If You Thought My Posting Was Sporadic...

...then it's about to become much more so as I embark on a month long business trip to China!  I don't leave just yet so before I go I'll post about how I've been preparing and when I come back I should have advice about travelling in China.

If I can access Blogger in China I hope to give updates about travelling by oneself to a country where you don't know anyone or speak the language for business.  If I can't then I'll just have to enthrall you when I come back.

Coxie's Replacement

The next phase for my research is beginning just as Coxie's replacement is coming out of the machine shop.

Newest reactor, still needs a name.  Suggestions?

I'm going to try and take this little reactor on a plane in the morning to St. Louis University.  Wish me well!

Picture Shanghai

I may be heading to China in a few weeks.  My company does quite a lot of business in China and I'll be heading there for a meeting.  The majority of the trip will take place in Nanjing but I imagine it will include a stop in Shanghai.

I've never been to China, I don't speak Chinese (though I'm taking a Chinese language class this term), and I honestly know very little about it.  Since my company has a very large presence in China, I feel I must learn in order to be competitive in the workplace. 

I saw these the other day (by way of tweet none the less) and thought I'd link to them here as well.  Really incredible pictures of just how much Shanghai has changed in the last twenty years.

Paris!: Random Tuesday Thoughts

This week I'm doing my own edition of Random Tuesday Thoughts.  It's no longer Tuesday where I am but that's okay.



I'm currently in Paris, France, enjoying a vacation.  I've been here for four days now and have another three to go.  Paris is interesting, to say the least.  There is a lot of history here!

Frostbite hurts.  I do not recommend getting frostbite.  How do you know you have frostbite?  Not sure; my feet were simply cold, then numb, then I couldn't feel them, and when they started warming up they turned multiple colors and got really itchy and water that was slightly tepid was burning.  In other words, painful.

I expected the star marking the center of Paris to be much larger than it actually was.

The center of Paris, France.  Little, no?

Napoleon has a really large tomb!  Really, really large tomb.  I saw a couple of pictures of the tomb before I arrived but they simply did not do it justice.  Plus there were no tourists in the pictures (for a visual scale) so I thought it was a normal sized tomb, not one that is well, I can't find the dimensions of the sarcophagus that he's buried in but it's seriously gigantic.

I have a hard time looking angry/fierce while roaming the streets.  I found that if you smile, especially around the Pompidou Center where the fake deaf and dumb people are they will chase you down asking for money.

My sleep schedule is very messed up.  I'm on the wake up early (7 am - this is vacation after all!), get breakfast (9 AM), explore the city (till 4 or 5 PM), nap (till 9 PM), dinner, stay up late (it's after 2 AM here now).  Much sleeping.  That was fine the first day or so but now the number of days left is less than the number of days completed and my list of things to see is still very long!

I can't handle the mustard.  I'm very weak.  At the table of most little restaurants is very spicy mustard.  Now I ask for ketchup right away.

If you plan a trip to Paris, I recommend going during any season but the winter.  Planes are delayed.  Can't see the Eiffel Tower (oh please be less cloudy/foggy soon!).  And my feet are cold.  Despite all that it's still rather lovely.  A nice break from school / work!