Hi all! It has been a couple of days, but I have been well. Today was our last day at the Wuhan Summer Program, so we have been very busy finishing it all up. We all had our final presentations this afternoon, which took a total of about 3,5 hours. We were the last group to present, so everyone got really excited once we were done :) After the presentations we all went for dinner and drinks, which I just returned from now. We had Beer and Baju, which is a local drink of about 42% alcohol. After drinking many beers and shots of Baju, we all went back to our rooms. Since we are flying to Beijing at 9AM, a shuttle bus will come and pick us up at 6:45AM. It will be a very short night. Especially since we still need to pack! I'm sorry that I do not have any new pictures.. Many were taken today, but none with my own iPhone/Camera. hopefully I will get to post some of those soon!

So tomorrow we will arrive at Beijing. Linzhen is coming with us, and in Beijing we might get to see Bo and Na, who both study at Northeastern as well, and maybe even Prof. Lin, who is our supervisor. It would be both ironic and exciting, since I have not seen my own supervisor since February! We will probably stay in Beijing for about 5 days, so I should have plenty of time to write to you again when I'm there,

I hope you are all doing well. Thank you once more, for showing your interest and reading my blog. The number of visitors keeps surprising me, so I will try my best to keep you all entertained :)

For those of you that have been following me for a longer time, here is that video I took of the Shanghai Sightseeing Tunnel. It is not that exciting, just mostly strange :) Enjoy!

I hope I will get to write to you again soon.

Take good care, and please know that I miss you all!

So Saturday morning, bright and early, we were picked up by a bus for our weekend trip to the Three Gorges Dam. This bus ride ended up taking over 7 (!!) hours, including three bathroom breaks, and one lunch stop. After we finally got to the area, we visited a temple that was located near the Dam site. Unfortunately, they had recently rebuilt it, so there wasn't much ancient about it. But it was still a beautiful structure to wander around. Last Monday was the national Dragon Day festival, which is celebrated with special Dragon Boat races. At the second place we visited during this long hike, they had a dragon boat on display. This is not like the typical rowing races, because these boats can hold up to 20 men, and the race track also involves turns around the lake terrain.

The temple entrance.

After this visit, and another food stop, we finally got to the hotel at 9PM. This 4-star hotel was a very welcome change from our place in Wuhan. To our pleasant surprise they even had Bowling in the hotel, so we ended we played a couple of games with some of the other American students, while enjoying some well-deserved beers. Again, we didn't make it too late, because more activities were planned again for the morning.

After breakfast we went on a boat ride. This boat toured us on the Lake that has been created by the dam. Again, we didn't have a sunny day, but the temperature and nice breeze made it a very pleasant trip. The nature was beautiful, so we got to take some more nice pictures.

Once we got back from the boat ride, we got to visit the Dam more closely with a bus tour. This time we really got a good impression of the vast size of the project, and how it has permanently changed the landscape. They even had to relocate a mere 1.3 Million people in the process! A also visited a special area which displayed many of the construction tools they used, including some gigantic rock hauling trucks. I know my cousin Alex would have loved to see these, so I decided to include a picture :)

That visit concluded all our the plans for the weekend. Only one thing remained: the 6 hour bus ride back home.. *sigh* We made it back, that's all I will say. And so I finally have the chance again to go on-line, and to provide you all with my stories and pictures of this wonderful weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend too! Tomorrow will be our last day of the project already, since we are presenting our results on Tuesday. I will get back to you again tomorrow, hopefully with some wonderful news on the project as well!

Take care,
Jeff

Ni Hao! It's been a couple of days, but I have a legitimate excuse: I have been without an Internet connection since Friday! A lot has happened, and I will try and quickly describe the highlights. Friday night we met up with Linzhen again, after finishing most of our work at the lab. We completed one experiment this week, ran all the analysis we could, and described it all in a report. Now we are waiting for our Chinese colleagues to come up with their part so we can put it all together. The final report and presentation are due Tuesday afternoon. So the end is approaching very rapidly!

Linzhen and her uncle took us to a restaurant on the Hankou side of the Yangtze river. Wuhan is divided in three sections, and this was one of them. After dinner we walked along the 'River Beach', which is a beautiful promenade along the river. The were tons of people playing badminton, and there was music and dancing. The weather was foggy as usual, which made for some beautiful pictures. Many of the buildings were light up, and there also a a special section of the walkway, which was equipped with glass tiles which has colored lights beneath them. The pictures describe it all a lot better, so I'll just place a couple of those instead.

Some of the great pictures I took that night on the promenade

After walking the whole stretch of the promenade, we got to the bar we were going to visit. This bar was called 'Soho', and described by one of Linzhen's friends as the nicest bar in Wuhan. The bar was fantastic, indeed! We were looking forward to drinking some great beers, and perhaps some other drinks, but as soon as we got there a friend of Linzhen's uncle showed up, shook his head, and then he said he would take care of our drinks order for us. To our delight he returned with a Bottle of Johnnie Walker, Black Label!! Wow. Another thing we noticed is that every table in the bar came with cups and dice. Apparently, everyone here likes to play drinking games, but with very expensive liquor instead of the regular beers or shots. The bar also had a couple of live performances, so needless to say it was a great night :) 

At the end of the night we also had something else to celebrate, because it was Dave's birthday. However, since we were expected to get up at 7:30AM again, we wisely decided not to stay out too late.

