Conferences and Cups with the Crew

I love, love, love traveling solo. In general, I get to do what I want to do all the time and see what I want to see. Plus, I figure it's good for introspection and mediation and the like.

However, it also kinda sucks sometimes. There's no one to take pictures with. No one to laugh with. And when something happens, awesome or horrible, there is no one to bear witness.

That's why I felt very lucky last week to get the best of both worlds when some of my friends from the OT crew came to visit me in Singapore. =)

...Ok, so they weren't actually here to visit me. They were here for an international communications conference. But that was actually really awesome too. Being the big huge nerd that I am. I absolutely *love* conferences. Turns out it doesn't even have to be my field. I love learning about new research and having nerdy conversations, and meeting new, interesting and awesome (read: nerdy) people. Plus, several days worth of free food and fun receptions. =)

It was also really cool to get to go to Elliot's and Helen's talks. Even though I see them all the time back home, I really didn't know much about their research. They did awesome. So above and beyond their panel members. Go Blue!

It was also particularly awesome that they were here during the World Cup. Even though I'm not much of a soccer buff or sports fanatic in general, it was really cool to get to experience such an historical event with my close friends in a country that actually cares about the World Cup. Every bar, pub, cafe, mall, and hallway were packed for every game. And every person was on the edge of their seats (apparently mostly because there's a lot of betting on the world cup around here).

In between the conference and the World Cup, we spent a lot of time at the OTHER world cup.....

That's right, Robocup, the world championships of robot soccer. They happened to be held at the same gianormous convention center as the communications conference, so we ran upstairs to watch whenever we got the chance. They had all different types of robots. Big ones, small ones, humanoid types and little black box types.

However, it turns out that robots are not very good at soccer.

They mostly fall down a lot.

Somehow that doesn't make it any less awesome.

But the Robocup experience (Aside to Andre: this is our next cheese sign) isn't limited to soccer. They also had all kinds of stands (not to mention the ministry of robotics)

They also had house robots that did things like turn on and off your lights and play your favorite CD for you. They also dance

Robocup's goal is to have robots beat human World Cup champions by 2050.

They've got a way to go.

Next Robocup is in Turkey next year. I plan on being there.

* * * * *

After the conferences and cups, we spent the weekend exploring Singapore.

We were met with a great deal of tanks.

Seriously, this must have gone on for hours. At first we were excited and took lots of pics. Then we were worried...was there a coup that we weren't aware of?

Turns out that they were "practicing" for National Day (Singaporean Independence day (Aug 9th)).
Practice went on all day. Even the fireworks and airshow were rehearsed.

To think that in the states we do 4th of July each year without practicing first. How unprofessional of us.

Once convinced that we were not all going to be taken hostage, we had an excellent time being tourists. We checked out the youth olympic park (for the first youth olympics, to be held in Singapore this Aug)...

Elliot got some *very* spiffy tailored shirts...

We checked out the super snazzy new casino/mall...

And we ended the trip in Chinatown. Where we got souvenirs...

...and ate at a restaurant with a 'celebrity chef" that also was a body builder, model, and I don't remember what all else. Yes this is the menu. Yes, those are pictures of him mostly naked.

We also walked around the oldest temple in Singapore.

However, this random Engrish shirt has to be one of my personal highlights. Seriously. Found in Chinatown in Singapore. WTF?!?!?

MISS YOU GUYS ALREADY!

Nanyang Technological University

I haven't posted much lately, now that research is finally underway, and my life is swamped with the mundane act of getting up and going to work everyday. None the less, I thought I would show you what that looks like by giving you a bit of a virtual tour of NTU. (p.s. Have I told you that "Nanyang" means "Singapore" in Chinese? It was founded by Chinese immigrants in the 50s. Thus the title)

This is my bedroom that I share with my awesome-saucem roommate Wendy. The green bed is mine (see the four leaf clover bed sheets? So I'm insecure in my Irishness. Sue me)

And no graduate student bedroom would be complete without desks. Although I never manage to actually sit at desks. So far have been using mine as a very insufficient storage space (on the right, naturally).

And closets. Mine is the messy one that it seems is too much effort to close.

Dining/laundry area. Because for some reason they are one and the same.

Kitchen

Common area.

Wendy and I share the common spaces (kitchen, bathroom, dining room etc.) with two other girls. But none of us ever really hang out there if we can help it. The common areas have no air conditioning, and no fans. And I've been in green houses that were cooler.

I live right on campus, and I walk to work every day. These pics are from my daily commute. NTU is really far out on the west coast of the country, and its a good 45-60 minutes to get to downtown, which is really annoying. But the plus side is that the campus is really beautiful. A daily reminder that I am living in the jungle-filled tropics.

