I haven’t looked after my blog for a while now because I’ve had various important things to take care of, including a trip in which I attended a conference in the USA at the end of June and went to the lab in Munich for another work trip. Now I’ve finally found the time to pick up my writing habits again. 早一整子為了不同的事情忙，包括準備六月底往美國開會議和七月中回慕尼黑公幹做實驗，網誌也因此荒廢，但現在終於可以再寫一點點了。 Apart from the conference, my time in the US also gave me a rare chance to meet up with the Chinese friends whom I met during my years working in Munich, all at once. 在美國除了開會議外，還跟一眾當年在慕尼黑認識的中國人朋友再次聚首，真夠難得。 The conference was held at a place north of Boston, and flying there from Australia necessitates a change at the West Coast, so I decided to make San Francisco my stop-over point (23rd June) and visit a friend working at Stanford to kick-start my round-the-world trip. 會議在波士頓以北舉行，乘飛機從澳洲出發，須在西岸轉換航班，所以便決定取道三藩市（6月23日），順道到史丹褔（Stanford）探朋友，開展我的環遊世界之旅。 The San Francisco Bay Area (i.e. the metropolitan area of San Franc