Conference

 I've told you a lot about the sightseeing we did in Lisbon but not a lot about the reason we were there in the first place!  Adam and I both submitted abstracts and were accepted to give oral presentations on different projects we have been working on this year.  My presentation was about the global HPV seroprevalence review I have been working on with my mentor in North Carolina.  I had 10 minutes to talk about a huge review article with more than 120 papers included and reams and reams of data!  Adam talked about a paper that he helped write about a screening program in China.  

 Both of our presentations were on the last day of the conference, so we had plenty of time to get our bearings and go to sessions.  The first day was mostly 'what is HPV', and 'big trends about cervical cancer'; introductory sessions, mostly.  The second and third days had bigger sessions about 'Epidemiology of HPV' or 'HPV in Resource-Poor Settings', as well as more targeted sessions about particular techologies or vaccine developments.

 On the last day of the conference, we both put on our newly tailored Chinese suits and showed up early.  I went to Adam's talk, which was excellent, and then he jetted off for the airport to catch the last flight home that day.  I had to stay later since my talk wasn't until the last session of the entire conference, in the afternoon.  I thought that there would perhaps be fewer people there, and there were, but my mentor told me it was a 'high-powered session' and thus my talk had to be good!  Eeek!  I think it went well  however, I stayed within my time limits, and I didn't make any glaring errors.  Thankfully, we were behind time already due to earlier speakers taking too long, so nobody asked me any questions!