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Published: September 16th 2008
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Old-chinese dog
An early dog sculpture. It reminds me of your typical animated dog. After a late night and many activities the previous day, I woke up well rested Friday morning. The nights I believe I am in more of a passed out state than an actual sleep state. However, my trusty cell phone beeps me out of my REM mode and into this bustling China world. After a quick shower and a brush of the teeth it was off to buffet breakfast for the last time. Tonight I will spend alone in my residence about 2 blocks South-West of this hotel.
At breakfast Lingzhi and I are met by Jianping, another classmate from UWO. Jianping and I plan to do some site seeing today, however I must first give a presentation to some of Prof. Zhang's students, in English. After breakfast, Jianping and I bid farewell to Lingzhi. He has commitments back in Shanghai, though I am sure that he wishes to extend his visit by another month.
When Jianping and I arrived at the lab, no professors were present. It seemed that the presentation was not to be held until later in the afternoon (2:30pm). This gave Jianping and I time to go to the Museum here in Xi'an. Jianping left
Money!
Chinese money with a square hole punched in the center to help with buffing the outsides maybe? The moulds were on display as well. me in the lab and went to find his girlfriend. Also, Jianping informed me that in the previous week he and his girlfriend had married. Congratulations to them both, may they live a long and happy life together. The first thing I thought is 'how do you say congratulations in Chinese'. Jianping phoned me when he arrived with his wife and I went to meet them. By now I knew how to say congratulations (gongxi or gong she), so I congratulated his beautiful wife. We grabbed a taxi and were off to the museum.
It turns out that the museum is free. Also, the cab ride is very cheap, so I may visit again very easily. The museum focuses on t
Two students give English presentations. An introduction to the software simulation suite that I will be using here in Xi'an. So there it is. If you have been wondering why I am here, it is to work with these students to implement some special features with this software simulation suite. The suite focuses on nuclear power plants, and this is a nuclear engineering laboratory, but don't tell immigration that? Just kidding. As I am an electrical engineering
Numerous soldiers
These are no the terracotta soldiers, but are smaller figures preserved in the earth. in training and in study I can bring many benefits and expertise to this group and help to develop some tools for their future studies.
Following the two presentations, I give my English presentation. Good luck getting me to speak much putonghua (or Mandarin) at this point. My speech is slow and steady, including pauses for the students to refresh their minds. Though I am not sure that anyone understood, they seemed to enjoy the presentation. Note: images can scale a language barrier much better than words. Further, I brought the hardware device that I will be working with to the presentation so that the students could get a better idea of the work that I was performing. After the presentation I took questions. There were few if any and were mostly relayed through Dr. Jiang.
The meeting adjourned and Dr. Jiang invited me to play badminton at 7:00pm at an old army base just few blocks South of the Lab. I accepted. Then I spoke with a few students, Zhang Zhou and Bai and they offered to take me out to dinner. At dinner we enjoyed a few dishes, some vegetables, and some fish (with bones -
Ancient horse...
I believe the lighter spots have been repaired. Still amazing work that would be difficult to replicate by hand with instruments today. so be careful, a few slipped down my throat). In the end, my stomach was satisfied and I thanked the two for their generosity and vowed to take them to dinner once I was more familiar with the restaurants in the area.
After dinner I met with Dr. Jiang and we went to play badminton. I performed rather well, however fatigue clearly became an issue. Further, my bum eye gives me some trouble with hand eye co-ordination and depth perception, but I managed. I knew that a hard game of badminton would be rough on the body but I fought on. In the end, Dr. Jiang had the upper hand. He and his partner smashed my last serve back in my face on the last play of the night. Don't worry though, I'll practice up while I am here and one day on a court yet to be determined, I WILL get my revenge! The three fellows who are playing suggest slightly that I could join anytime I like. There is no formal invitation, but I have their contact information.
Back at my dorm, I prepared for my first night alone. Thoughts of the bug that I had
Zodiac
I have used the word Zodiac over 12 times so far, one for each figure I suppose. The Chinese don't really refer to them as Zodiac, they have a different name for the collection. Either way, I am a pig, and it is currently the year of the rat! witnessed scurrying across the floor when first dropping off my luggage re-entered my mind. I turned the room upside down and found the little bugger in a closet. Sorry all you bug lovers, this bug found his end quite brutally, however, no other bugs were harmed in the process. In actuality, it seems this bug is a lone ranger and there are no other bugs who will miss him.
In the process I stacked my luggage on in a pile in the corner and sat to listen and see if I heard any other critters. Sitting there in the silence I heard a rustling. My heart rate increased and my senses were sharp. The noise continued. I got up turned and saw nothing. Lifter the bed. Nothing. It turns out my pile of luggage was just settling. Since then, no other crazy critters or bugs or noises at all. But I must admit, I slept the first night with the light on and clothing near by, just in case.
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