CANCELLATIONS: In the hopefully unlikely event that you cannot make it to the school for unforeseen reasons, please let us know as soon as possible. There is a waiting list of people who would like to attend the school and could use that place.

TRAVEL: We hope that you have booked your flights by now – Les Houches is a tourist region, hence travel can get quite expensive for those who like to do things last minute.

ARRIVAL: You can arrive any time on Monday. If you arrive very late, there will be a map to show you where to find your room.

LECTURES: Lectures start at 8.45 am on Tuesday, 10th of January.

QUESTIONS: Please keep in mind that the organisers of the school are researchers, not full-time secretaries. You would therefore help us a lot if, before sending us questions, you could try to find the answers yourselves. We have given plenty of information and links on the website. If you are really stuck, however, we are more than happy to help! Thank you very much for your understanding.

NOTICE BOARD: We have added a “Notice Board” to our website, which we will use for any kind of announcements – which you can send to Wiebke (Wiebke.Drenckhan@tcd.ie). A good example: If you are planning to drive to Les Houches and have spare seats in the car.

GEAR: There might be lots of snow (but it’s not guaranteed!). Please bring the appropriate cloths and shoes for yourself and snow-chains for your car (in case you are planning to drive). With snow, the roads up to the school and footpaths between the buildings can be quite a challenge even for the sporty ones (people and cars).

EMAIL: There are 9 Computers in the School to keep you updated with all your workload back home via email. There is also Wireless LAN, which sometimes works…, for your Laptops.

LAPTOPS: If you do have a laptop, we would encourage you to bring it. We will have CD’s for you with some of the software on it so that you can work away on the tutorial problems or even some of your own research.

PAPERS: We will have a table with participants’ publications. If you have any, pre-prints, reprints etc, which might be interesting for other people in the school, please bring them along.

RESEARCH: Keep in mind that you will have the opportunity to interact with the teachers and other participants who might be familiar with some of the research problems you are currently struggling with. Therefore, bring any information or computer programs you have available and see if you can grab some of the experts during the 2 weeks.

PRESENTATIONS: Most of you have followed our suggestion to give a brief presentation. This is exciting, but also means that we will have to limit each time slot to 10 min (including questions). Keep in mind that it is just to give others an idea of what you do and why, to stimulate further conversations. Since we come from very different areas, most participants will not be interested in the details.
The schedule for the presentations will be online at the beginning of next week – look it up under “Scientific Program”.

ROOMS: All of you will have a single room! Hura!

THE PARTY: For the success of the very first party, which is the welcoming night on Tuesday, 10th of January, we need YOUR input to make it a success: Please bring along an edible or drinkable foam which you consider typical for your region or country. Please be imaginative, otherwise all the Germans will bring beer and all the French chocolate mousse. Open your eyes, there are lots of foams around you!

THE GALERY: Foams are a very visual subject. We would therefore like to encourage you to contribute to our Foam Gallery (http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~foams/ then “Gallery”) and win the prize…. The gallery will be on display in the school for the full 2 weeks.

DARKNESS: This might sound strange, but if you have one, maybe bring a torch. The paths between the buildings are quite dark at night and we would not want you to get lost.

IN GENERAL: Whether the school is going to be a success or not does not only depend on the capabilities of the organizers (uff…), but also on YOUR creative input. On the social side, for instance: If you have any music instruments, CDs, movies, games, books, theatre plays, etc. (if it’s related to foam physics, it does not harm !), which you could bring, please do so! For instance we are planning a party for Saturday night, for which music would be great. In general, it gets dark early and the school is a bit removed from everything else, hence we have long, dark nights to fill with enjoyable activities. We are organizing some, but a lot will be left to your imagination.