Monday, August 3, 2009

I have returned

So I am back from Beijing. It was an interesting trip, and there's a lot to tell but I'm not sure how much energy I will have to write it all here. Of course, I could mark this post "Part one," but we all know how that'll turn out. There will never be any other parts. So whatever I don't post now proabably won't show up later.

The smog in Beijing is unbelievable. The best picture I have while still in Beijing of this is here:



In this one you can make out some of the buildings, in the back. More noticeable was on the Great Wall (which was amazing, by the way, even with all the smog), and you can kind of see the wall snaking through the mountains as it disappears into the smog:



The conference went well, and my talk went very well, I think. I at least got a lot of positive compliments (some of which were along the lines of: "You woke me up, and kept me awake."). I got a question in the end that put me in an awkward position, because I could have easily pissed off a lot of people if I answered it the way I thought, so I responded with, "Well, I don't have a permanent job yet, so ask me again in a couple of years." After the laughter subsided, I did say that it was a question I couldn't answer because whatever I would say would be speculation one way or the other, which was true.

One thing we noticed in Beijing was the "Beijing Belly." It's very hot and humid there (very similar to Virginia), and it's common for all the men to just walk around with their shirts on but pulled up so their (often portly) bellies are showing. Doing this as a joke, a professor (from Cambridge, no less) realized that it was a nice way to cool off while walking outside.

There are more things to report on, but I need to actually get some food. And the food I get will not be eaten with chopsticks. That's all I'll say.

by Topher at 12:53 PM |