You know how surprised I was when I got the email from the Clojure/north organizers telling me that our talk proposal was accepted? (Hint: a lot.) Turns out they’d been looking for talks that aren’t so much experimentation and theory, but more working through the mud of reality. We’ve got that.

Sadly I had a little hiccup with my visa (namely I screwed up and didn’t get an US ESTA application in beforehand), so I couldn’t get there for the first day of the event. The second day was pretty nice in itself too. There were lots of interesting talks – the one about resilience by design resonated the most with me.

We were the last to go on the stage, and I think it turned out okay. People asked questions (something I honestly didn’t expect) and actually seemed to be interested. There were lots of opportunities to chat with the other participants outside of the formal talks and questions too. I got my fair taste of the Toronto craft beer scene and wasn’t disappointed.

The day after, we went on a sightseeing tour to the Niagara falls. Let’s just say the organization was quite lacking, but the event itself wasn’t. The falls are as overwhelming as they appear on professional photos (though I couldn’t take anything even close to that impressive). The number of tourists there is as well.

Toronto felt very friendly after the soulless crowd of Tokyo. Bonus: avocado sandwich breakfast. I got to feel millennial finally!