IRAM interferometry school

With the exception of a single one-hour lecture by a VLBI expert at Arecibo, this is by far the best course on interferometry I've yet come across. Everything is clearly explained, step-by-step, starting from the over-simplified basics and gradually raising the complexity. Even with my shamefully poor mathematical skills I'm able to follow every step. The lectures are paced at just the right speed and (unlike every single other "conference" I've ever been on) there's a break between each one. Plenty of time to absorb what's been explained. No trying to cram unnecessary volumes of information or the seemingly malevolent attempts to exhaust everyone that plagues most workshops. It's about 10x better than NRAO's synthesis imaging summer school.

The downside to being in the lovely Grenoble with the wonderful lectures is the crappy "hotel". It's actually more like a low-grade (bordering on "dingy") hostel that charges hotel prices. Rooms are badly painted (I literally could have done a better job - for a start I wouldn't have chosen a mixture of deep pink and military grey), there's no wardrobe, free wifi is very slow, the sink light works entirely at random, the shower takes about 5 minutes (not exaggerating) to reach a state of tolerable warmth, light switch requires getting out of bed, "full breakfast" really means "a full croissant", cleanliness is not high, bed is squeaky (albeit comfortable), and the shared toilet (has a bizarre self-cleaning seat) has less legroom than any aircraft toilet. All in all, rather unpleasant.

Tomorrow I will celebrate my birthday by learning about calibration principles and atmospheric phase correction techniques.
http://www.iram-institute.org/EN/content-page-331-7-67-331-0-0.html