A Mauritian At Science Online 2012

Millions of tiny flickering orangey lights below spanning miles and miles and miles. That was my first sight of the city of Raleigh in North Carolina, US. It was a wondrous view from seat 14D. Looking down, I knew some of those lights belonged to the NC State University where, for three days, I was finally going to meet some of the most brilliant science bloggers and communicators in an annual gathering extraordinaire. This gathering was the Science Online 2012 ‘unconference' and I had travelled roughly 10,000 miles (16,000 km) to be part of it.

My trip to Science Online 2012 marked my first visit to the States. Actually, it was my first trip to the Western part of the world. It began when I left my tropical island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, and its tiny 1.3 million inhabitants, three days before the conference was due to start.

My first stop en route to Raleigh was London, 12 hours away from home. I landed at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4 at six in the evening with not nearly enough layers of clothing on me. London and Mauritius are 6,000 miles (9,700 km) apart-this wasn't a concern. What should have been a concern for an islander like myself however was the 54 F (30 C) difference in ambient temperature. Sadly, it had not been one and so, I had to deal with freezing cold (literally) London armed with a T-shirt and a sweater (no pockets). Thankfully there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Lights actually, as a train rushed into London Underground's Terminal 4 station. Public transport is heated so my excitement about stepping onto the train is understandable. I was to spend my one night of transit in London at one of my mum's cousins. (If you are accustomed with Mauritians, you know that we have welcoming relatives in different parts of the world so accommodation is rarely a problem when we travel. HA.)

The next phase was now to actually set foot on American soil. I had my US VISA and some additional documentation just in case but I was still a little nervous about travelling to the US. You see I have an Arabic name and... well... I have an Arabic name! Fortunately, "Khalil Ahmad", means "good and commendable friend" in Arabic. With such a ‘peaceful' name, surely I wasn't going to get any problems entering the US, I hear you say. You might be right because the immigration officer let me in without even stamping my passport. Admittedly, Americans aren't in the habit of stamping passports anyway. And so I was in Boston, Massachusetts (MA), home of the great Boston Red Sox (which I first heard of when I watched Moneyball on the plane).

As you may have noticed, I wasn't in Raleigh just yet. At this point I have to remind you that this was the first time I was in the States and I figured my first stop had to be in the greatest city in the country. (Y U No Laugh New Yorkers?) It was a relatively short stint in MA though. Less than 24 hours later, I was back at Logan International Airport, Kindle and smartphone in each hands and earphones plugged in waiting for my third flight in as many days. Next stop: Raleigh, baby.

Jetlag had started kicking in by then. It was ten in the evening, some ten hours before the conference was due to start, when I reached the hotel in Raleigh and I was glad. No more planes for another three days or so but more importantly, hotel equaled bed and bed equaled sleep. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst the moment I stepped out of the cab. There, standing at the entrance of the hotel was the first person I recognized in Raleigh: Bora. (I didn't hug him because I was too preoccupied trying to differentiate between those green dollar bills so I could pay the cabbie.) When one meets Bora, one gets a little excited and becomes highly respectful. So when Bora tells one to mingle around with fellow Science Online attendees, one has to scratch the incredulous idea that hotel equals bed and bed equals sleep and do as one is told. As I quickly learned from the very first day, at Science Online, people do not sleep. They become insomniacs hyper-charged by the enthusiasm and excitement of the crowd, and by the magical prowess of complementary coffee.

During those three days at Science Online 2012, I harassed a Dutch because his ancestors exterminated the dodo; I witnessed three drunk guys marveling at the skeleton of a giant badger; I laughed when a postdoc recounted stories about a flatmate who never blinks; I was initiated to the very exciting game that is curling (please detect some-no, a lot of-sarcasm here).

Fun aside (or if you want more fun, watch this video made by Carin), those three days were also packed with super interesting sessions ranging from how to use blogging as a tool for science education to how to better communicate statistics. All in all, Science Online 2012 was a great experience.

My trip didn't end when the conference concluded on 21 January. As I've mentioned earlier, we Mauritians have relatives everywhere. So, I took the opportunity to visit some of them in Atlanta, London (more than the one night that time), Newcastle and Edinburgh (saw another skeleton of a giant badger in the Edinburgh Museum). If Science Online 2012 was a great experience, the trip in its entirety was pure awesomeness indeed.

As I am writing this blog post, the sun is shining outside, the temperature is 90 F (32 C) and in thirty minutes' time I will be swimming in the Indian Ocean. Yes, I am back home.

--

And now that I have reached the end of this blog post, a special thanks to the sponsors! Travelling from Mauritius to Raleigh to attend this very special gathering would not have been possible had it not been for the wonderful support of Nature Education, Scientific American and the amazing organizers of Science Online. To you all, thank you very very much.

Also, to all my relatives who gave me a place to stay during this trip, I am extremely grateful.

Image credit: Dollar bills by Images Money (on flickr), Dodo drawing by Lucas Brouwers (on twitpic)