A few photos from practice and the race.
Also - check out the first few photos from things I saw on the road.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
F1, Exams, Guilin
Weather: 63F & Rain
Time: 1130pm Sunday
This weekend I spent sometime collecting things for my trip this coming week. I went to see the F1 practice. I studied hard for my exams.
Exams
This coming week I have two exams. It was originally scheduled for Monday and Wednesday with Monday being the more important exam. It has since been pushed back to Thursday, which conflicts with a trip to Guilin I have already scheduled. We are working with the professor to resolve this issue.
Formula 1
This weekend I finally got to go out to the Shanghai Circuit. I have come to a few conclusions; sports where the viewer can not see everything that is going on at one time do not interest me, HD television programming not only gets your closer to the action - but will save time and money, and it is difficult to travel around shanghai sometimes.
Time Table; Depart Dorm at 8am - by 10am look for a bus to take us to the track from downtown - take a taxi 180RMB and arrive at 11:40 - Eat non-american hot dog for 40RMB - Watch racing til 4pm - Stand in line for subway until 5pm - Arrive downtown at 6:30pm - Followed someone who didn't know where they were going til 7:30 - Ate Papa Johns and then got back to the dorm at 9pm
The day took longer than I wanted it to. I was very tired and went to bed at 9:30pm and I did not get to study when I arrived home like I was hoping. The next morning (today, race day) I decided that I could not go to the race today because of my exam on Monday. It was a difficult decision, but I think it was the right choice. I spent over 120USD on that ticket, but if I do not perform well on these exams I may put my summer job in question. I stayed home when people left and sent my ticket away with my roommate to be sold on location. I later received and email saying the exam was delayed until Thursday. I did not feel too cheated because of the travel time to and from the track. I got to see some of the race on local TV stations (in Chinese). I did get a lot of studying done, though more will definitely help!
Guilin
This week I will be going to Guilin, China. It is a scenic area that is pictured on the back of the 20RMB bill. Water and Rocks... perhaps some good places to hike and adventure. Sadly, it is 21 hours by train. I will be departing on Wednesday evening at 5pm and I hope I can make it. The last train ride was a bit more than I was wanting and it was only 18 hours. Though, it is good practice for the trip home - I think it will take about 22 hrs to get home. The weather is not looking very good for the trip, lots of rain during the end of the week. We will be flying back to Shanghai at least.
Expo Gearing Up
It is very apparent that the Expo is starting on May 1st. The videos in the subway have news and public announcements (in Chinese). The news almost exclusively is showing video from the expo and that is broken into segments by commercials that indicate good behavior in public spaces. Don't run backwards on escalators! Carry your children on stairs! Report suspicious activities! Things of that sort.
Volcano Disrupts Air Traffic
There is currently a volcano in Iceland spewing ash into the sky that is covering the better part of the northern European countries. I hope that this volcano stops soon and air traffic can resume! I am currently operating under the theory that nothing will stop me from going home on May 17th. I hope there are no natural disasters that ruin my trip back to the USA.
Graduation
I want to make it abundantly clear to my friend who will be graduating this May that I regret missing your graduation. Many of you I have known for six and more years and I congratulate you on your upcoming accomplishment. I thank my friends who have been in the military for the last few years while we have been in school. I thank my friends who are still in the military and wish for the best for those who will be entering the military after graduation. I am lucky to have smart and honorable friends who have gone through college and the military. Good luck to those who will soon be entering the real world and graduate schools around the country. I wish you all the best in your upcoming adventures!
Biber
Time: 1130pm Sunday
This weekend I spent sometime collecting things for my trip this coming week. I went to see the F1 practice. I studied hard for my exams.
Exams
This coming week I have two exams. It was originally scheduled for Monday and Wednesday with Monday being the more important exam. It has since been pushed back to Thursday, which conflicts with a trip to Guilin I have already scheduled. We are working with the professor to resolve this issue.
Formula 1
This weekend I finally got to go out to the Shanghai Circuit. I have come to a few conclusions; sports where the viewer can not see everything that is going on at one time do not interest me, HD television programming not only gets your closer to the action - but will save time and money, and it is difficult to travel around shanghai sometimes.
