ICSME 2023

2023-10-06
Last updated: 2023-10-07

This week, I travelled to Bogotá, Colombia, to present at ICSME. I travelled solo this time to present a paper that came out of the research I conducted during my time at UBC. Solo travel isn't new to me, but I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't nervous at all going on a solo trip to South America, where I don't really speak the language beyond a few common phrases.

Travelling from Seattle to Bogotá

Being the stingy grad student I am, I started scoping tickets to Bogotá pretty early so I could get the cheapest price. This meant that I ended up with the pretty unattractive departure time of 6am from SEA (Sea-Tac Airport). Adding to the anxiety was the fact that I had never travelled out of SEA; Reddit threads generally provided some context as to what I should expect. I also signed up for SEA Spot Saver, which lets travellers sign up for a TSA security check. I bought tickets to travel on United's "Basic Economy" class, which is basically Economy without the option to check-in online, and without a carry-on allowance. Of course, I knew none of this when I bought the ticket. That said, because I was on an international flight to Bogotá, there was actually no discernible difference between Basic Economy and Economy. I was able to check-in online (24 hours before the flight), and I was also able to bring a carry-on. Were the seats narrow and small? Yes, but I don't fly enough to care.

Getting to SEA by about 4:30am was the most anxiety-inducing part of the trip there. I could take the last light rail and sleep over at SEA, I could take an Uber or use some ride-sharing app, or I could do what my ancestors did before the advent of technology and take a taxi. I briefly considered sleeping over at the airport before I realized that I really wasn't looking forward to a shitty night's sleep before a long travel day. I looked at prices for Uber/Lyft to the airport, and saw that they started at an eye-watering 70-80 dollars. Not happening. A scan of airport-related threads on the Seattle subreddit showed that taking a taxi would be considerably cheaper. I downloaded the Seattle Yellow Taxi app and scheduled a cab for 4am on the day of travel. I set an alarm for 3:45am the night before, and went to sleep. After about an hour of actual sleep, I woke up, got dressed, and was out the door by 3:55am; the cab showed up promptly at 4am.

The taxi ride was uneventful (aside from being, at times, extremely fast) and I arrived at SEA. The trip cost 45.60, and I paid right through the app. Even at 4:30am, there were a lot of people at the airport. However, the security line was so short that I didn't end up using my SEA Spot Saver reservation. I also couldn't find the place where Spot Saver was located, so it was a bit of a non-starter, anyway. Boarding was uneventful, I even got some work done in the time I had before boarding started, and we were all loaded into the plane by 6am. Unfortunately, due to what the pilot called "early morning traffic," we were grounded for about 30min before we were finally wheels-up at about 6:40, 30 minutes after the stated departure time.

We landed in Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) after a pretty smooth ride. I envied the people on either side of me who were able to sleep through the entire thing. I'll learn how to sleep on an airplane one day. The flight to Bogotá was uneventful, except disembarking on the plane took what felt like ages. We arrived at around 11pm local time. Customs and immigration took a long time, I was surprised at how many people were arriving so late in the evening.

The Conference and Bogotá

The conference was held on the campus of the Universidad de los Andes, which locals refer to as "Uniandes." My talk was in the afternoon session of the opening day. The room where my talk was held experienced AV issues, ranging from the projector randomly cutting out during a session, or just displaying a jumbled mass of pixels. I planned to do a live demo of my tool, so this was a bit worrying. One of the student volunteers handed me a USB-C to HDMI adapter, which seemed to be pretty stable. I took a leap of faith and went for it; the talk went decently and the live demo didn't have any issues. Lesson learned: bring my own USB-C to HDMI adapter, and even my own HDMI to VGA/HDMI cable. Another thing I should probably plan for is the possibility that I might have to give a talk on another machine, possibly hooked into the room's AV system. In this case, having a presentation in Keynote would be a bad idea. I'll probably try to use Google Slides for my next talk.

On the second day of the conference, I decided to take a walk through the streets of Bogotá and make my way to the Plaza del Bolívar. I started from Uniandes, walked down Calle 18, down Cra. 2a, and finally onto Carrera 11. The square was massive; with buildings flanking all four sides of it. It was also the place in the city where I could definitively make out the European influence in the architecture the most. The cathedral in the image above is known as the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá.

On day two, I was also able to try the conference coffee. If you've been to a conference, the coffee is usually infamous for doing exactly what coffee is advertised to do—wake you up—and nothing more. I am the unfortunate victim of a fancy coffee habit, so this is usually an annoyance for me (not that it doesn't stop me from drinking an obscene amount of coffee during conferences, anyway). The coffee at ICSME this year was out of this world. Not only did they break out a few Chemexes, but they also had gooseneck kettles and the works; I don't think I could have brewed a better cup. This got me thinking that I should bring back some coffee. Luckily, a mere 5min walk from the conference venue was a roaster called Colo. I was able to speak with the barista, who was very understanding of my very broken Spanish, and got a few bags.

The conference banquet was held on top of Monserrate, a 3152m mountain peak that overlooks the city of Bogotá. We arrived by funicular cable car, and had around 10 minutes of daylight left to see a panoramic view of Bogotá. Monserrate also had a church that was built in the 17th century, which was open to the public to explore.

We were soon herded into a restaurant at the peak, the Restaurante Casa Santa Clara. I was not able to stay for the entire banquet due to an unexpected mishap, but what I was able to eat was quite good. After the day's events, I returned to the hotel room at around 12:30am, where I was able to get a few hours of shut-eye before my taxi came to pick me up at 5am.