I was elated when I heard that I was accepted to the REU DIMACS program. Yeah, that was February. My life was pure and unspoiled with real science. Now, I am here sitting on my bed and thinking about the future and the past. How I got here and what I will do. I don't know if I can make it, so I am writing this log to future generations to avoid my mistakes.
This week we traveled from the cozy little Czech Republic to this place. We were warmly welcomed with waving (W). And pizza.
But during the night, I realized. We need to publish. If we don't, we are doomed. Everyone was overly friendly, but I recognized the hidden threat behind their eyes. I woke up very early, partly because of jet lag, but also because of the fear of not publishing.
The next day we met Periklis. He was enthusiastic and presented three problems for us. When I was sitting in this conference room, I was feeling hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, we are not doomed after all But then Periklis disappeared and with him, hope.
Then the nightmare started, bureaucracy. It is not the fault of the little guy. They wouldn't do it if they didn't have to. But we needed to be processed by the system. Even papers seemed harmless, but I can read between the lines. And as I read, I started sweating, with ice-cold sweat.
There was eight of us. Radim was the weakest, he didn't think that we will publish. One day, he started talking nonsense, something about gender studies. We were hoping that the next day, he gets better, but last time we have seen him running to the woods and licking Poison Ivy.
Even though we lost Radim we had a really productive day. We were thinking about some sparse matrices and actually found something. Then we realized that we made a huge mistake. We discussed the problem in the corridor. There was probably someone who could hear us and plagiarize our work. This feeling was multiplied by the fact that in the corner, behind a plant, there was a person with a cape taking notes (my guess is Lobachevsky).
Today is Saturday, but this means no rest for us. We celebrated Saturday with early waking, a cold shower, and even breakfast (not very usual). Then we spend around six hours with Periklis. We learned that one of our problems will be about hardness, and it will be really hard. But anyway, this was really productive, because it was Saturday, no one stole our work... yet.
