Symposium

It's going to be an even quieter week than normal at work this week.  That's because most people in my group have flown down to California to our headquarters for a symposium being held by our department (apparently, and surprisingly, the department has a big enough budget for this - between the cost of travel, accommodation, meals etc. and the number of people making this trip from across the world, there is a lot of money being spent on this).  I had an opportunity to go down there, but turned it down.  Mainly because I saw the agenda, and there was absolutely nothing that interested me.  And although there might be some colleagues down there that I've worked with but have never met, I have no particular desire to meet them just to make brief and awkward small talk.  But after it was too late to change my mind, apparently they've organized some team-building events that sounded fun.  So now I'm a little bit disappointed that I'm not going.  If only for a free trip to San Francisco.  But maybe not, knowing my luck I would probably end up team-building with a bunch of Chinese colleagues who want nothing to do with me and/or my old manger who I detest.  So instead I just have another week ahead with a whole bunch of nothing.