IDS 2013 part 3 – Annecy, post-training school

Ever since I saw the photo of Annecy in LC’s post, I’ve wanted to visit this little city in the east of France. Well, I didn’t even have to plan it, because the training school took place in Annecy this year. While we weren’t in the city center during the week, the training ended on a Friday afternoon, so it only made sense to stay one more night in (the real) Annecy to see what it truly has to offer. I had heard so many great thing about Annecy, and I was more than a bit excited to finally visit!

This time around, there were 10 people in the group, including me. And that’s only in my “official” group. Others who weren’t part of my planning joined in later, and we even bumped into some unexpected friends at the hostel! It seemed like the Annecy hostel was mostly IDS-filled that Friday night, ha!

To see the full Annecy photo album, click here.

I rarely start off the post with a photo of me, but this is my favourite photo taken of me during the entire training school trip, by the Thiou canal in Annecy. It had been such a fulfilling week and I was just so…happy! So happy to be surrounded by fun, lovely people, so happy to be in touch with nature, so happy to get the chance to explore, so happy to feel like I’m doing what I love again.

IDS 2013 part 2 – Training time

Hmm…I didn’t think I’d be too busy to update, but I underestimated this mission to Belgium. Third day back at the lab and I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the things I have to accomplish by the end of the month. Bring it on.

The blog posts must continue. It’s been almost two weeks since the training school in Annecy – wow? I left the IDS-FunMates in Bordeaux – lots of them, including Yi-Shiang, Jiang, Xuesong, An, Vusala, Edgar, Mathilde, Hanbin, Camille – and joined the ones in Louvain-la-Neuve again – Diana, Alina, Victor (I think), and Naresh who is arriving soon.

These are only some of the 60 or so students in IDS-FunMat. Now in its third year, the program has approximately 20 students per class, meeting annually in March for a training school where everyone gets to meet and mingle. Yeah, “training” school. Of course we have lectures and seminars and presentations and workshops, but all of us know that we don’t see some of our colleagues except during this event, and so we take full advantage of the week.

Especially me. I ❤ my IDS-FunMates so much. (Photo album here.)

I arrived in Annecy on a Sunday afternoon, roots and branches still visible, but on Monday morning I awoke to a big surprise – snow! Big snow! I think it was a present from the people who arrived from Canada or Belgium. I mean, I did request snow maybe two months ago, but c’mon, it’s the end of March. Some spring, please? Well to be fair, the snow was lovely, and I didn’t mind it, especially with the Alps as the background for our training school the entire week 😉