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After my job at the conference , it was time for another holiday! I thought I should take this opportunity to venture into the US East Coast for the first time, and I chose Boston as my destination (from 11 to 13 January) so that I could visit some friends there at the same time. I certainly made sure I didn't miss out on the best things Boston has on offer: universities and lobsters! It was already early evening when I've settled into my hotel. An Australian friend of mine currently studying at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) took me on a visit to the institution after a dinner nearby. MIT has a long tradition of not only academic excellence but also ingenious pranks known as 'Hacking'. It helps that many of the 'hackers' are good engineers or seasoned technicians of other types. Otherwise how could someone have attempted to put a police car on top of the dome of the main building without a crane? (My friend explained that those pranksters w...

My flat in Munich became a mere hotel room, in between my Dutch adventures and the next trip to a conference held in Steamboat Springs in Colorado, USA. I didn't expect to be going on this conference but my departmental head, who was one of the organisers of the conference, asked me to be a conference assistant as the original person had pulled out. I only received the news after booking my trip to the Netherlands, and the conference was supposed to start on 6th January, just 3 days after returning from the Netherlands. The secretaries to the departmental head joked that I was living the life of the big boss. Steamboat Springs is located in the Rocky Mountains within Colorado, and I have long expected it to be under some cold weather and a cover of snow. Little did I expect to feel the full force of the elements even before I reached the town! After arriving in Denver at 20:00 on 5th January, I found that my connecting flight to Hayden Airport, the closest one to Steamboat Spring...