Boy, have things gotten busy!

So now it is June 28, and we leave Russia in just two days (in fact, two days from now we will be over the north Atlantic headed for Greenland). The week has been eventful, to say the least.

After our arrival back from Tomsk, we all needed a long rest: a four-hour time differential in both directions does absolutely nothing favorable for the internal clock! I am actually still feeling jet-lagged. So Saturday, we did little but sleep until we left the hotel to go to the Federations Cup match between Russia and Mexico. Anna had gotten us amazing seats, just twelve rows back from the field! The match itself was an excellent one, with a referee who did not pay frees to players who took a dive. It ended up Mexico 2-Russia 1, and to be honest, a draw would have been a fairer outcome. Of course, the locals were dejected about the final score, but they are now beginning to look at the way their team played, and they are now seeing a lot of good things there for the future.

 The view of the pitch from our seats; magnificent!

 Almost the same picture

 The mascot for the Confederations Cup

On our way back to the hotel, we met a young woman named Elena, who is a teacher in one of the special English schools here in Kazan. When none of us obviously had any idea of where to get off the bus, she accompanied us all the way back to our hotel. Her English was excellent, and being a teacher herself, she shared interests with Sergei. Of course, he probed for every bit of information he could get about the Russian educational system. I do not envy Jill Prushiek the job of reading the dissertation he is going to produce!

Sunday was another lazy day, but given the amount of work we had gotten done, I did not feel bad about taking the weekend off. I also needed some time just to gather my wits for the Conference, which began the next day. The opening ceremony was held in the Imperial Hall of the University, and Academician Konovalov again decided that I should get a shout-out. The book containing the Russian translations of my papers in English has now gone into a second printing, and everyone who has not already received a copy has gotten a new one. I will be bringing some back with me for colleagues out east and west, who have asked for them.

The Monday morning session went long—very long—so lunch was not the leisurely affair I thought it might be. The afternoon sessions were in the Shalyapin Palace Hotel, and I had lunch there with the Polish group. The afternoon sessions went much better because the chairs of those sessions did not allow the speakers to go over. The afternoon sessions were capped by the welcoming social with serious finger food and excellent wine (the red was from southeastern Australia, of course!). Monday night was another crash and sleep night.

Yesterday, Anna presented her poster.

 Anna at her poster.

 Anna at her poster from the other side.

 Anna and your humble blogger at her poster.

 Anna and booted mentor at her poster.

Anna presenting her poster to a Russian post-doc.

I spent the morning locked in conference with Dr. Valery Shtyrlin, and I think we now have hammered out the logistics for a book on the development of Butlerov's structural theory, and I think we are going to approach Springer as publisher. We now have notes from his lectures in 1859-1860 (taken by Markovnikov) and 1862-1863 (taken by Bukhvostov). These lecture notes provide us with direct insight into a really critical time in the development of organic chemistry.