Saturday May 6th

My first in-person ICLR!

I’m at the airport, waiting for my last flight back to Burlington.
This trip has been an experience! I had about a day from my trip to Lyon to do laundry and repack, and head to Kigali.
However, my trip to JFK got delayed from a 3:30pm Saturday flight, to a 6am Sunday flight, then an 11:10am flight, then eventually left for JFK at 3:50pm on Sunday. So that meant that I misssed my first international flight to Kigali, which was supposed to (if I had arrived at JFK for 5pm) leave at 10pm. So that was rescheduled for Monday at 10pm, and I got to JFK on Sunday, and spent a day extra in New York. Then, a trip from JFK to Lomé, then a trip to Addis, then finally Kigali.
Then, no luggage. Uh oh. With a shortened time-frame (I did hear I was in the keynote apparently!), I had hoped to get my bag back in time, and it ended up being the case that I got it back when I went to the airport to leave to head back to the US.
The great thing was that the organizers were so amazing, that they got me new clothes! Also, the hotel was so fantastic, that I really, really enjoyed my stay and everything else, including the conference. It was fantastic. Don’t believe me; see the photos below!
Oh, and I did eventually get my bag back, so all is well! So it was just an experience! :)

I’ve had a little bit of anxiety these days, and on one day I had off during the conference, I watched the documentary on Tim Bergling just before he passed away. The flying across the world had my sleep schedule a bit messed up, but not having all my clothes meant I couldn’t go to the gym, and my mind tends to go into overdrive, giving me anxiety at night so I can’t go to sleep. And I missed my weekly meditation with my group of postdocs (yes, that’s a thing I also do). I will never be Tim, but I relate a lot to his introverted nature and anxiety when being around large groups of people. I often have to psych myself up, and feel exhausted afterwards. What was nice was that the organizers of ICLR were so awesome that we had a staff room (MR6) where I could take breaks and recharge. I really appreciated that because I get exhausted around large groups of people for extended bits of time, and this can manifest itself in anxiety and stress. Travel can also make me feel burned out because there is generally a lack of private space / people are in your personal space a lot when you are travelling. Culturally, I have a strong sense of wanting my personal space, so having that invaded / outside of my control can be draining. So sometimes I need an entire day just to decompress in silence and listen to music / not interact with anyone (except maybe close family / friends) to recharge.

I had an amazing time! The workshop we co-hosted was AMAZING, and I heard from Yan that people were asking when the next ICLR will be hosted in Africa. I ran into Timnit (auntie Timnit! :D), met Been (who was six months pregnant; how did she do this trip!?) and Samy and Marc and the infamous Roseanne and Tom, and we were amused that we no longer had our backgrounds behind us, since we had been meeting weekly on GChat in preparation for our workshop.
We had an organizer dinner, and then another dinner for our workshop, where some of the conference organizers joined. It was really an experience!
I’m really thankful to the staff at KCC and Radisson Blu, to the conference organizers, the workshop participants (thank you for showing up and having amazing talks!) and everyone for making my first ICLR so enjoyable! It really felt quite close-knit, and people were so friendly and the whole environment was just one that I would love for more AI conferences!
Maybe…see you in Vienna?

Represent lol. People texted me and told me I was in the keynote apparently, but I was on a flight so didn’t manage to make it to that.

I gave in the night before our workshop and did room service. It was so amazing! A channa and potato burger with fried onion rings on top and fries with thousand island sauce. I also loved African tea! Spicy and so good in the mornings!