An encounter with America, ASMS conference 2025/Susret sa Amerikom, ASMS konferencija 2025

My reunion with America after 28 years took place last week. I landed in Baltimore on Friday night around 8 pm and was greeted by rain. It didn't bother me because I was excited and happy that I had decided to make this trip and that the flight from London to Washington itself had been nice and relaxed. On the plane, I happened to be sitting next to my colleague Nikki from the company Waters, whose instruments we have in our lab and with whom we often collaborate. Nikki and I shared a taxi to Baltimore and I was grateful to her for that because I needed it for that first encounter with America.

The streets of Baltimore are wide and comfortable and unlike European cities, especially English ones, there are significantly fewer people on them. It is easy to move around as a pedestrian, I felt safe, and I also had the impression that driving a car through the streets of Baltimore would be pleasant, although I have not tried it.  My second morning, something happened that caught me off guard. I was walking on a Sunday morning towards the conference centre when I suddenly saw a man lying on the road, in the middle of a wide passage, his head down. A scooter was thrown two or three meters away from him and my first instinct was that the man had fallen off the scooter. I looked around and there was no one in sight. I was thinking about what to do, should I call 911 for an ambulance? I am still turning my head around and on the other side of the large intersection I see a police officer. Without hesitation, I start shouting and waving at him, "Excuse me, excuse me." By some miracle, the man heard me and slowly, with one foot in front of the other, he moved towards me. When he got closer, I showed him the man lying down and showed him the scooter and told him that he might have fallen. He casually said, “He’s probably just sleeping.” And he came up to him, gently patted him on the shoulder and indeed, the man responded in a sleepy voice. The policeman asked me, “Where are you from?” I said, “From Europe, from England.” To which he casually replied, “Here in America, it’s common for people to sleep on the street.” I said, “Ah, okay.” I am still not sure if the policeman was just messing with me.

The food in America was delicious, apart from in my hotel, and my favourite was the restaurant “The Cheesecake Factory” from the chain of restaurants that I knew about because they were often mentioned in my favourite series “The Big Bang Theory”. I had lunch or dinner in that restaurant three times because both the food and the ambiance were excellent. As I was walking by these restaurants on the streets of Baltimore, I could often smell marijuana, which is legal for use in the state of Maryland, where Baltimore is located. It’s not that I’ve never smelled that smell before in England, but it’s incomparably more common in Baltimore because marijuana is illegal in England, as well as in Croatia.

The American Society for Mass Spectrometry 2025 conference was huge. It is the largest mass spectrometry conference in the world and this year there were about 6,000 participants. This number is slightly lower than in previous years, especially amongst Canadians, and I assume that people were not in a hurry to go to Trump's America. Some of my colleagues from England asked me why I should go now, but I think that now is a good time. I'm thinking of my colleagues from Harvard and Columbia University who have experienced big problems with the Trump administration, and that part of America is exactly the one I'm supporting by coming to this conference.

The lectures were often extremely interesting, such as the colleague who works on the mass spectrometer in the operating room and helps the surgeons by taking samples of the patient's tissue and analyzing them during the operation.

I listened to many wonderful lectures and missed many because unfortunately it is not possible to be in ten places at the same time, and exactly ten sections were being held in parallel.

The lectures started at 7 am and various events lasted until 11 pm. Unfortunately, I usually slept through those early morning lectures, but I often stayed up late at night.

Sadly, I was unable to see my dear American friend and colleague Brandon, with whom I shared an office about 15 years ago in Cambridge. Brandon got sick and so our reunion was postponed to another time. However, I did see an old Canadian colleague Doug, whom I hadn’t seen in 20 years. Also, my colleague from England, Frank, was often at my disposal and helped me get to know and understand the conference better. I met a wonderful Iranian American colleague Fereshteh, who runs the same lab at Columbia University as I do in Cambridge.

All in all, it was wonderful, and I will go again.

Kristina

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Susret sa Amerikom, ASMS konferencija 2025

Moj ponovni susret sa Americom nakon 28 godina zbio se prošli tjedan. U Baltimore sam sletila u petak navečer oko 8 sati i dočekala nas je kiša. Nije me smetala jer sam bila uzbuđena i sretna sto sam se odlučila na taj put i što je sam let od Londona do Washingtona protekao lijepo i opušteno. U avionu sam slučajno sjedila pored kolegice Nikki iz kompanije Waters čije instrumente imamo u našem laboratoriju i sa kojom često surađujemo. Nikki me pozvala na taxi do Baltimora i na tome sam joj bila zahvalna jer mi je to bilo potrebno kod tog prvog susrtena sa Amerikom.