Time Table; Depart Dorm at 8am - by 10am look for a bus to take us to the track from downtown - take a taxi 180RMB and arrive at 11:40 - Eat non-american hot dog for 40RMB - Watch racing til 4pm - Stand in line for subway until 5pm - Arrive downtown at 6:30pm - Followed someone who didn't know where they were going til 7:30 - Ate Papa Johns and then got back to the dorm at 9pm
The day took longer than I wanted it to. I was very tired and went to bed at 9:30pm and I did not get to study when I arrived home like I was hoping. The next morning (today, race day) I decided that I could not go to the race today because of my exam on Monday. It was a difficult decision, but I think it was the right choice. I spent over 120USD on that ticket, but if I do not perform well on these exams I may put my summer job in question. I stayed home when people left and sent my ticket away with my roommate to be sold on location. I later received and email saying the exam was delayed until Thursday. I did not feel too cheated because of the travel time to and from the track. I got to see some of the race on local TV stations (in Chinese). I did get a lot of studying done, though more will definitely help!
Guilin
This week I will be going to Guilin, China. It is a scenic area that is pictured on the back of the 20RMB bill. Water and Rocks... perhaps some good places to hike and adventure. Sadly, it is 21 hours by train. I will be departing on Wednesday evening at 5pm and I hope I can make it. The last train ride was a bit more than I was wanting and it was only 18 hours. Though, it is good practice for the trip home - I think it will take about 22 hrs to get home. The weather is not looking very good for the trip, lots of rain during the end of the week. We will be flying back to Shanghai at least.
Expo Gearing Up
It is very apparent that the Expo is starting on May 1st. The videos in the subway have news and public announcements (in Chinese). The news almost exclusively is showing video from the expo and that is broken into segments by commercials that indicate good behavior in public spaces. Don't run backwards on escalators! Carry your children on stairs! Report suspicious activities! Things of that sort.
Volcano Disrupts Air Traffic
There is currently a volcano in Iceland spewing ash into the sky that is covering the better part of the northern European countries. I hope that this volcano stops soon and air traffic can resume! I am currently operating under the theory that nothing will stop me from going home on May 17th. I hope there are no natural disasters that ruin my trip back to the USA.
Graduation
I want to make it abundantly clear to my friend who will be graduating this May that I regret missing your graduation. Many of you I have known for six and more years and I congratulate you on your upcoming accomplishment. I thank my friends who have been in the military for the last few years while we have been in school. I thank my friends who are still in the military and wish for the best for those who will be entering the military after graduation. I am lucky to have smart and honorable friends who have gone through college and the military. Good luck to those who will soon be entering the real world and graduate schools around the country. I wish you all the best in your upcoming adventures!
Biber
Thursday, April 15, 2010
About One Month til Departure
Weather: 45F, Sunny
Time: 7:45am Friday
This week has been a relatively good one. Got one exam back and if it weren't for having a Chinese professor grading it (stubborn and inflexible grading) I would have done very well. The rest of the week I have filled with hanging out with friends. I should be doing homework and studying for my exam, but I did not want to start that today, yet.
Local vs Home Weather
In the last week, the weather at home has been unseasonably warm. Weather at Purdue has been in the lower 80s which is generally not the case for this time of year. I have been living through mid to upper 50s with regular rain and clouds and sunlight being the exception. This has been a bit of a disappointment because the average temperature almanac says that it should be around 66°F over the course of the month. Also, the group of us had an expectation of warmer weather because we are farther south, landing between Montgomery, AL and Jacksonville, FL in terms of latitude. All in all, just another reason to look forward to being at home!
Expo Tickets
I spent sometime downtown yesterday walking around and seeing the sights. While I was out I was determined to find Shanghai 2010 Expo tickets. I bought them at a China Mobile store. I was excited to see there was an English speaking expo associate there to help for that reason! I am happy to have bought my tickets, there were many people saying the tickets were selling out quickly and despite being in China for two weeks while the Expo was happening, we may not have been able to go. Hopefully there is not some crowd control policy I do not know about, only letting in 300,000 per day or something. The tickets are not for specific days, just a ticket for admittance between May 4th and September 29th. More on this later.
F1 Weekend
This weekend is the Shanghai Formula 1 race. I have a grandstand seat in turn 1, 2. I have an exam on Monday and homework due Monday as well! Not the best time for a weekend adventure, but hopefully it all balances out well! I will have to balance going to the race with homework and studying!
