Hello everyone!

Welcome to those of you who are new to the mailing
list, hi again to everyone else. I know  it's been a
while, but I come with plenty of interesting tidbits
for the upcoming conference (Gdynia, Poland in April
2006!).

First and foremost, a reminder: the abstract
submission deadline is in 4 weeks (Nov 28th)! Also, be
precise when filling in the submission form. The
necessary instructions can be found on the ECS website
(http://www.broekemaweb.nl/ecs/) as well as on the
conference website which should be up and running
soon. In particular you need to specify if you wish to
try for a student award and in which category:
"undergraduate" is for students presenting the results
of a bachelor's or master's thesis, while "graduate"
is for the results of a PhD thesis.

The conference website will also have all the
necessary information for travel to Gdynia and
accommodations. For most of the hotels, you'll have to
book them yourselves, but you'll have to go through
the organisers for a spot in the Youth Hostel
(~5€/day, provides: kitchen, dining room, bathroom, TV
room, table tennis. Conference Centre is 7 minutes by
bus from the hostel. Bus ticket: 0.5 Euro). This is
definitely the cheapest option (100 beds available),
the only drawback is you'll have to get the bus to get
to conference (all the hotels are within walking
distance), but you do get to cook your own meals
(although several dinners are included this year in
the social events: during the ice-breaker and the
special 20th conference event, so that's 2 less meals
you have to worry about). 

In any case, food and drink are inexpensive (for
example: sandwich 1.5€; lunch 3-5€; dinner 5-10€;
coffee 1€; beer in pubs 1-1.5€), and several
restaurants close to the conference centre will have
special menus and prices for ECS attendees.

As for travel, well Poland isn't as far away (or as
expensive) as some of you may think! Depending where
you are in Europe, there are quite a few low cost
airlines that fly to Warsaw (I've been told it's a 4h
ride and trains aren't expensive, but don't have a
quote yet) or directly to Gdánsk airport (also serves
Gdynia)! Public transportation from the airport to the
venue/hostel is only about 1.5-2€. 

 * Ryanair: direct flights to Gdánsk from London and
Frankfurt; 

 * Wizzair: direct flights to Gdánsk from Stokholm,
Dortumnd and London; also to Warsaw from those two and
Liverpool, Brussels, Paris, Malmo, Frankfurt and
Budapest

 * Skyeurope: direct flights to Warsaw from Paris,
London, Milan, Salzburg and Rome

And those are just the obvious ones, I'm sure if you
dig around a bit more you'll find more flights from
other cities... So don't let "distance" be an excuse
to not come!

Remember, this year is a special conference, our 20th!
And we want to celebrate it in a big  way. Starting by
adding an extra day, which allow more time for oral
presentations, and with special social events and
invited speakers all related to this and the ECS'
history. The organisers have promised us a "conference
to remember" (for my fellow bar-hoppers out there: I
have it on good assurance pubs etc don't close 'till
the last client leaves... so no risk it ending before
we're ready to go to bed!). I don’t want to say
anymore for fear of spoiling any surprises, but trust
me on this, you’ll be exhausted by the end of the
week! :o)

Another reminder, as in previous years, applications
for student volunteers should be sent to me!

The student workshop will be announced shortly,
registrations for it will take place starting in
February or March.

All the best!

Cristina Beans
ECS Student Representative

PS: expect more messages to come from me in the near
future! On the menu: webpage, courses and ELECTIONS!!!
Start thinking if you're interested in my job!!!! ;o)


Cristina Beans
PhD student
Laboratoire d'Oceanologie
Université de Liège, B-6 Sart Tilman
B-4000 Liège, BELGIUM
(32)4.366.3740
(32)486.730158


		
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