Ulice Baltimora su široke i komotne i za razliku od Evropskih gradova, posebno Engleskih, na njima je znatno manji broj ljudi. Lako se kretati kao pješak, osjećala sam se sigurno, a imala sam i dojam da bi i vožnja auta kroz ulice Baltimora bila ugodna iako to nisam probala. Moje drugo jutro dogodilo se nešto što me zateklo nespremnu. Hodam u nedelju ujutro prema konferencijskom centru kad odjednom vidim čovjeka koji leži na cesti, nasred širokog prolaza sa glavom prema dolje. Na dva tri metra od njega bio je bačeni skuter i moj prvi instinkt bio je da je čovjek pao sa skutera. Gledala sam oko sebe i nigdje nikoga na vidiku. Razmišljala sam šta da radim, dal’ da zovem 911 za hitnu pomoć. Jos vrtim glavom okolo i sa druge strane velikog križanja ugledam policajca. Bez ustručavanja počnem vikati i mahati prema njemu “Oprostite, oprostite”. Nekim čudom čovjek me čuo i polako, s noge na nogu, krenou prema meni. Kad je prišao bliže ja mu pokažem čovjeka koji leži i pokažem mu skuter i kažem da je možda pao. On onako ležerno kaže “Ma vjerovatno samo spava”. I dođe do njega, nježno ga potapša po ramenu i zaista, čovjek se odazove pospanim glasom. Policajac me upita “Odakle ste”. Reko “Iz Evrope, iz Engleske”. Na to mi on ležerno odgovori “Ovdje u Americi je uobičajeno da ljudi spavaju na ulici.” Reko “Ah, dobro.” Još nisam sigurna dal’ me policajac samo zafrkavao.

Hrana mi je u Americi bila fina, osim u mom hotelu, a najviše mi se svidio restoran “The cheesecake factory” iz lanca restorana o kojima sam znala jer su se često spominjali u mojoj omiljenoj seriji “Teorija velikog praska”. U tom sam restoranu tri puta ručala ili večerala jer su i hrana i ambijent bili odlični. Dok sam hodala pored tih restorana ulicama Baltimora često sam mogla osjetiti miris marihuane koja je dozvoljena za upotrebu u državi Maryland u kojoj se Baltimore nalazi. Nije da taj miris nisam nikada prije osjetila u Engleskoj, ali neuporedivo rjeđe jer je marihuana u Engleskoj, kao i u Hrvatskoj protuzakonita.

Konferencija “Američko društvo za masenu spectrometriju 2025” bila je ogromna. To je najveća konferencija za masenu spektrometriju na svijetu i na njoj je ove godine bilo oko 6000 učesnika. Taj je broj nešto manji nego proteklih godina i ja pretpostavljam da se ljudima nije žurilo u Trumpovu Ameriku kao na promjer Kanađanima. I mene su neki kolege iz Engleske pitali kako to da baš sada idem, ali ja smatram da je sada dobro vrijeme. Mislim na kolege sa Sveučilista Harvard i Columbia koji su doživjeli velike probleme sa Trumpovom administracijom i taj dio Amerike je upravo onaj kojem dajem podršku svojim dolaskom na ovu konferenciju.

Predavanja su bila često izuzetno interesantna kao na primjer kolegica koja radi na masenom spektrometru u operaciskoj sali i pomaže kirurzima jer uzima uzorke tkiva pacijenta i analizira ih tokom operacije.

Puno sam divnih predavanja odslušala i puno sam propustila jer na žalost nije moguče bit na dest mjesta u isto vrijeme, a upravo je nekih deset sekcija islo paralelno.

Predavanja su počinjala u 7 ujutro i raznorazna zbivanja trajala su do 11 navečer. Ta sam ranojutarnja predavanja nažalost obično prespavala, ali često sam ostajala do kasno navečer.

Na žalost nisam uspjela vidjeti svog dragog američkog prijatelja i kolegu Brandona sa kojim sam dijelila ured pred 15tak godina u Cambridgeu. Brandon se razbolio i tako je naš ponovni susret odgođen za neko drugo vrijeme. Srećom, srela sam svog kolegu i prijatelja Kanađanina Douga kojeg nisam vidjela gotovo 20 godina i to je bilo baš lijepo. Moj kolega iz Engleske, Frank mi je često bio pri ruci i pomogao mi da bolje upoznam i razumijem konferenciju. Upoznala sam divnu kolegicu Iransku Amerikanku Fereshteh koja na Sveučilistu Columbia vodi isti laboratoriji kao ja u Cambridgeu.

Sve u svemu, divno je bilo i ići ću ponovo.

Kristina

Nedelja, 8. lipnja 2025.