Oooh!

greenmanbear pointed me at the grad school's internal travel grant award system, after my good news about getting my poster abstract accepted for the ASM General Meeting in Toronto in May.

They'll actually award up to $750 for travel to Canada. Given that registration for the meeting already cost me $150, that's really, really nice. And considering that this is one of the BIG science conferences, all of the downtown hotels that are listed on the registration site are almost guaranteed to have jacked up their prices. Okay, okay, the hotels are in CAN$, but we no longer enjoy the charming exchange rate I witnessed in my youthful travels to the Great North.

But the kicker is that I just realized that if I tack on a few days on one end or the other of my trip, I could get away with taking the train there and back! Oooh! And that it'll be at the end of my prelim exams period... I'm going to NEED a vacation. That is, if I haven't already *sob* cracked.

Yay! Thanks, bro!

Edit: *GULP* I think I might book one of the conference hotels for the duration of the conference, but have my own mini-vacation at some place much, Much, MUCH cheaper. The cheapest listed is CAN$185! *meep* Curses! upon all the M(oney)Ds who come to these things...