to Sweden and Spain again in 2019. :P

My first polygonal journey

Beautiful view of Oslo
Next time when you plan to fly somewhere for a trip, check whether you can get it cheaper by returning from a different airport. I found that this time that by choosing to go to  BRU -> OSL and then return from ARN -> BRU, I got the cheapest of all the possible options (compared with the return trips, BRU <-> OSL and BRU <-> ARN). It also worked well as my destination Karlstad was in between Oslo and Stockholm (on the way to Stockholm from Oslo). 

I presented my work at ACRO Summer School held at Karstad University. The presentation is given below: