For the trip details and pictures, click on the link below. I would suggest going there first and then coming back and reading my reflection. The end of Abby's web site will refer you back to here.

Trip Details: Maastricht & Italy 2008

Dan's Reflection

It was in the fall of 2007 that Abby received an invitation to be a keynote speaker at the International Mathematica Symposium in Maastricht, The Netherlands. This would be in coordination with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of the software. Due to uncertainty of my employment situation and the cost, especially with the weak U.S. dollar, the decision for me to join her was not made until about 5 weeks before departure.

Once we decided that I would accompany her, we formulated a plan. I would leave shortly ahead of Abby and go to Amsterdam for a a few days in hopes of earning a few extra Euros making balloons, meet up with her in Maastricht for the conference, and then we would take a tour somewhere in Europe and fly home together.

With a minor amount of online investigation, we quickly chose a Globus bus tour titled the Italy's Great Cities. The choice of this tour stemmed mainly from the fact that neither one of us had been to Italy and the trip promised to go to many sights that we both had dreamed of seeing.

After booking the tour, I was so busy trying to work as much as I could and finish this web site that I didn't look at any of the details of our tour, this remained the case even while we were in the midst of the trip itself. The result was every day was full of adventures and discoveries. For example, I didn't know we were going to the Vatican as the first thing on the first day of our tour until we showed up at the Vatican. Also, I didn't know we were about to see Michelangelo's famed statue David until moments before I turned the corner in the museum which reveled the impressive figure at the end of a long hall. In short, I was just along for the ride and it was awesome! Everything ended up far exceeding my expectations (except the bland breakfasts) because I had no expectations for any given day.

Prior to departing for the trip, David Kamatoy, recommended that I read The 4- Hour Workweek. I followed his advice and Abby got the book for me for the long plane flight. Against my unstated wishes, Abby also purchased for me, Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. She told me that I would enjoy reading it because it was set largely in Rome which we would be touring and it is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code which I read last fall. I passively objected because I am not known for being a big reader and I was already looking forward to reading the other book. Since she bought Angels and Demons for me, I felt pressure that there was now an expectation to read them both.

What followed was a virtual renaissance of me being engaged in reading. Including a 2-hour break to watch a movie and some sleep time, I started The 4- Hour Workweek as I boarded the plane in San Diego and finished it somewhere over the Atlantic. (I enjoyed The 4- Hour Work Week because not only was it a humorous read, it gave me confidence that I am already on the right track towards the book's proposed methods of attaining financial independence  as I had recently begun implementing much of what the book suggested through the creation of this web site and my up coming DAMGoodBalloons site.) By the time I arrived in Amsterdam I was already halfway through Angels and Demons which I finished shortly after meeting Abby in Maastricht. Abby had also brought along two books for herself: Michael Crichton's Next which I finished on the bus in Italy and her copy of her favorite novel, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, which I finished on the plane ride home.

And of course Abby was right (as usual)! Angels and Demons was particularly enjoyable because it described so much of what I was about to see in Rome and at the Vatican. Coincidently, portions of Next which I read in Italy were set in the communities surrounding where we live in San Diego. Also, with the Mathematica symposium and visiting so many churches in Italy, I found that the subject "religion vs. science" prevalent in both books was a very appropriate theme for the adventures and discoveries of our trip.

Despite not being a registered guest of the conference, I had permission to sit in on as many of the presentations that I liked, so long as I signed a non-disclosure agreement which applied to a few of the talks. This being the case, I was exposed to far more of the conference than I thought I would be. The speakers were diverse a group of experts in various scientific fields. Each of them demonstrated how they had incorporated Mathematica in to various scientific applications and that by doing so it had made their jobs easier and often times led to professional breakthroughs in their particular fields. Talks ranged from  mathematicians to heart surgeons and educators to earth scientists and many others.

