DSP 2009 Conference – The Greek Experience ;)
This is a way overdue post but I still want to take this time to write about my wonderful 8-day experience in Greece. 
Ever since I was a kid, I have always wanted to travel around the world. I love seeing beautiful places and meeting different people – but more than that, it’s interesting for me to experience the various cultures of the world and see how different or how similar it is to the one that I grew up with.
In October 2008, I had my thesis defense and then graduated with an MS EE degree. I saw the ‘Call for Papers’ for the DSP 2009 Conference in Santorini, Greece and I thought to myself “I’m going to Greece next year!” With much conviction and armed with an MS thesis, I wrote a conference paper on ‘Real-time Implementation of Wideband Sinusoidal Speech Coder on ADSP-21065L‘ and thank goodness, it got accepted!
But that’s only 50% of the deal. I still needed to raise the funds to take me to Greece. And guess what, I was able to raise it! And so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me out. A huge thank you to Ma’am Gev for being an amazing adviser for helping me raise the funds and ofcourse for coming to Greece with me. A big appreciation goes to the ERDT scholarship for giving those people with the willingness to pursue a graduate course a chance to do so. And not only that, it also allows us to take pride in presenting our projects to an international audience and also a shot at exploring the world. With that, I thank ERDT and hopefully it’ll be able to support more deserving scholars
I want to thank Cong. Boyet Gonzales for the sponsorship and for meeting me and letting me know how proud he is for all my achievements. To Tita Maris for the financial help that goes with “Don’t get me anything. Buy something nice for yourself.” (which I did) To Louis, Ninang Rene, Ramil, Ma’am Pillas, Alan, Tito Ric, and my friends for all the help and the prayers. And ofcourse, to my amazing family and my man for all the support! I have the best family and friends!
So how’s the trip to Greece? I had my first long flight (almost 10 hours I think) 
But it didn’t matter – because the trip was A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Greece (Athens and Santorini) is very beautiful! The people are nice and very helpful. (We got lost once and we had to ask for directions. The guy had trouble speaking English but he still helped us out.) One thing I notice about Greeks is that they don’t speak English very well, but they don’t care. (It makes me wonder why it’s such a big deal in the Philippines.) The food didn’t upset my stomach, which is a plus factor. I’m not very adventurous with food, so I don’t really try new stuff but I enjoyed the Greek gyros pita and Greek salad 
And while there, Ma’am Gev and I never converted the amount to Philippine pesos so we can get the most of the experience and so we can enjoy buying stuff. I’m sure everything there is more expensive – the food, the clothes, the accessories, the fare, etc. But oh, there’s one exception, and it really made me happy! My oh-so-favorite Haagen Dazs ice cream is cheaper there haha! It’s only 1.7 euros while here its 152 pesos – amazing!
But more than being a tourist in Greece, it makes me ultra proud to be representing the Philippines, together with Mam Gev, in the DSP 2009 Conference.
Here are some photos of our Greek experience:
still at the foot of the mountain, on top is the Acropolis
finally reached the top!
the 2004 Athens Olympics Stadium
Ma’am Gev enjoying the view of Santorini
and we’re loving the breeze, too!
proud moment – getting ready for my poster presentation
we’re ready to climb that volcano! (i reached the top!)
very pretty for a night out in Oia, Santorini
It was truly an amazing trip and I feel really blessed! I have never imagined that I’ll be going to Greece at 25! This experience really inspires me to strive for more. So where’s the next conference?