Conference! Conference!

I finally got to the hotel. I registered, and then went to the lobby area. I sat down and decided to spend a few moments before going into the conference area. Then a very familiar voice called my name. I looked up, and my Sudanese friend, Aymen, was there. I was really happy to see him. He and I are on the same PhD program, and we have often gotten together to talk about this or that.
I had gone to the bakery near Thanasis’ apartment that morning and bought some cookies and bread for him, so we ate together at the hotel lobby. Because we are proudly poor students, we got ourselves water in the lobby, free of charge, and ate the bread and cookies. We then talked about the conference and our common topics of identity issues and our experiences with the Greeks we met.

Aymen was supposed to present on this day, so we went to the room, but the organizers asked him to postpone his presentation till the next day. He agreed to do that, but it turned out that it was because some Chinese professors wanted to present on that day instead of the next day. Well, these Chinese professors were sitting in the back while other presenters were talking about their research, and they were discussing and preparing for their turn. We heard his-his-hissssssssssssssssssssss in the back the whole time, and we all turned to look at them to show them they needed to keep quiet, but they didn’t seem to get it. It was very unprofessional of them to do that to other presenters. It was especially annoying, because they took Aymen’s turn to present.