Frozen solid, I arrive at Beijing International Airport around seven in the morning. After I have secured a taxi - which is an adventure by itself as not only do drivers not speak English, most don't even read English characters - I head into the city to meet up with the others already at the conference. I actually had to go back to the airport information centre to write down the Chinese name of the hotel, but even then we stopped two times asking for direction. Just for the record: this is not some shabby penny-hostel, but a big 5-star hotel. Taxi drivers...

Already eight days have passed since I've arrived in China. During the conference - I was inside actually working - there wasn't much time to do anything besides getting up early, all day and perhaps look around a bit in the evening. Beijing started off pretty disappointingly. Foggy - or is it the infamous smog? - and overcast. And cold! OMG! I think I must've really gotten used to the hot South-Asian temperature. In the evening I could feel the chill air penetrating through my single clean shirt and the cold! rain coupled with the wind really made this city miserable. I did not come here to be cold. Hell, I don't even have shoes or a sweater of any kind. How will this ever work out if I go to Inner Mongolia where the night temperatures drop down to seven degrees? I'll be frozen solid. A tourist popsicle. I need to go shopping, that's for sure. Luckily I am not worried yet. From Monday it's another whole week until I leave. We have time.

And until then.... whoooo! China National Convention Center Grand Hotel is heavenly. As the taxi pulls up I faintly feel this cannot be a bad place. As I check in, enter the room, I know for sure. Brilliant. I just drop my stuff and hurry down to get breakfast - famished. I have never tasted cornflakes, milk, bread, cheese and cakes/sweets to be so good! Skipping all the Chinese food I go straight for the good old European flavours. OMG! Potatoes! I must've had four or five, or god knows how many plates. One after another it just disappeared into my black hole. Not even the fact that I knew there will be more occasions to eat that day put an end to this feast. And I knew it was good. Even now I am salivating at the thought of that first taste of waffles with chocolate. And that is not the end of it.

The bathroom in our room has hot water! No, I have not gone mad! My first hot shower in over a month is it? Or was it longer? Can't remember. How I missed you! Not much useful memory remains after this sugar-rush. I register at the conference, get my badge and sit in on one of the workshops. As I've been told to take notes I meticulously pen down the important parts of the presentations about image registration. The most I remember of this day is the coffee break where I stuff my plate overflowing with sweets and the reception later in the evening. Red wine, food, sweets. Lots of food. And lots and lots of sweets. Even I am amazed so much fit into me that day. Can't even imagine what the others thought about me showing up with a full plate, devouring it - in a nice, sophisticated manner - and almost immediately rushing off to get the next one. And this pretty much repeated itself for most of the week. What?! Don't be surprised! I missed food okay! By Thursday I've seriously cut down on the food but even my first plates were met with snickers, laughs, comments and the ever recurring black hole analogy. People can be so jealous :) All in all I've arrived at around 68.7kgs, maxed out at 71.2kgs - on Thursday evening - and ended around 70.4kgs. Acceptable.

MICCAI. The conference. There were workshops on Monday and Friday, where people were presenting their research in small classrooms and the interested could sit in to listen. Tuesday through Thursday others presented theirs in the main auditorium following keynote speakers. There were plenty of coffee-breaks - opportunities to satisfy my sugar-cravings... and okay, some tea. Most of the talks were interesting, varying with the presentation capabilities of the person. Some less, as their subject was totally alien to me and so hard to stay focused. It was a bit like back in college, but without the stress of having to remember everything for exams. The only issue: Friday. Why oh why was my workshop, my presentation on the very last day? All week, increasing as the days rolled by I was anxious. Anxious about having to stand up in front of all these people, about holding my talk, anxious about them laughing at me, anxious about forgetting my text, about slurring out incomprehensible syllables. Well, general anxiety. Don't know why though. I have practiced it several times with Marius - the first one was so horrible I wanted to disappear somewhere really, really dark - then one more on my own, and by the time I had to do it for real I had enough confidence to realise I could do this. Belly churning, not paying much attention to the previous speaker, I walk up and as I grab the stand, utter the first words, hear my own voice not wavering, not faltering, but clear, a calmness comes over me. It didn't even go that badly. Given much, much worse presentations. Idiot, afraid about nothing. Now if this were on the Monday though... Oh well. I've done it, done it well, have my name in the proceedings, my work published and I'm in Beijing.

Horrible though. I should be excited about the conference proceedings, but all I can think about is that when MICCAI is held in Nagoya, Japan in 2012 how cool it would be to spend a few weeks there looking around. Horrible, no? Even now, I couldn't really write about the presentations as that wouldn't interest you reader, except for criticising the horrible chinglish of all the Chinese, the reading up word-for-word of all slides, the million "uuh", "eeh", and "mmh" I've heard throughout the week and the spastic movements of the really nervous. What I could write about - extensively - is the food!

Tuesday for example. MICCAI 2010 Opening Ceremony. Incredible amounts of tantalising food. Meat, fish, vegetables, drinks, dessert. And coupled with this amazing performance on stage. Girls all dressed up combine dance with Chinese opera on stage, mask-flipping artists, wu-shu masters, jugglers, musicians and mortal Vishnus. I have no idea what you call these maskies, but two guys came up on stage wearing masks and moved around battle-ready to the tune of sweeping music. And then, suddenly, their hand goes in front of their face and the next moment they're wearing a different mask. But so fast that as I was filming them one frame was mask one, and the next the other mask. Incredible. Photographs cannot capture their amazing performance. The Vishnu-lookalikes were ten women lining up one behind the other so when viewed from the front they looked as one, but when fanning out her arms, seeming to have dozens. Gorgeous. After running around from our table to the stage to get a close look I just gave up, and permanently settled down on the floor up front. With a glass of wine and cakes.

Thursday. A group of about eighty of us - MICCAIANS - head to downtown Beijing for dinner. Some roast Peking-duck restaurant. Well, ok, let's go. I don't find these roast ducks so special but if people want to eat it I'm always in. I slowly start to change my stance as we get out in the most crowded touristy area, and walk towards a building with a very exquisite facade. Things get more interesting as we are ushered inside, and at least a few dozen sour-faced Chinese sit in the lobby waiting to get a seat. But the moment it really hits home is when we are given a leaflet explaining this as the most prestigious Peking-duck restaurant in all of China. Or was it when the cook cuts up the duck right in front of us and we are given a certificate of authenticity, on it written: "you are eating duck 1.48mln 60170" in gold lettering. Don't remember exactly. Small portion after portion is tastefully put on the table, from vegetables to pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, sea-cucumber - which I really don't like but even this tastes good - until the duck arrives. Four of us to the whole duck. Wrapped in small pancakes with sauce it is most delicious. There is even a small duck dessert afterwards. Whoooooo. We leave stuffed.

MICCAI ends on the Friday evening. All in all - and let's skip all the food for now - it's been a great experience.