Math holidays, part 1

Given that I obtained my bachelor degree only a month ago and knowing that I am going to start a very heavy workload in two weeks, I tried to squeeze in as much rest as I could. I don't think I succeeded very well in resting but overall my month has been good. Next weekend I am already going to move to my new place in Regensburg, but I still have one week to improve what has been one of the most fascinating months in my life.

So what have I done so far? Met many people, heard many interesting stories, saw some amazing places...

First, still exhausted with my exam and a long family lunch the following day, I packed and left for Germany. There I studied algebraic stacks, in Mainz. It was difficult and challenging but I still think I got a lot out of the school, perhaps not as much as others, as my background was not ideal, but I really loved the week full of beautiful algebraic math. I enjoyed both the very categorical reasoning and the purely algebraic ones, moreover, they tied together in an amazing way.

The speakers were of amazing quality and even though 4 lectures a day were a lot (especially for me, with no reasonable mathematical working habits)

this was us after all the lectures at the end of the week

I enjoyed the different flavours the speakers offered. And the people attending were also amazing, I hope I have started several great friendships there and strengthen some old ones, as the place was a bit of Little Leiden for me :)

I started reading FGA explained and was really impressed by the theory. Of course, I haven't got very far, but Angelo Vistoli's part (especially with his excellent exposition live) was very enjoyable for me. I am grateful that I could visit the school and perhaps I will pursue this topic later again, because I am still interested in moduli problems (to which I am indebted to the marvellous Lucia Caporaso), but there is a lot of geometry behind it I need to fill in. But I am working on it!