Jeffrey Breugelmans, PhD
connect with me on LinkedIn
  • Home
  • PhD Dissertation
  • Academics
  • Portfolio
  • Contact

Dangerous Dave and the Driving Simulator.

6/8/2011

6 Comments

 
Hi all, just a quick post to let you know everything is going well. The last couple of days we have been working hard on our project, so there hasn't been a lot of time to further explore Wuhan, or to do anything else really. But that's ok. Apart from the unrealistic amount of work we are supposed to do within this very limited amount of time, the people at the university have been treating us really well. Every meal and drink is paid for, and they also refunded our train ride from Shanghai to Wuhan. They even offered to pay for our tickets from Wuhan to Beijing after the program ends, it will be up to us to choose if we want to fly or take an overnight train.

I wanted to upload a video of our "work", just so you can have a better idea of what we are working on. The video shows only the fun stuff though, the driving in the advanced simulator. The video provides a nice idea of the functioning and realism of it all. After we all had two 20 minute driving sessions, the less entertaining part started: data processing and analysis. This is what we have been working on all day today.

Tomorrow, however, will be the big day! I will be driving a car in real traffic (real' crazy that is). I have seen some busy places, but Wuhan traffic is by far the biggest vehicular mess I have ever experienced. Especially the first couple of days, whenever I needed to walk across a road, I would literally fear for my life. The walk sigh changing from Red to Green, only seems to indicate in change from Probably to Possibly dying. But I guess even that is something you can get used to. Dave might also give it a go, but he might face an ever bigger challenge. Apart from the complete lack of organization on the road, he also has never driven a 'stick', or 'standard', before. And if the video provides any indication of his 'real world' driving, this should definitely be "interesting", to say the least!
Dangerous Dave and the Driving Simulator

As I mentioned, we haven't really done a lot of things the last few days, apart from work. But here are just a few notes:
  • You can tell Wuhan is not as "international" as Shanghai. We find ourselves being stared at quite a lot, especially by little kids. Earlier this week, a small schoolboy of about 7 year old just walked up to me on the street with his arm extended. "Welcome to Wuhan", he said as he shook my hand, and then he just took off again. I caught me completely off guard, but it was really cute.
  • I can officially confirm that Chinese food is nothing like the "Chinese" food we eat in Europe or the US. I have been eating three authentic Chinese meals a day for the last 5 days, and none of it has fully resembled the kind of food I was used to. Despite the big variety in dishes, I do really feel like I would like some change. Regardless, I end up really enjoying it every single time.
  • Today we had our first fully sunny day in Wuhan. As a result, the temperature instantly rose from very pleasant to 33*C or 90*F. When asked about it by our local teammates, we told them that it was hot, but still manageable. They then told us that this was still just an mild day, compared to Wuhan summer standards. They are used to reaching temperatures of around 40*C or 100*F on a regular basis. I guess we should praise ourselves lucky for being here at this time of "bad to mild" weather.
  • Finally, I miss you guys. Despite the good time I am having here, I am really looking forward to seeing my great family and friends in the Netherlands again this summer. And to return to my comfy room and wonderful friends in Boston. I hope you are all doing well and that you enjoy reading these stories. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment! I would love to hear from you.
Take good care, and all the best! If everything goes well tomorrow, I will get back to you soon. Probably with some interesting stories again.

6 Comments
boy
6/8/2011 02:28:02 am

Hi Jeff, nice to read your experience over there. Have a good time in China!

Reply
mam
6/8/2011 07:43:54 am

Hai Jeffie, wij waren vanavond bij Opa Martin zn verjaardag. Iedereen is benieuwd naar je ervaringen in China en waar je me bezig bent. Ik moet zeggen dat je blogs erg leuk zijn om te lezen. Hoop dat t morgen goed gaat als je echt gaat deelnemen aan die verkeerschaos daar! En dat de airco op je kamer maar goed mag blijven werken, als t zo warm gaat worden. Wij missen je ook heel erg,maar t is goed te lezen dat je t naar je zin hebt.Doe de groeten aan Dave, die we vast nog wel een keer gaan ontmoeten als we in Boston zijn. XXXX Mam en poot van Boef

Reply
Jody
6/8/2011 04:35:47 pm

Lieve Jefff....

zoals je hier boven leest waren we gister bij opa martin en jullie mama vertelde over je travelblog! heb nog lang niet alles gelezen maar vind dat je het weer super voor elkaar hebt! gaaf allemaal hoor, al die ervaringen, indrukken van oa de verkeerschaos en kleine chinezen!??!

liefs xx Jody & Rob natuurlijk!

Reply
Lorraine
6/11/2011 06:15:39 am

Ni hao

Was happy to find your blog through google. I am Dangerous Dave's mom and it is so nice to read more detail and see pictures of the adventure that both of you are on. Sounds like you have a busy sightseeing weekend ahead of you and so good that the university hosts are showing you around. Now I have a visual of you to go with your name and I am happy to see Dave in the pictures too. Enjoy your last days in Wuhan. Take care.
Love
Dave's mom

Reply
Jeff
6/12/2011 04:05:10 pm

Hi Lorraine, nice to hear from you too. We had a great time this weekend. We even did some bowling for Dave's birthday party :P Just keep reading my blog, and I will be sure to keep you updated in case he forgets :)

All the best!

Reply
Jeff
6/12/2011 04:07:29 pm

Hoi Jody, jep, alles gaat hier goed hoor. Je hoeft echt niet alles te lezen hoor, kijk maar of je er wat tijd voor kunt vinden :) Hoop dat bij jullie ook alles goed gaat. Ik ben waarschijnlijk heel erg slecht op de hoogte, maar hoe staat het met jullie huizenjacht?

Groetjes aan de fam xxx

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    This is me commenting on my travels through China. I will spend about 5 weeks here, while visiting a still undetermined number of cities.

    Through this blog, I plan on keeping my family and friends updated, with (hopefully) interesting stories and pictures.

    I will not guarantee daily updates, but I will just place these posts as I go along. This should be fun! :)


    You can ignore the adds, or click a few of them to see if we can turns some of these visits into travel cash.. ;)

    Please note that their content is not chosen by me, Google takes care of that. For me it shows a link to Chinese Singles :P


    Categories

    All
    Nightlife
    Shanghai
    Sight Seeing
    Summer Program
    Three Gorges Dam
    Wuhan

    Archives

    June 2011

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.