Two weeks after returning from France, it was time to head out yet again – a lot of travel after the two previous years of mostly-staying-home.  This time I was off to Durham, England to attend the New Chaucer Society’s congress – a well-attended meeting of academics working on Chaucer and Chaucer-adjacent studies, all getting together once every two years to share new work and catch up and meet new people. This was my first big in-person conference and also my first “work” trip and it was such a delight!

I flew into Edinburgh where I had time for lunch with a friend from Comics Camp before catching the train to Durham. From the station, we grabbed a taxi to the college where we were all staying in student housing and it was lucky we did – it was much further than we had anticipated. I absolutely loved the student housing we were staying in – significantly comfier than the dorm rooms I remember from my undergrad in the US ever so long ago. We had a quiet dinner in the dining hall (also significantly better than the one I remember) and then off to sleep in preparation for the start of the conference the next day.

The birds all woke up at 4:40 in the morning. Every single day.

And so did I.

The congress itself was just wonderful. Each day included multiple sessions of panels where people gave papers based on their recent or ongoing work followed by time for questions and discussion. As I did not have a paper to present, I was able to just sit back and enjoy listening. We had plentiful coffee breaks and a catered lunch break each day and most evenings had an additional optional activity, ranging from talks to poetry readings to guided tours. I was absolutely exhausted by every evening, but could not keep myself from getting in just a bit more social time before collapsing.

The only significant complication I faced was fighting with DPD to deliver the box of Nun’s Priest’s Tale comics I had rush-printed in order to distribute to attendees. It’s a pretty niche book and this congress turned out to be THE niche. After paying for additional overnight shipping and getting a friend-of-a-friend to take delivery, I finally had the books in my hands on the final day of the conference. It was worth all the stress to see the looks on peoples’ faces as they flipped through the book. A definite highlight for me!

While I did draw notes and comics related to various talks people gave, the dairy comics I have shared here focus more on the social aspects and experiences of what it was like to be in this place and meeting all these people. As you might have expected, there’s also a pretty significant focus on the food because it’s just fun to draw! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this event and I’m looking forward to attending more events like it in the future.