Andrea and her two new friends, Bjørn and Martin,
arrived to the hotel and left their luggage. They went then to the university
organizing the conference to pick up the program and the small card with their
names, identifying them as conference participants. Since there was still some
light, they decided going around to explore the city. Bjørn, who was
Norwegian and had been there before, guided them.
 |
| Artic cathedral, its architecture is inspired by the northern lights |
Tromsö is a city of about 70000 inhabitants
which is placed 350km north of the arctic polar circle. Thanks to the north
Atlantic warm currents, in Tromsö the weather is less extreme than in most of
the cities which are at the same latitude. One part of the city is built on
mainland, while the other part is placed on Tromsøya Island
 |
| This bridge joins both parts of the city |
 |
| In Tromsö there are a lot of wooden buildings |
 |
| Would you like a coffee? |
The following day was the Day, her first
presentation in a conference. She woke up very nervous. Fortunately, she was
the first presenter of that day, so after her presentation she would be able to
relax and enjoy the others.
The moment had arrived. She took a deep breath,
look at the professors sitting in the front row, realized that that was exactly
what she should not do, ‘oups, no, I should look at the end of the room...’.
She felt like on a roller coaster, while the train is slowly going up,
tac-tac-tac, and you know that in a few second you will fall very fast. She
looked at the end of the room, took another deep breath, and started speaking.
The first minute she felt as she was in the
roller coaster train, during the first descent, the longest, the most
astonishing. During the following minutes, the impression started to reduce,
the climbs and descents started to be less impressive, but the train started
turning upside down and she was losing her orientation. When she was in the
middle of the presentation, she saw a guy, sitting at the last row, who was
smiling at her. She used him as a reference and the room stopped turning
around, the roller coaster train stopped and she could continue the
presentation without more climbs. She finished exactly on time, got applause,
and answered correctly to the audience’s questions. It had been perfect.
Coming out of the room she met the guy who had
smiled during the presentation.
- Do
we know each other? – asked her.
- No,
I don’t think so.
Andrea felt a bit confused. She had thought
that he recognized her from somewhere, maybe from the Master program, there
were a lot of people there.
- Did
you think so because I smiled? It’s because I saw that you were really nervous.
Now she laughed. Was it so visible?
- Yes,
I was very stressed. Thanks, it helped me a lot.
- No
problem. Look, I’m doing now my second post-doc, but I still remember my first
presentation in a conference. I was very scared. Presenting in front of all
these experts, that can destabilize anyone. I saw an old researcher who was
sitting at the end of the room, who smiled at me and nod with her head as
saying ‘go on, you’re doing pretty good’. From that time, I try to help the
students that are stressed. – the guy checked his watch – Sorry, I have a
friend who’s going to present right now.
- No
problem, see you around.
He disappeared in the crowd and Andrea was left
alone. She felt exhilarated. Everything had been better than she expected: a
businessman had calmed her in the plane, she had made two friends who had
driven her to the hotel and had visited the city with her, and an unknown guy
had saved her from the nerves of the presentation with only one smile. And,
moreover, she still had two more days of conference to enjoy the presentations
and meet new people.
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