With the ICCM20 conference next week, and me presenting Monday, I had no choice but to spend another weekend working. As I also had a different conference last week where I also presented (different topic), I started preparing my ICCM presentation a biiiit late. I am almost done now, but it is still a few minutes too long so I need to crop it down a bit further – 15 minutes is really not a long time! Actually presenting your work in an understandable way in this amount of time is an art in itself. ^^
In addition, I am starting to slowly realize that the time of my departure for Japan is VERY SOON!! It’s less than 2 weeks now, and I am still not sure whether I should bring one or two suitcases or what to pack. There are so many things I should look into before I go, but I just hadn’t had the time to do so – but I guess I’ll manage anyway (I have to). At least today I found out that they use the same type of power plugs in Japan as they do in the US, so that made it a bit easier to find online. I am still wondering what to do with my phone, but I think I might have found a good solution. Today I purchased a skype number so I can call/receive calls at local rates to Denmark, as long as I have WIFI access. Then I think I will buy a new phone in Japan (my phone is getting really slow), and get a 6 month subscription including data. Then I can use skype to call to Denmark from my phone, but still be able to go online, use GPS, etc. in Japan without paying a fortune. Additionally, I was told that phones bought in Japan can be used for the trains and also include some kind of warning system for earth quakes etc – that might be useful. I still need to look a bit more into this when I get to Japan, but I think it might work out this way.
I also kind of decided that I will buy a good camera when I get to Japan, but I can’t really decide on which type I want and how much money to spend. But I think I will make this one of my first “Kristine going to a Japanese shop and asking for advice” experiences. I might even be forced to use my Japanese that way depending on the shop keeper’s English skill. And I really do have to force myself to use my Japanese, since I tend to go back into my “English safe-zone” really quickly! It’s really annoying that I do that, but I still didn’t pass the “embarrassment-barrier” yet. And it’s despite knowing that I could somewhat get the message across in Japanese if I just took my time and didn’t switch back into English all the time – but I guess I will get there with a bit of time and effort.
Well then, I better get back to preparing my presentation for Monday! Hopefully I can get something done despite “cat-sitting”. Yesterday the cat was really obstructing me!
And if I tried to push it down, it went all “oh are we playing with claws now?”-mode. So although it usually is pretty cute, I think I might close the door today ^^