To be continued..

Hi all! Just a very brief update, because I really should be going to sleep. I just wanted to let you know I am alright! LUCKILY, I did not end  up driving today. Our Chinese colleagues from the lab decided that it was not a good idea to expose foreigners to their first time driving experience in Wuhan during rush hours. I could only agree. So they took care of the driving themselves instead. To my own surprise, apart from one messy roadside "Crime Scene Investigation" in Shanghai, I have not actually seen any accidents happen. Let's hope it stays that way!

After work in the morning and the driving experiment in the afternoon, we went for a nice walk along the Yangtze river. I will post the pictures tomorrow. Today was a strange day. It started off being really hot and sunny, but at the end of the morning it quickly turned into a bit of rain. The afternoon started of sunny again, but that was followed up by a lot of clouds and lightning at the start of the evening. It was still dry, however. Later that night when Dave and I were walking towards, all hell broke loose. Hardly ever have I experienced so much rain. The streets couldn't handle it. My umbrella couldn't handle it. My backpack couldn't handle it. But, fortunately, all my valuables were OK. We got home soaking wet, and all of that for three 500ml cans of warm Budweisers a person! So we made sure to thoroughly enjoy them.

Tomorrow I will try to get back to you with more pictures of our visit to the Yangtze river and our latest obsessions: the Situasian! Those of you from the US might understand what I am getting at. I will try and provide picture evidence soon!! Apart from work, we plan on going for drinks in the evening. So I am not sure yet, whether I will be able to write something in the evening. Especially since we will be leaving very early on Saturday morning, to go and visit the Three Gorgres Dam. I will try my best to keep these posts a daily thing, but I will give other activities here my priority. What else would I end up writing about, right? ;)

Have a great day!

I saw this text on a t-shirt today, and I figured it would be a nice way to start today's blog. I think that we can all agree that well hidden begin this humorous "Engrish", lies an unmistakable truth. No matter where you go in life -- whether it's the tiny town of Zegge in the Netherlands, the lovely Boston in the US, or the rather overwhelming Wuhan in China -- it all begins with you as person, and the steps you want to take. I did not intend to make this sound so dramatic, but all of a sudden I just realized where I am right now. I'm spending over a month in China, while I get to explore a very interesting and different county and cooperate with students from a wide variety of nationalities. I would have just never imagined this. Not even three years ago. I have never been very interested in long term planning, which might be risky, but it seems to be paying off every single day.

Anyway.. I as you can tell, I am doing quite well. After the opening ceremony on Monday, we got to meet the other international students who came to visit Wuhan University of Technology. Most of them are American and study at different universities across the country. All of them are from different field though, which means Dave and I will be working with three Chinese students / assistant professors from this university for the next 10 days. After another overwhelming lunch, our work on our project began. Each of our three colleagues had come up with a specific project they wanted to work on. The only problem is that the actual program only grants us about 5 days to complete all the work. Because these ten days will include a two-day visit to the Three Gorges Dam and a final day for presentations, the schedule is extremely tight. But we will do our best.

The three experiments we will try to complete are:

1. A driving simulator study, focused at comparing calm vs. angry driving (road rage).
2. A driving simulator study, focused on designing and testing a lane deviation warning system.
3. A real world driving experiment, aimed at driver intention monitoring.
   

More information on these experiments will follow as the days go by.

If you read my last blog, you will understand why I was hesitating to volunteer as a test driver in this particular environment. But I will do it. I will be driving a car that has been completely modified from it's original (a Volkwagen SAnTANa), with wireless cameras, steering wheel and pedal sensors, and a decent sized computer in the trunk. Too bad they forgot to install the rockets. I think they would be quite useful, especially since I'm pretty sure that they did sacrifice the airbags. I believe this experiment will be planned for day 3 or 4 of this week, so just shouldn't be my last blog just yet.

Today we have been working on Experiment 1, Road Rage, which is not quite done yet. This basically means that we are already behind schedule, but whatever. We have worked hard, and that is all we can do. The picture below shows the simulator we are working with. It is quite impressive. It has a giant 180* screen (it didn't fit in the picture) that is powered by 5 big projectors. We then get to drive a real car that has been modified to have sensors on just about every thing you can control.

In order to evoke anger responses, we went through a variety of things. Dave chose to listen to a special playlist he created on his iPod, of songs that never fail to pump him up. Another guy choose a clip from the move Anger Management, which he considered to be really frustrating. They also showed us a clip from Chinese origin they that downloaded from the Internet which involve a lady and cute little bunny. I would not dare to go into details, but all I will say is that I quickly refused to keep looking. I guess the clip would have worked great for me.. Urgh.

So by now that day has almost come to end. Day #6 in China. It has been a long day since we basically spend 12 hours of it in the lab. The only breaks we took were for lunch and dinner. Tomorrow we start "early" again, as I have completely grown out of the habit of starting work at 8:30.