This pic is of the Art and Design building. And it doesn't do it justice. One of the coolest buildings I've ever seen, it consists of several, overlapping arcs of black glass topped with GRASS. So the roof comes right down to the ground. You can hike up it, and apparently the top has the best star gazing in all of Singapore.

Other angle of the Art school.

Most of the sidewalks on campus have covers, to protect students from the harsh sun and the almost daily downpours.

An on campus residence hall

Overlooking the "Spine", one of the main clusters of buildings on campus.

Inside one of the main libraries. Can you say computer stations?

The Psychology Building!

Inside the huge open foyer of the psych building.

My office. 4th floor. Mine is the messy one (notice a trend?). I was supposed to get a cubicle on the 3rd floor with the other grad students. But since I'm all VIP and stuff, they gave me a part-time/temp staff office. Bigger, and in the faculty wing, with only one officemate and my own computer and printer. This is so much nicer than my office at UM. And the labs here are unreal. Tons of space, and resources and cool gadgets.

Guess I have no excuse for not getting work done...

Beer Fest Asia 2010

Finished up the weekend by attending Beer Fest Asia 2010. An annual beer competition. There were beers from all over the world. Available by the pitcher, jug, glass, bottle or free sample =). It was outdoors, right on the water, underneath the Singapore Flyer (ferris wheel). They were playing the World cup on huge screens, and there was live music and lots of food.

Yes. Pretty awesome.

Of course. We had to sample the wares.

Ben only had two hands and he was already using both of them for booze. So I decided to help out by pouring some more beer on his head. I can be so helpful sometimes.

My turn to double fist (unfortunately, two not very awesome beers. I didn't end up finishing them. Oh well, they were free).

Storm on the other hand, was awesome. It turned out to be one of our favorites. We had a few of them =)

Yeah...There were a lot of very interesting characters around Beerfest. I'm still not sure what this guy's deal was....although he told Tom to facebook him...

There was also a U2 cover band (from Australia I think?) They actually weren't bad (at what they did anyway)
There were also racing cars. Not sure why. But made for good pics.
We stayed out past midnight (when public transit shuts down) and so had to take a taxi back to campus). Poor Bobby is not quite over the jet lag yet.

The Weekend! Pulau Ubin

For my first real weekend in Singapore (you know, for which I was conscious and all), a bunch of people from EAPSI decided to go to Pulau Ubin--a tiny island off the coast (as if Singapore wasn't tiny enough).

It was pretty much exactly on the other side of Singapore from where I'm staying. We had to take a bus, and then a train, and then another bus, and then a ferry to get there. But it was totally worth it. Pulau Ubin is awesome.

I may or may not have tried to get Tim and Eliza to get into a fist fight, since fighting was strictly prohibited on the ferry (see the sign behind them?) But they were both too nice and didn't want to throw the first punch.

People say that Pulau Ubin is like what Singapore was like in the 50s. But it feels so much older than that because Singapore has developed so quickly. You definitely feel like you've stepped a few hundred years back in time. From skyscrapers and subways, into old bikes, outhouses and little electricity.

We all rented bikes and set out to bike around the island.
Boy did we bike. We made it pretty much around the whole island, but by the end of four hours, my knees were killing me. The bikes were not exactly of the latest design or the highest caliber. (for instance, the gears on the right of my bike only shifted up...on the left they only shifted down). And most of the road was unpaved. And then there were the "adventure trails" marked as "black diamonds" and such as if it was a ski slope. Yeah...we just did the "blue square" and that was enough. I had to walk my bike up some of the hills.
But again, totally worth it! The nature was amazing! There were lots of lakes and ponds, all with odd colored water. Gray-green, dark blue, solid teal....not sure what the deal was, but it looked awesome.
There were also lots of little huts and houses along the way. Which was such a contrast, because in Singapore proper, there are NO houses. The island is too crowded (5 million people on an island you can drive across in an hour). In away, the people on Pulau Ubin are living a life that people in Singapore could only dream of.

We were also lucky enough to see some wild life on P.U. I think that's one of the main reasons people go. We saw lizards and mudskippers and crabs and birds, and MONKEYS!!! I love monkeys and it was so cool to see them in the wild, just chilling up in the trees. Some people also saw a wild boar, but I just missed it. All I saw was a flash of hind legs as it ran into the trees.

So, this sign is apparently famous, so we had to take our pics with it. Firstly, it's written in Singlish (Singaporean Slang English). Secondly, it's graffiti-ish (serious no no in Singapore).
All in all, a great place, great experience, and great day. Don't you wish you were here?