As with every single conference I have ever attended, getting internet access is terrible. I got my wifi working during the last few minutes of the lunch break, but even then I could not read my university email because the firewall blocks ssh and secure http. I’m no back at the guest house and have bought some internet time. Ironically, the internet works much more smoothly here. BUT: after my talk today I lent my converter plug to a poor European who forgot to bring one. (Damn our funny wall sockets!) So now my laptop has a few minutes of battery life left and I have to type for my life!
The conference is great. I love linguistics and automata, so this is really the conference for me! I have spoken to many people and I think that in the future I will definitely try to do some more work in this field. Our current contribution is really all about automata, and nothing about linguistics. But I know several people in South Africa who is working on CompLing, and I hope we’ll be able to collaborate. Technically, I have already started: my work with Brink on learning is NLP-ish, and I’ve had a couple of ideas about small-scale experiments that won’t require big project funding or a change in lifestyle. Conferences are wonderful sources of inspiration. Whatever happens to journals, I hope that we don’t ever switch to virtual conferences only. There is a lot to be said for chatting to people face to face, and there is an undeniable frisson in meeting (or perhaps just seeing from a distance) those great men and women who lead the field!! 
The guesthouse where I’m staying is quite nice. Breakfast was not overwhelming, but I suppose it was adequate. The biggest problem is the bath-shower combination — I would really have preferred a real shower. I brought my formal shoes that makes me feel like a Japanese showgirl. Squeezing my feet into them is bad enough, but walking 20 minutes either way is a big mistake. Important lesson for the future: bring comfortable shoes. Noone is look at, or can even see, feet. Hmm. Not the first time I’m learning this lesson!
It seems that things will work out so that I can see my old friend tomorrow. In the unlikely case that it does not work out, I’ll have to find a decent restaurant so that I don’t have to repeat tonight’s sad dinner: bar of chocolate and some crisps. To be honest, I could barely eat when I got home, and got into bed and dropped off almost immediately. Pretty tiring having to concentrate the whole day long.