Brief Summary

It's too stressful to think about recapping everything I'm behind on, so instead I'll summarize.

The last few days in China were great. I had an evening and one full day in Shanghai. It reminded me a lot of Tokyo - a lot more modern. It is on the coast so the air is a little better than some of the other cities we visited. I spent the entirety of my daytime hours in Shanghai at Tongji University. They have amazing testing facilities and are a veritable experimental factory. I guess the price of labor allows them to turn out a lot of specimens and get a lot of tests done. Almost every major highrise structure in China has had a scale model tested on the shake table of their laboratory. They put the tested models outdoors and it looks like a miniature city. Nobody else does any testing like this - too labor intensive and difficult to get the scaling right.

Building models used for seismic testing on a shake table at Tongji University.

The nightlife in Shanghai was really fun. We went to the Bund and found a great spot overlooking the river and skyline for a drink. The last night we were there we went to a place that could have been anywhere in the world based on the patronage. It was all foreigners - Americans and Europeans. It was really strange - like walking into a different world.

Overlooking the Shanghai skyline from the Bund.

A few days after I got back Nathan arrived!!!! I was so happy to see him. We had a wonderful week together. The first few days we spent in Tokyo. We saw Tsukiji fish market, Asakusa, Harajuku, Yoyogi park, Meiji-jingu shrine and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. We had dinner with Tomo and my supervisor here. And that was all in the first two days. We then took Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. They say if you can only go one place in Japan it should be Kyoto. It has such a wealth of shrines, temples, gardens, castles, etc. It is much more untouched than Tokyo and it's truly overwhelming the amount that there is to see. I think we fit it a good amount of sightseeing - we saw some pretty amazing things. We also did a Kaiseki meal on the river which involved being served many artfully prepared Japanese courses by a Kimono-clad server. It was a cool experience. Probably our favorite experience, however, was a lunch we had in the garden of a temple. It was a yudofu (boiled tofu) meal. It was more the setting than anything that made it so special.

Me and Nathan at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Me and Nathan at the Golden Pavillion in Kyoto.

Yudofu meal overlooking a temple garden.

Since I've been back I've been working and not feeling so well. Not too long before I get home. I'm starting to get excited about it. It is getting close enough that today I wondered if I could just wait until I leave to clean the apartment. I realized that was a bad idea but that is how close it is getting. Also wondered about groceries. But I'm cooking all my meals at home so I go through groceries really fast. Now I'm rambling.


I am toying with the idea of coming back for a short visit next year if funding permits. From a research standpoint, I have a lot to learn still from Tomo and could definitely use more time with him. We'll see...

Doctor's visit

No, this post is not to give you any gory details about my health. I just have to post about this becuase visiting the doctor here was an entirely strange experience. It was not like visiting the doctor in the US - at all. A friend got me to the clinic and the forms were in Japanese. He filled out my name and address then left. In the very busy waiting room, the nurse came out and asked me my symptoms - in front of everyone! I have to hope this was because I couldn't fill it out on the paper. She then took my temperature in the waiting room -with everyone! After about 40 minutes, I heard a man's voice on a PA asking me to come to room 3. I found room 3 and in it was a doctor. Thankfully he spoke english (we determined this ahead of time, that's why I went to this particular clinic). He asked me what my symptoms were. There were no questions about family history. I wasn't weighed, I didn't have my blood pressure taken, I wasn't asked what medications I was on or if I was allergic to anything. He didn't really know what to say about my symptoms but he didn't check into them in any physical way. He just took my description and kind of stared at me blankly. I had some ideas about the problem so I made some suggestions. He seemed to like my ideas and decided a blood test was in order. And that was it! I got the blood test, paid my money, was told to come back in a week and I left. He was nice but it was a pretty useless visit (unless of course the blood test is enlightening). It just felt really unthorough. If I hadn't had any thoughts of my own who knows where I'd be. So that's that.

So much to catch up on...

...but I'm not going to do it now. I still need to talk about the rest of my time in China (in Shanghai, which I loved) and then the week of Nathan's visit. He left on Saturday. I'm not feeling so great today - going to doctor. I'll have to try to write more later.

Suzhou

I'm still playing catchup on my China posts so you'll have to bear with me. After the mountain excursion outside of Nanjing, we took a train to Suzhou. This is a smaller town that is a popular tourist stop. I liked it immediately. I think it was the fact that is was smaller and more quaint and well kept-up. We flew by the seat of our pants as far as the hotel arrangements. Ryan and I picked one on the train from his guidebook and miraculously communicated it to two separate taxi drivers (we were in two taxis from here on because four people plus luggage is too much for one). The separate taxis were a bit of a worry because without cellphones and language and maps we would be in bad shape if one taxi didn't end up where it was supposed to. This time it worked out fine.