Silverlight
I was not thinking about it, but I suppose many of the items I have posted on the blog (photosynth) requires Silverlight. Silverlight is a competitor to Flash, a different web language. I understand why you may not want to install another piece of software. I will keep this in mind when posting Silverlight enabled items.
Donations
This summer I will be needing some furnishings for my apartment. I am looking for a full size bed + frame, a table for dining, a few chairs, maybe some living room style furniture. I also will need some good cooking equipment - pans and utensils, as well as devices like skillet, crock-pot, gas grill, etc. The real challenge is that I try to move to Cincinnati in a single CAR load. If you have anything I can borrow / keep let me know. Last year I lived on an air mattress for 3 months - I could do it again, but I really would rather not.
Looking forward to being home,
Biber
Time: 7:45am Friday
This week has been a relatively good one. Got one exam back and if it weren't for having a Chinese professor grading it (stubborn and inflexible grading) I would have done very well. The rest of the week I have filled with hanging out with friends. I should be doing homework and studying for my exam, but I did not want to start that today, yet.
Local vs Home Weather
In the last week, the weather at home has been unseasonably warm. Weather at Purdue has been in the lower 80s which is generally not the case for this time of year. I have been living through mid to upper 50s with regular rain and clouds and sunlight being the exception. This has been a bit of a disappointment because the average temperature almanac says that it should be around 66°F over the course of the month. Also, the group of us had an expectation of warmer weather because we are farther south, landing between Montgomery, AL and Jacksonville, FL in terms of latitude. All in all, just another reason to look forward to being at home!
Expo Tickets
I spent sometime downtown yesterday walking around and seeing the sights. While I was out I was determined to find Shanghai 2010 Expo tickets. I bought them at a China Mobile store. I was excited to see there was an English speaking expo associate there to help for that reason! I am happy to have bought my tickets, there were many people saying the tickets were selling out quickly and despite being in China for two weeks while the Expo was happening, we may not have been able to go. Hopefully there is not some crowd control policy I do not know about, only letting in 300,000 per day or something. The tickets are not for specific days, just a ticket for admittance between May 4th and September 29th. More on this later.
F1 Weekend
This weekend is the Shanghai Formula 1 race. I have a grandstand seat in turn 1, 2. I have an exam on Monday and homework due Monday as well! Not the best time for a weekend adventure, but hopefully it all balances out well! I will have to balance going to the race with homework and studying!
 |
| From J Biber |
Silverlight
I was not thinking about it, but I suppose many of the items I have posted on the blog (photosynth) requires Silverlight. Silverlight is a competitor to Flash, a different web language. I understand why you may not want to install another piece of software. I will keep this in mind when posting Silverlight enabled items.
Donations
This summer I will be needing some furnishings for my apartment. I am looking for a full size bed + frame, a table for dining, a few chairs, maybe some living room style furniture. I also will need some good cooking equipment - pans and utensils, as well as devices like skillet, crock-pot, gas grill, etc. The real challenge is that I try to move to Cincinnati in a single CAR load. If you have anything I can borrow / keep let me know. Last year I lived on an air mattress for 3 months - I could do it again, but I really would rather not.
Looking forward to being home,
Biber
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Xi'an Photos
Just wanted to share a few photos from Xi'an. This is as opposed to using the slide show feature, let me know if you like it better. Read More to see the pictures.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Return from Xi'an
Weather: 52F and overcast
Time: 11am
It was a short trip that felt long a long time. A group of four of us got out there and did as much as we could with the 29 hours we had to work with. We visiting the terracotta warriors and went to Mt Huashan. The train rides were longer than expected. We are back in Shanghai and working at school til this weekend's F1 race.
Train to Xi'an
I was hoping for a very nice train ride to Xi'an and in retrospect, it was a rather nice ride there. We left at Friday at 8pm and were scheduled to get in at 10am Saturday. The train car was a private four bed "soft sleeper." I would not really call it soft, but maybe they mean nice amenities. It had a door and four televisions (that did not work). There were two bathrooms per car, each car holding 36 people. Small but somewhat comfortable. Probably a lot of room of a Chinese person and kind of small for an American person, in terms of comfort space. We did not arrive until noon, which hurt our time table a bit, but really hurt morale more. I did not enjoy the extra time on the train. My roommate's Kindle (from Amazon) has some internet access so I tried using that without killing the battery.