I will try to get back to you tomorrow night.

Hi all, it's been a while. As I am writing this it is still day #4, but I already know I will not be able to upload this until tomorrow. The reason for this is that our hotel does not have Internet. According to the original plan, we would be staying in a city hotel nearby campus, but for some reason (probably financial) they placed us in the university hotel instead. This is a facility on campus, that seems more a dorm room with towel changing service. That is about it. The upside is that it is close to the labs and free. On the other hand, as I explained, there is no Internet connection so Dave and I will only be able to nurture our digital lives while we are at the research lab.. And I thought the lack of wifi in our previous place was unsettling. It is pretty scary, but mostly sad when you think about it.

So yesterday, after a 4-hour 250 km/u train ride we arrived at Wuhan, where two university associates were waiting to take us back to campus by cab. Whereas traffic in Shanghai seemed to mostly consists of bicycles and disturbingly quiet electric scooter bikes, Wuhan appears to be the exact opposite. Traffic rules here seem to be solely based on honking frequency. Lane marking and pedestrian crossings are nothing but decoration. But despite all the frenzy, everyone in traffic seems surprisingly calm. Old folks slowly wander the roads, sometimes up against traffic without even flinching as cars, trucks and buses fly by in a never ending series of near-misses. Bikers stand motionless in the middle of a 5-lane road, waiting for a chance to making it just a little bit closer to the other side. They all seem to realize that sudden moves are lethal, so instead they just take their time. All this while, I was just hoping that my dysfunctional seatbelt would also prove unnecessary. Another thing that you cannot fail to notice is the massive amount of construction. No matter what part of the city you are in, or in which direction you're facing, you WILL see a sky-crane. Probably a couple. It is quite overwhelming.

After we got to the hotel, the two associates (Hu and Hoey) and our hostess at the university (Xiaofeng) took us out for dinner. It still surprises me to see people smoking inside here, even more so when I'm having dinner at the next table. Again, it’s strange to see how attached we grow to things that really do not come for granted at all. Anyway, the food was pretty good! I had beef noodles and a local beer that seems to be served at room temperature only. After dinner we bought a couple of things for the hotel room. Check this out! We bought two pair of flip-flops (for the shower), four 1.5 liter and fifteen 330ml bottles of water, and a box of Strawberry Cakes at the mind-blowing cost of … $3.50. No, that is not a type-O. Just. Wow.

The first night was fine. I tried out our "shower", which just consists of a shower head that is mounted on the bathroom wall. No curtain, just a drain in floor. And then there is the bed, which feels like a wooden plank that has been topped with about one inch of cushioning. Did I mention the mosquito nets? But they work great, and we do have air conditioning! I know this all sounds pretty negative, but I am just trying to describe everything as it is, sometimes in a uncomfortable amount of detail. Don’t worry mom, I'll be alright! I don't plan on spending most of my time in this room anyway :)

At 8AM this morning we were taken to a local dining hall, were we got to eat some deep-fried dough with veggies in them and Soy-milk. This was very tasty! A solid base for what was going to be a pretty long day! After breakfast, Hoey took us to have a first look in the research lab. They have a very impressive driving simulator, but more on that will follow in the next week, I'm sure.

A little bit later we were picked up by Linzhen. She also studies at Northeastern University in Boston, but Wuhan is her home. So she offered to take us around the city for some sightseeing. She openly confessed that she is terrified of driving here, so she brought her uncle along to take care of that. Indeed, he turned out to be a champ at that, proven by the fact that I'm writing this blog right now! We went to see the Yellow Crane Tower, which is one of Wuhan's most impressive sights. This is a beautiful tower that was originally built in the year 233, and has been completely destroyed and rebuilt for an astonishing 22 times since. Just take a look at the pictures, I will let those do the talking for now (you're welcome).

Nice little view before we got to the tower. Very Chinese :)

After we visited the tower, we were taken out to lunch. We got to try various national and local dishes, including such treats as 'baby lotus flower', 'spicy frog legs' and 'fish head'. Call me lame, but I passed on the latter. Other than that I really enjoyed the food. I can now confirm: frog legs do taste like chicken! Dave however, really manned up and even tried the fish eye. Props and Kudos for him! It was a wonderful meal. Again, see the picture for a better impression.

Tons and tons of traditional Chinese food to be tried. That is Linzhen on the left and Dave on the right.

The end of our afternoon was spent at Wuhan's biggest lake, East Lake, if I am not mistaken. We did a bit more sightseeing there, and even took a boat ride. But unfortunately the weather conditions were not optimal. None of this mattered though, because I got to trunk-five an elephant! It's the little things..

We got back to our room at 5PM, which concluded our long day of awe and 'mazement. Once we finish digesting that lunch, we will have dinner and probably get to be early again. I realize this was quite the read, but I did have almost two days to cover. And sometimes, pictures just cannot be used to replace words.. Tomorrow will be day #5, the day of our welcoming Ceremony at Wuhan Technical University. I will get back to you on that!