The Naturvetarna congress

During the spring Maria was elected to be a representative for the Northern district of Sweden at the congress of the union Naturvetarna (Natural Science). Yesterday she took the plane down to Stockholm and a train to Saltsjöbaden. Arranging the travel early in the morning was not possible, so Maria stayed an extra night before the congress started at nine this morning. After registration it was time for a short introduction for all congress beginners, explaining the formal procedures during these two days.
At ten we started with the opening of the congress, followed by a speak given by the secretary of the Ministry of Education and Research. After a two-course lunch including nice views over the neighboring water, discussions in smaller groups filled the afternoon. Our group discussed future directions for the union regarding research and climate. Focus were around how can we improve the general attitude of natural science and get more people interested to teach/study the field.

We had time for a short walk in the neighborhood before we all gathered for the aperitif.
In the evening we were served a nice three-meal course. Our table was a nice mix of people, including a few insisting the dinner needed more songs. Some other seemed to think so too, since after our table (suddenly) sang loud, more songs were heard during the evening. The evening then continued in the bar, were live music entertained us all. Now knowing some more people Maria had a really nice evening. A strange situation though, when both Maria and a guy noticed each others faces, but didn't know where we had met before. Half an hour later the guy remembered that we attended the same German class in high school over 13 years ago.
The dancing/chatting continued until the bar closed, and after that a few of us had some small-talk before going to bed for a few hours of sleep.