Private Driver
Getting off the train, we were approached by a broken English speaking man trying to drive us to see the warriors. Our plan was to see the warriors and continue to the mountain, so we needed a special driver not just a bus. We eventually hired him for 700RMB for the whole day. He drove us 30 minutes to TerraWar and then another 2.5 hrs to Mt Huashan. He was the brother of the broken English character and unfortunately spoke little English. One of the four of us spoke enough Chinese to get us where we needed to go, that was not me.
Terracotta Warriors
An interesting exhibit. The idea here was to protect the emperor in his after life. They built many pits and put roofs over all the clay soldiers at the time of construction. As many people know, each one is actually based of a real solider. Each was hand painted and colored. Over time, the roof collapsed and crush ALL of the warriors in all of the pits. They started in pit 1 and they've been restoring the originals by gluing them back together. The paints that were used have faded in all of the pit 1 soldiers. Since this has happened, they did not uncover pit 2, which is over 6000 m^2 of soldiers. They will not unearth these statues until they have found a way to keep the paint from fading.
Pit 2 from Terracotta Warriors Panorama
Mt Huashan
We arrived 15 minutes before the Gondola closed. We arrived at the top with no map and one flashlight. We asked a man where to get a map and he gave us his. Then we started walking to the east peak. We wanted to see the sunrise and get some hiking in, so we did. It was getting dark quickly and it was more than a two hour hike. We ended up hiking one of the more dangerous mountains in China with just a headlamp and no idea where to go. This is not because we can not read a map, this is because it a map in chinese and more of an artistic rendition of where to go rather than a typically american trail map.
We eventually made it to the East Peak and found a hostel/hotel to sleep at. It was a bit expensive, but it was a four bed; room. I hope to post the pictures in the future to explain this. There was no way to call home and internet on the Kindle did not work either. The wind was gusting beyond 50mph with 30mph sustained. The door faced the wind and leaked air around it. With the windows closed, the curtains still moved around and blew in with the wind leaking around the window. Air temp was just over 40F and it was a cold night sleeping in bed.
Sunrise
We guessed the sun would rise about 545 so we woke at 530 and moved out. We climbed up to the viewing platform less than 5 minutes away. There were thick clouds but it was still very beautiful. We never saw the sun come over the peaks, but the sky got light enough to takes some cool pictures. We continued moving because of our tight time schedule.
Climbing
There was a small stone temple like shelter that was only reachable via a series of rock climbs. Kyle and I rented some equipment and set out to get some pictures. It was not easy to capture the angles and footholds on camera because it was fairly vertical and curvy. It was a good warm up for the planks that would come later in the morning.
Planks of Mt. Huashan
A fun find and my main reason for going to Xi'an. I am always looking for a thrill like this and for $4.38 it is hard to beat this. It was really too bad the clouds were too thick to see the bottom. This is a plank walk that leads to a small temple carved into the mountain side. It is 1000 meters from the bottom of the mountain on a vertical rock face. I recorded some video and posted it to youtube. I am slightly embarrassed by my comments, but since mostly my friends and family will watch it - there is no secret that I say stupid stuff all the time.
I did not do any editing, so it is REALLY shaky.
Train to Shanghai
This was a hard sleeper. It is a smaller compartment with six beds. I had a top bunk which gave me about 2 feet of vertical room. It was really really boring. I did not enjoy this 16 hr stint of my life. I would not wish to travel by hard sleeper too many more times, especially not knowing other people in the train car. There was no door for security or anything. Loud people up early in the morning and only the other Americans spoke English.
This week
The Forumla 1 race is this weekend. It will be nice not to be out of town for awhile. I am eagerly looking forward to coming home. I also look forward to seeing all my friends who haven't left Purdue for the summer and seeing all my GE friends too.
Biber
Time: 11am
It was a short trip that felt long a long time. A group of four of us got out there and did as much as we could with the 29 hours we had to work with. We visiting the terracotta warriors and went to Mt Huashan. The train rides were longer than expected. We are back in Shanghai and working at school til this weekend's F1 race.
