So lets get the bad news out of the way first. I went to Brazil, and Saturday night on the flight home I started feeling sick. I slept so soundly on the plane I was not even aware of the fact that they served breakfast, and as far as I can tell the lights were on for 12 hours straight. I got home on Sunday... and on Monday morning went to the ER and was diagnosed with Strep. A shot of penicillin in the buttocks and some steroids later... I'm feeling better. Or at least not like I'm going to choke on my own tonsils. The other bad news - I'm not in Brazil still.
So Interact was AMAZING. I met a lot of important people in the field of Human Computer Interactions (important enough that they'd introduce themselves and I'd sort of freeze because I really I just made a fool of myself in front of someone who's name I knew already). Seeing those people sitting on the floor for the best wireless signal... also amusing. I'm now published, as an undergrad - woot for 3 female undergrads to get published together!
The theme of the conference was socially responsible interaction - so right up my alley, with all of my work with ASB and technology and what not. I sat in on quite a few sessions about international development and technology design for those communities... there's a lot of interesting work done with education. In short - I want to be part of this community. Its comfortable. And definitely amusing when keynote speakers groan because they see certain people about to ask questions and respond to them by first name.
The other SVs were incredible - SVing is pretty cool because you get to sit in on workshops/tutorials/paper presentations that you might not be inclined to see otherwise. At night, you have people to hang out with, which is pretty awesome. I did all the big toursity stuff - sugarloaf, corcovado (one of the new 7 wonders of the world!), walked around the beach at Copacabana, sat and drank a beer on Ipanema. Did some more unusual things like played capture the flag on the beach, went dancing forro, had an amazing dinner at lagoa with live music...
We went to a football match (read: soccer game) at what was (or is) the biggest stadium in the world - and drank cachaca out of a cup. If you don't know what cachaca is, or capirinhas, wiki it. It will be time well spent. If you find cachaca in the US, let me know. If you're too lazy to look it up... imagine drinking tequila out of a cup and you've about got the right idea.
I managed to eat lunch at the same place 3 days in a row - basically its a buffet, which means its fast (not waiting for 12 people to order and get their food and split the bill), but you pay by the weight of the food. GENIUS! It was also great because I got to try a lot of different kinds of Brazilian food - oh, and they had sushi everywhere. Brazil is the largest population of Japanese people outside of, well, Japan.
The conference timing was kind of interesting, as many people were working on their CHI papers rather than attending sessions... but so it goes. I watched Eric and Tony sit inside for a long time staring out at the beach from the conference center with their laptops plugged in... oh the joys of being an undergrad :) I love the social spaces group - I can't imagine finding another group that is as much fun as they are. The whole Interact experience, starting almost two year's ago with Karrie's class... has been so incredible, because of the people.
Rio is gorgeous, but the air quality sucks. If you ever have the opportunity in your life to go to Brazil, take it. They keep their mountains and lakes and beaches right in the middle of the city. I'm looking forward to the day I can go visit all of my friends in Brazil - that would be incredible! I'm hoping the SVs keep in touch - the SV experience was so similar to my ASB experiences, and my study abroad experience. Its amazing how close you can get in a week when you have common interests and shared work, and are on equal footing with the terrain - basically amounts to a whole lot of not sleeping and a lot of interesting discussions/activities. I mean really, sitting on the beaches discusses fraternities? And accents? And playing capture the flag? Teaching international drinking games and card games is a lot of fun.
I'm hoping to go to CHI2008. We'll see how that goes.