Suzhou is an old city known for its beautiful gardens. We arrived in time to check in and rest before heading out for dinner. There's something comforting about seeing so many foreigners in a place. It just seems more familiar. We walked from the hotel along a canal to the main drag where all the stores, restaurants and bars are located. The street was filled with people. The stores were great - a mix of fakes and trendy but non-fake clothes. I wanted to do shopping but it's hard with four people. We decided to eat at a Korean place because Han and Shinae could order for us. The meal was amazing. I've decided that I really like Korean food. I'd had Korean dishes in the past which were really good but I think this was my first all Korean meal. It's pretty spicy but the flavors are great.


After dinner we split up by gender. Shinae tolerated my shopping but I didn't buy anything because I could tell she wasn't really into it. After a while we went back to the hotel. We met the boys there and I convinced Ryan to go back to an Aussie pub with me by luring him with a big screen showing soccer (he's a huge soccer fan - I couldn't care less). We only stayed out a while longer but it was fun.

The next morning we set out to see some gardens. They were really pretty but overrun with tourists (we hit the first place at the same time as a large Italian tour group). Also, there wasn't coffee at the hotel breakfast so I was hurting at first. Fortunately the garden had a coffee shop with real espresso!!! You have to understand that until this point I don't think any of the coffee I had in China was either real brewed coffee or espresso. It was all nescafe (instant), even in the nice hotels. It was such a thrill to have an espresso - I think I went on about it way too long but it was just what I needed. After the garden we did some souvenir shopping and then walked to another garden. The second garden was quieter and really well landscaped. There were a set of pagodas and some interesting structural features. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to collect our things and then set out for Shanghai.

Nanjing

This was an unusual conference because it was split between two cities. I don’t think it was the best idea because it adds unnecessary complications and confusion. The plus side is that I got to experience more than once city in China. Before I get into my time in Nanjing I will say that the last night in Chongqing was good. I mentioned the hotpot dinner we had. There were 6 of us all together four of whom were Japanese, one of which was Tomo. Ryan, my travel buddy, and I rounded it out. None of us speak Chinese but Tomo has some words and phrases at his disposal. It was difficult to order but we got it figured out enough. I’m a fan of food and I love spicy foods but I just didn’t like this type of meal. It involved cooking meat and vegetables in a spicy oil or broth in the middle of the table (see pictures in previous post). You then fished out whatever you could find and put it in a bowl of sesame oil in front of you. Once it was cooled down you ate it. I didn’t like the homogenous nature of all of it. It all tasted like the spicy liquid and the oil. And there’s no rice or other bland food to balance it out. It was a lot of fun and I couldn’t have left Chongqing without experiencing it once.

The next day was reserved for intercity travel. Since there were so many people traveling from one city to the next, we took a bus to the airport and practically dominated the entire flight (actually we dominated all three flights that day between the two cities). On the bus ride from the Nanjing airport to our hotel I could already tell I was going to like it better than Chongqing. It seemed cleaner and a lot prettier and kept-up. There were a lot of trees and landscaping. In reality, there was the same, if not more, pollution as there was in Chongqing. After we checked into the hotel, I was sad that it was overcast – until I realized that it wasn’t actually overcast, it was just hazy with smog. If you looked up into the sky, you could see some blue peeking through.

That night there was a student gathering arranged for all of the graduate student conference participants from all countries. It also included a lot of professors and NSF representatives. It started with a banquet which included some talks (I had to give a few slides on my vision of smart structures technology and ways to incorporate it into education). That drug on a bit long but we had a fun table (including the four of us from UIUC as well as Prof. Foutch). Following the dinner we walked over to a huge KTV (that’s what karaoke is called in China). I don’t do karaoke. But it’s fun to watch others. Although there were a lot of us, the room was still too big for us. Actually it was more than just a room, it was a few rooms and a billiards room and a private bathroom.

The conference in Nanjing was okay. I had a hard time getting into it because my responsibilities were finished and I already felt like I went through a full conference. On top of that, the session rooms and meals were actually in a hotel across the street from the one most of us were staying. And when I say street, I mean busy road in a country where traffic laws are completely disregarded. It was a gamble every time. I never figured out how it worked. There were more than four roads intersecting and nothing was at right angles and the crosswalk lights were broken and I think even if got the theory of the timing figured out, it wouldn’t matter because nobody followed the rules.

The last day of the conference, most of the conference participants went on a tour of a silk factory and then to a Confucius Temple. It was pretty fun. The silk (actually brocade) factory was fascinating. It’s all hand made on these amazing contraptions which are operated by two people. It was really amazing how they coordinated to produce the most intricate brocades. The factory was in a very poor part of town. Our tour buses almost got stuck in the alleys and we drew quite a crowd of locals. I’m truly amazed we got out because we got ourselves wedged in pretty well and with no way to go back the way we came. And there were three buses. But it worked out.

After the conference ended, Ryan, Han, Shinae and I spent the next morning on the mountains above Nanjing. We went to the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern china (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen_Mausoleum). It was really hot and humid and we climbed a million stairs to get to the tomb. But it was really pretty and it felt great to get the blood circulating again after so many days of sitting in conference sessions.