Honestly, a few of the speakers were extremely fascinating, while most of the others spoke to such a limited audience that their information likely went over the heads of even the most intelligent individuals in attendance. However, even if you couldn't comprehend the particulars, it was clear that the Mathematica software was a major tool for their work. Thus, those in attendance could see a use of the program in a field different from their own and formulate new ideas for implementing it into their work.

Despite not being able to comprehend much of what I listened to, I felt it to be a huge honor to be in attendance. I was struck by the limited number of participants (seemingly less than 100 people) which indicated that nearly everyone who was in attendance was presenting at least a short 15-minute talk sometime over the course of the 5-day event. In fact, with the gathering being so small for an international conference for a software program that is so powerful and capable of doing so much good in the world if used by the right minds, it seemed to me that the gathering was almost wasteful. In my mind, the audience should not have been just a few highly intelligent individuals that did not even fill up a moderate-sized college lecture hall, it should have been for stadium full of doctors, scientists, and educators who could have taken the information home to share with all of their colleagues and students.

This feeling grew even stronger after Abby gave her emotionally charged presentation on how she is using Mathematica in her classroom. She often referred to work of her students who now range from middle school students to the brightest of the bright in college level math classes at the renowned Torrey Pines High School. I left her talk convinced that she must find away to duplicate herself by developing instructional material for other teachers that would teach them how to teach math and science using Mathematica. I envisioned an educational revolution that put this software in the hands of capable teachers and every high school student in America. Further, I dreamed that such a revolution would not only catch the kids like myself that fell through the math and science 'Grand Canyon'-like cracks that currently exist in our educational system, but that it would also lead to a whole new generation of American inventors that would create more jobs and boost our economy to once again being the best in the world.

I know, I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Several hours had passed since Abby had given her presentation, which gave me time to walk around a bit and come off of my idealistic dreamer high. That's when Abby and I were approached by leaders at Wolfram Research and other interested people about sharing her work internationally. In particular, they have contacts in governmental educational departments who would be highly interested in her work.

With the conference now over it was time to head to Italy for our tour. As mentioned above, Abby has already done a great job of detailing the events of our tour in the Maastricht & Italy 2008 section of this site where you will also find our pictures.

I cannot overstate how wonderful this tour was for both Abby and me. Frequently, I thought about the many classes that I had in both high school and college that focused on the places we were seeing in Italy. I reflected back on my high school honors world history class: Rise of Civilization taught by my theater teacher Mr. Bosworth. I loved that class because of his powerfully depictive and engaging lectures, but struggled through it. I wished that I had been able to take this tour as freshman in high school so that the history I learned then would have come to life more and perhaps I would have retained more of it. When I was in the Sistine Chapel I clearly remembered Mr. Bosworth lecturing on the site and telling me that some day I to would see it. I felt a certain pride that somehow he knew that I was there and I had not let him down. I am very thankful that I now have had the opportunity to see these marvels of the world.

Abby and I saw so much in such a short amount of time. Every day it seemed as if I were checking several things off the list of things that I want to do in my lifetime. I realize that through my travels in recent years that many of the items on that list are already checked off and I am still a relatively young man. This thought makes me feel extremely privileged. As marvelous as it is to see the Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Basilica, the Colosseum, the leaning Tower of Pisa, Michelangelo's David, the canals of Venice, Pompeii, and much more, I do not see a need to revisit them unless, perhaps, it was to take my own children.

If one is fortunate to travel a lot and see many of the world's major wonders, what does one do then? On this trip I felt as if I had come to know and understand Abby's father Steve Brown and his work in Afghanistan a bit better and I think his work answers that question. At the point that one has seen the things they want to see, there is an addiction established to traveling and learning about other cultures. One must then find enjoyment in going to places that most others don't think about going to because all of the places the masses flock to have already been visited. It is then time, if not sooner, to go somewhere else off of the path of normality and give something back. I hope that will be me someday.

Trip Details: Maastricht & Italy 2008

Contact Information

• Phone: 619.341.1778
• Email: Dan@DanMcLellan.com
• Resume: DanMcLellanResume.pdf

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