A few things that made my 2017 interesting..

Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India

2017 is my best year so far, followed by 2015 and 2013. In this post, I list 30 things that made my 2017 interesting.

1. A day in Thiruvannamalai, India!
The best of 2017.

2. A fast-paced year full of déjà vu.
Too many things happened in too little time.

3. Winning a projector from Teradata in a Twitter contest at VLDB 2017

I love this Mini Android Smart Portable Projector.

4. A midnight walk in Timișoara with just a paper map
Finally, a huge fan of Romanian music visits Romania!

5. My first book published.
It was nice to publish my first book, and receive its hard-copies.

6. My first book chapter, ready for publication.
My book chapter was accepted for publication before my first book, but my book was released first.

7. Reviewing books and papers.
Received a few printed books as a result.

8. ACRO2017 in Karlstad, Sweden.
My first (and probably, only) summer school. And making friends!

Spring flowers of Keukenhof

9. Beautiful Oslo
This city is as beautiful as Stockholm.

10. Sunny Szeged
It is a pity I did not collect some Hungarian Forint (1 USD = 262.611 HUF) back home to give them to scammers.


11. Valencia - once more Spain!
I visited Spain and Sweden in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Following this pattern, I predict that I will revisit them both in 2019. ;)

12. Memories of Louvain-la-Neuve 

When I arrived in Louvain-la-Neuve in February, I did not realize that my entire year is going to be in this Belgian village!

13. Walk across the castles in Luxembourg

I love these small EU countries.

14. Spring flowers of Keukenhof

We were right in the season. Perfect timing.

15. A day-trip in Dubai

Short. But surprisingly nice.

16. Two months in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As a visiting student / Government Visitor to KAUST.

17. Sleepless nights in Colombo
Deadline-oriented motivation. This year is full of that.

18. Turning 30
I think that is a big achievement to reach my 30s.

19. A day in the streets of Prague
A day full of random metro rides and walks.

20. New Year's Eve in Zurich!
Enjoying the view of the moving flights from the ZRH Airport Observation room on the 1st of January!

21. Attending VLDB in Busy Munich
Loved attending a top conference for the first time. Berlin is still my favorite city.

22. Colorful Bruges, Belgium.

Summer in Bruges

It is so colorful in the summer.

23. Experiencing Chennai, India
After watching several Tamil movies from India, it is nice to be in Tamil Nadu for the first time.

24. Dissecting various scams in Portugal, Sri Lanka, and Belgium.
Fell victim to a few. Dodged a few. A scammer may come in various shapes, jobs, and genders. But usually, he is a taxi driver.

25. A sunny day in Fonte da Talha
Spending a whole evening in this Portuguese beach once more before the summer runs out!


26. Staying in a hotel room in Faro just to connect to the Internet before a flight
Luckily the Internet was reliable enough in my room to connect to an important meeting that I was part of.

27. Working on Óbidos and Évora
This time I am talking about my research papers. Not the Portuguese cities.

28. Attending EMA GA in Brussels.
Been the PR several times for both EMDC and EMJD-DC. But first time in the GA representing both.
  
29. Half-decade of Memories
It has been 5 years in Lisboa and with IST/INESC-ID!

30. Two Christmas Parties!
Joined the parties in UCLouvain/Belgium and INESC-ID Lisboa.


Every year, I have one new year's resolution - to outperform my previous year. :) The bar is very high for 2018. I wish you a happy new year everyone. Thanks for reading my list until the end. You may also read the blog posts of the previous years as well.