China 2013
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Following my two hours at the museum and upon my host's recommendation given my location in the city, I then toured the Presidential Palace. I greatly enjoyed my time in the Palace, viewing the old offices and office equipment, as well as just people watching. The student's mom then took me to a traditional "hot pot" lunch and then we moved on to where I gave a talk at her high school; she manages an IB (International Baccalaureate) high school affiliated with Nanjing Normal University. I had met one of her computer science teachers at Wheaton last summer and he had invited me to come give a talk when I was in Nanjing. My talk and Q/A session with the high school student was one of the highlights of my trip.
In addition to the few pics of the endless line of cranes and construction that surrounds you no matter what city you are in, in this case around the conference center in Nanjing, I took some shots of the conference venue (8 Noble Prize winners spoke) and some of the evening entertainment at the banquet. On my last evening in Nanjing, another Wheaton student's parents (and the Wheaton student's high school friend acting as interpreter) and I enjoyed the local Nanjing cuisine. When they picked me up from my hotel, the father had a driver. I asked the interpreter if he always had a driver. "No," he replied, "he wanted to drink with you tonight; this is his friend." Mr. Yang said he was bringing 'wine', but of course, it was not the wine we might imagine. This is "chinese wine", in this case a "white liquor' Fen Liquor. (You can see how we drink it in the pics that follow. The bottle is innocent looking enough. Each drinker (only Mr. Yang and I; Mrs. Yang passed) has a small pouring jug, similar to a clear dish for one's coffee creamer. From here, drinks are poured into a clear shot glass; the shot glasses are clinked together and then ... down ye go. [Warm .... very warm; smile, "wow"] ).
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