Tristan and Liv's Wedding in Changzhou

Last Weekend, Caren and I were invited to a friend's wedding in Changzhou. Changzhou is about 90 minutes north of Suzhou, but Tristan and Liv had hired a bus, which made the journey really easy.

Heading to Changzhou

Our first stop was at the bride's parent's house, where according to Chinese tradition the whole wedding party collected the bride to take her to the ceremony. Lots of firecrackers were set off in celebration.

Collecting the Bride

Firecrackers!

After collecting the bride, the whole wedding party headed into Changzhou to the hotel where the reception would be held.

Tristan and Liv Greeting Guests at the Reception

The format of Chinese weddings is a little different to Western weddings, with the bride and groom taking to the stage at various times throughout the guests meal to make toasts.

Bubbles

Fireworks

The food and drink was all excellent. I tried my first good Baijiu (Chinese spirit) and also bird's nest soup, which I was assured is vegetarian, though I am skeptical. I think that even if I wasn't vegetarian, I wouldn't have tried the soft-shelled turtle. However, I'm told it was delicious.

Bird's Nest Soup

Soft Shelled Turtle

Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo

Two of my Friends, Simon and Jenny were on honeymoon in Japan and invited me to join them for their last weekend where they were watching the Grand Sumo tournament in Tokyo. It sounded like fun, so I decided to join them.

I cashed in some air miles to pay for my plane ticket. There were no economy seats left, so I had to use my miles to fly business... but the generous measures of Glenfiddich persuaded me it was worthwhile...

Big Measures of Whisky in Business Class

As I was traveling alone, I decided to try one of Tokyo's 'Capsule Hotels' where you sleep in a coffin-like enclosure with its own alarm-clock, TV and radio. The capsule hotel had really good communal facilities and was very cheap for Tokyo at 25 pounds per night. You can see my room below:

My Capsule Hotel 'Room'

Before the tournament started I went with Si and Jenny to see some of Tokyo. Taking the lift to the upper floors of many high-rises affords fantastic views:

Tokyo Harbor

The City Skyline

The Sumo tournament itself was held at a stadium near Ryogoku subway station and it was really wierd to see Sumo wrestlers in full costume riding bikes, using the subway and generally just hanging out.

Mural at the Ryogoku Subway Station

The tournament itself was great fun. The early fights go very quickly, but by the end of the day, the biggest and best fighters get into some epic struggles:

The Wrestlers Square Off

Clashing Wrestlers

One thing I was surprised by was the McDonald's product placement. Is this the secret diet of sumo wrestlers?

Unfortunate Product Placement

All in all it was a great weekend, and I look forward to seeing Simon and Jenny again.

Visiting Research Position at K.U. Leuven, Summer 2010

We spent this summer in Leuven, Belgium. Caren finished the first draft of her thesis and I was working with the WSN team in the DistriNet research group. We stayed in the Groot Begijnhof, a carefully restored religious community from the 13th century. The Groot Begjinhof is a UNESCO world heritage site and a wonderful place to live.

Inside the Begjinhof

Our Street (ours is the 2nd building on the left)

The View from our Loft Appartment

Caren Working in our Loft Appartment

I was working over in the Heverlee Campus of K.U. Leuven, which is right next to the Historic Arenberg Castle:
 

The Arenberg Castle

The Old Waterwheel

As we were working hard over the summer, we didn't get to make many trips, but we did make a trip over to Brugge, some photos of which you can see below:

Floating on the Canals of Brugge

The Bell Fort

The Chapel of the Holy Blood

My friend Kiel came to visit us for a weekend and he and I sampled a few Belgian beers at some great bars like Blauwe Kater in Leuven, Cambrinus in Brugge and Delirum Cafe in Brussels. 

The Delirum Cafe, home of 2004 beers.

Kiel Drinking from a Skull in Le Cercueil (the Coffin in French)

Drinking in Cambrinus: Kiel has a Kwak and I have a Poirot

All in all it was a great trip. I hope to return to Leuven soon.

Sanya: "China's Hawaii"

The next stop on my sister's visit was Sanya, a tropical island in Hainan province, which is sometimes referred to as 'China's' Hawaii.... and it was just that. Gorgeous tropical beaches, good infrastructure, friendly locals and cheap food and drink. Some photos follow:

Our Hotel - The Holiday Inn, Sanya Bay

Relaxing in the Pool

Relaxing on the Beach

And watching the Sunset. It's a hard life.

Chengdu

My sister is visiting with me for two weeks. As I also had a conference in Chengdu, she accompanied me to Panda City.

Bizzarely, our five-star hotel provided every guest with a working gas mask! Your guess is as good as mine as to why.

The biggest attraction in Chengdu is the Panda Research Base, where you can see hundreds of giant pandas and red pandas.

The pandas seemed to enjoy human contact and posing for the camera.

It was a rainy day, but we perservered nonetheless. Here you see my sister on a rope-bridge.

The sites breeding program has been very successful including a pair of panda twins.

I think the best thing about the pandas was how human they looked while eating and playing.

Our next stop will be Sanya. I'll report in from there.

Visit to Ireland

I just returned from a great visit to Ireland. Everyone was very friendly and I had a great time. Photos follow:

Saint Finbarre's Cathedral, Cork

A Nice Monument on the River Lee, Cork

 Posing on the Lovely Campus of University College Cork

Chinese Wisdom, Cork Style (and how creepy is the fake sleeping cat)?

FutureTech 2010 in South Korea

On Thursday I flew to Seoul in South Korea to attend the FutureTech 2010 conference. I really enjoyed my trip and found South Korea a pleasant and fun country.

In front of the steps of Seoul train station, there is a large display encouraging visitors to remember that the Korean war is not over, but is at an armistice. This is evident with tensions currently rising over the sinking of the Cheonan.

 

From Seoul, we took the high speed train south to the coastal city of Busan, where we stayed in a nice little motel that you can see above.

 

The conference was very well organized. I presented one paper and chaired two sessions at the DATICS workshop, as you can see above.

The conference center was in the beautiful Lotte hotel, which houses Busan's only casino (I lost about 20 pounds) and has great views of the city.

We had a free day in Busan, so we hopped on the subway and went to Hyundai Beach. I really wanted to swim in the Sea of Japan, but unfortunately it was raining, still we had a great day seeing the sights and tasting the local food.

 

 Ka Lok and his Friends from Hong Kong

Walking to the Apex Conference Facility

 

The Apex Conference Facility