Train to Xi'an
I was hoping for a very nice train ride to Xi'an and in retrospect, it was a rather nice ride there. We left at Friday at 8pm and were scheduled to get in at 10am Saturday. The train car was a private four bed "soft sleeper." I would not really call it soft, but maybe they mean nice amenities. It had a door and four televisions (that did not work). There were two bathrooms per car, each car holding 36 people. Small but somewhat comfortable. Probably a lot of room of a Chinese person and kind of small for an American person, in terms of comfort space. We did not arrive until noon, which hurt our time table a bit, but really hurt morale more. I did not enjoy the extra time on the train. My roommate's Kindle (from Amazon) has some internet access so I tried using that without killing the battery.
Private Driver
Getting off the train, we were approached by a broken English speaking man trying to drive us to see the warriors. Our plan was to see the warriors and continue to the mountain, so we needed a special driver not just a bus. We eventually hired him for 700RMB for the whole day. He drove us 30 minutes to TerraWar and then another 2.5 hrs to Mt Huashan. He was the brother of the broken English character and unfortunately spoke little English. One of the four of us spoke enough Chinese to get us where we needed to go, that was not me.
Terracotta Warriors
An interesting exhibit. The idea here was to protect the emperor in his after life. They built many pits and put roofs over all the clay soldiers at the time of construction. As many people know, each one is actually based of a real solider. Each was hand painted and colored. Over time, the roof collapsed and crush ALL of the warriors in all of the pits. They started in pit 1 and they've been restoring the originals by gluing them back together. The paints that were used have faded in all of the pit 1 soldiers. Since this has happened, they did not uncover pit 2, which is over 6000 m^2 of soldiers. They will not unearth these statues until they have found a way to keep the paint from fading.
Pit 2 from Terracotta Warriors Panorama
Mt Huashan
We arrived 15 minutes before the Gondola closed. We arrived at the top with no map and one flashlight. We asked a man where to get a map and he gave us his. Then we started walking to the east peak. We wanted to see the sunrise and get some hiking in, so we did. It was getting dark quickly and it was more than a two hour hike. We ended up hiking one of the more dangerous mountains in China with just a headlamp and no idea where to go. This is not because we can not read a map, this is because it a map in chinese and more of an artistic rendition of where to go rather than a typically american trail map.
We eventually made it to the East Peak and found a hostel/hotel to sleep at. It was a bit expensive, but it was a four bed; room. I hope to post the pictures in the future to explain this. There was no way to call home and internet on the Kindle did not work either. The wind was gusting beyond 50mph with 30mph sustained. The door faced the wind and leaked air around it. With the windows closed, the curtains still moved around and blew in with the wind leaking around the window. Air temp was just over 40F and it was a cold night sleeping in bed.
Sunrise
We guessed the sun would rise about 545 so we woke at 530 and moved out. We climbed up to the viewing platform less than 5 minutes away. There were thick clouds but it was still very beautiful. We never saw the sun come over the peaks, but the sky got light enough to takes some cool pictures. We continued moving because of our tight time schedule.
Climbing
There was a small stone temple like shelter that was only reachable via a series of rock climbs. Kyle and I rented some equipment and set out to get some pictures. It was not easy to capture the angles and footholds on camera because it was fairly vertical and curvy. It was a good warm up for the planks that would come later in the morning.
Planks of Mt. Huashan
A fun find and my main reason for going to Xi'an. I am always looking for a thrill like this and for $4.38 it is hard to beat this. It was really too bad the clouds were too thick to see the bottom. This is a plank walk that leads to a small temple carved into the mountain side. It is 1000 meters from the bottom of the mountain on a vertical rock face. I recorded some video and posted it to youtube. I am slightly embarrassed by my comments, but since mostly my friends and family will watch it - there is no secret that I say stupid stuff all the time.
I did not do any editing, so it is REALLY shaky.
Train to Shanghai
This was a hard sleeper. It is a smaller compartment with six beds. I had a top bunk which gave me about 2 feet of vertical room. It was really really boring. I did not enjoy this 16 hr stint of my life. I would not wish to travel by hard sleeper too many more times, especially not knowing other people in the train car. There was no door for security or anything. Loud people up early in the morning and only the other Americans spoke English.
This week
The Forumla 1 race is this weekend. It will be nice not to be out of town for awhile. I am eagerly looking forward to coming home. I also look forward to seeing all my friends who haven't left Purdue for the summer and seeing all my GE friends too.
Biber
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