Wow! My three-minute talk went rather well, though I did not think so at first. I had to watch the video that my friend took of my talk, for me to realise I was not so bad after all, except for my getting confused a little towards the end of my speech and claiming so openly. I actually said to the crowd: 'I am now getting confused...' and they laughed. So I hope they thought it was a clever joke.
If you are not in the loop, the three-minute talk was me trying to say something interesting about my research to a random crowd by the steps of the library at Stellenbosch university. There was actually a timer and someone blew a whistle when the three minutes were up. 10 of us doing our PhD studies at Stellenbosch agreed to participate in this challenge that was aimed at making research look cool! It happened over lunch hour and it was part of the NEW VOICES IN SCIENCE participation at the Diversity week celebrations in Stellenbosch.
I am certain that another word about this 'research is cool' stuff will bore you to death, so I will digress and tell you something completely unrelated to my PhD, or Stellenbosch university for that matter. It is about my new apartment! I absolutely love it!
This new place gets lots of sunshine and I think that is why the neighbours are so friendly. They even say 'hi' when we meet outside. Coupled with the breathtaking view of the mountain, I declare this place: comfortable. If you are my friend on FB, you will soon be inundated with beautiful images of this breathtaking view that I speak of. Not so long from now, I will start uploading images from my phone.
Meanwhile, I reminisce over the wonderful time I had in Gaborone, Botswana, where I had gone for a design conference (GIDEC2013). With my presentation having gone remarkably well, I went on to have a most memorable tour of Gaborone and its surroundings on my last day there.
Our tour guide could not have been any better that Zoran, a professor from University of Botswana. There was only Angus and I for this tour and so, the three of us promised to enjoy ourselves, and we did exactly that. I will tell you of this enjoyment another day. For now, I beseech you to go do something more important than reading this aimless blog.
Labels: Gaborone, GIDEC2013, new voices in science, Stellenbosch university, SU diversity week