Pre-Breakfast Update

Quick update before I meet Penny for breakfast.  First of all, Penny's cool points keep growing.  When she picked me up yesterday, she was listening to the "F*** you" song by Lily Allen.  It amazes me that people here are listening to that artist when I don't consider her all that well-known in the United States.  When she and her boyfriend picked me up at the airport, they were listening to Maroon 5 so they are definitely familiar with American music.  That and 7-Eleven's.  There are some 7-Elevens in the US but nowhere near as many as here! I've also seen a couple Starbucks in the train stations, a deluxe McDonalds from a distance, and certainly people wearing American brands (it embarrasses me a bit that "Playboy bunny" brand is one of most frequent American stores I see).
So the conference starts today- hopefully everything runs smoothly for CCU.  Apparently yesterday, they realized the room where they were going to have the poster session had no lights. The last day of exams was yesterday so most students are home for the winter holidays but the physics students were busy working like Santas elves to prepare the folders  and get the space ready for today's meeting.  I have no idea how many people plan to come but they've erected huge posters and a blow-up welcome thing so I anticipate quite a few.
Ok time for me to! It's wet but not raining so it looks like the day is off to a good start.