***I'm having trouble posting pictures so I will have to add them later when this starts behaving***

Chongqing

I'm here in Chongqing, China. This is the largest city you've never heard of. It has a population of over 30 million people. That is not a typo. It's the fastest growing city in China and the world's awareness of the city has not kept pace with its growth. By many counts it is already the largest city in the world and is continuing to grow at breakneck speed. I can't say that I really like it here but it's difficult to experience it all in only four days during a conference. I have done some non-conference things that I think give me some picture of the city.

First of all, I will say that our hotel, although it is a very nice, is not in the "nice" downtown area (with the Marriott and Intercontinental). We are at the Golden Resources Hotel and the service is fine but the staff has quite limited English. The are surrounding the hotel has some moderate shopping and a nice but tiny park but otherwise it is not the best part of town. It's dirty and smelly and the air quality is atrocious. There is construction everywhere. But not neat and tidy construction like in Tokyo. The traffic is crazy and taxi rides are an adventure. They have these three wheeled little vehicles zipping everywhere and ignoring all traffic rules. I tried to go running the first few days but it was next to impossible. First the air quality and the smell make it difficult to breath (essential to running) and the sidewalks are grimy and dusty and they are not contiguous - they just end and then you're stuck in the road (not a safe place to be).

The first day we were here (three students from home are also here for the conference as well as Tomo and another guy I know) we walked around the area of the hotel. The heat and humidity was so stifling and the shopping was pretty bad. We only lasted about 30 minutes and then retreated to the hotel. On another night the conference organizers planned for the attendees to go on a night tour. It was nice but I kept thinking of the saying "it's like putting a bowtie on a cowpie" because the flashy and colorful lights are pretty and night but during the day it's just crowded and dingy. I took some pictures of the skyline. It's difficult to get good shots at night but here are a few:

Last night we had the banquet for this portion of the conference (on Friday we head to Nanjing for the second portion). The food was supposed to be "real Chinese food, not that American stuff" but it was kind of the same to me. It was okay but not great. The entertainment was cool. We had a dancer and some traditional Chinese music.

After the banquet, Ryan (fellow student who I also travelled with in Japan on my first visit in December) and I ventured to the "real" downtown in search of an Irish pub that his guidebook said existed. From what I had seen of Chongqing to that point, I was in disbelief that such a pub could be found. Communication with the Taxi driver was a fiasco. The drive was scary but I kept reminding myself that the taxi driver wouldn't want to die himself so we must be somewhat safe. He never really knew where we wanted to go but he got us to the general area and dropped us off at a hotel. From there we followed the map in the guidebook. I should mention that it was pouring rain and we didn't have umbrellas. Once we got out of the taxi we were bombarded with people wanting to remedy our umbrella situation. We could never figure out how much they wanted for it so we just decided to get wet. We first came upon a clock tower which is supposed to mark the center of the city. This is it here:

After getting completely soaked looking for the bar, we finally found it amongst a lot of bars and clubs. The place we went didn't have many people but of the 15 or so people in there, 6 (including the two of us) were foreign (non-Asian). After our stay there we decided to explore the area some more since by then the rain had stopped. We walked around forever looking for a temple that was also in the guide book. We found it (sorry I don't know the names of the things I'm referring to) but of course at midnight it was closed and really dark. I took pictures anyway.

Before the final conference sessions this afternoon, we were taken on a tour to the Three Gorges Museum. It was okay - I'm not a museum person and I wasn't feeling great. We took some great pictures in front of the Peoples Hall (not sure if that's what it's called).

KFCs are everywhere

I'm getting tired of writing right now. I had so many observations that I was going to mention but that will have to wait until next time. I'll just finish with some pictures from dinner tonight. I'll describe in more detail later. Traditional hotpot meal - originated in Chongqing.

It's been a while....

I know I haven't posted in a long time. I've been busy, ill, and lacking in good/exciting news. I arrived in China last night. I will post more about that another time. For now I want to recap the last week. I had an amazing opportunity to attend some meetings on behalf of my advisor. The meetings were part of a joint US-Japan panel on seismic and wind effects. The participants from both sides were primarily professors and government agency representatives. In terms of age, title, and experience I was way out of my league. But, I was made to feel so welcomed and made some amazing contacts. Many of them kept telling me how lucky I was to be attending the meetings as a graduate student. It was really eye-opening to see how these types of things work. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance and "Mr. Chairman" this and that. It was all very official. I feel like I effectively contributed to the discussions. My presentation went well and was well received. Many people are interested in wireless smart sensors for structural monitoring. It's not a topic that takes a lot to convince people of its merits.



There were three days of meetings and then three days of technical site tours. The site visits included a seismically retrofitted earth-filled dam, the largest arch bridge in Japan, a tsunami breakwater (the deepest underwater construction in the world), fatigue retrofit of steel bridges, a hybrid mass damper on a high rise building. We got amazing access to everything because it was all arranged by the Japanese ministry people. I really enjoyed it. I ate entirely too much. Every night is an excuse to eat and eat with food that just keeps coming and coming. And sake! Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words so here are some from the past week....

Prof. Foutch (my former advisor) serenading us at a dinner.

Another dinner

The group in front of the arch bridge.