Today was the first day of the 2008 Geological Society of Taiwan Annual Congress. Patrick and Alan picked us up at the hotel at 8:30a, and we made the very short trip to National Cheng Kung University. Two weeks before leaving for Taiwan, I attended the Southeast Geologic Society of America meeting in Charlotte, so I am anxious to compare our geologic meetings to those in Taiwan.
Upon entering the hall to pick up our registration packets, it becomes obvious that there is no comparison. There are people and large fresh flower arrangements everywhere, the kind that bring to mind a wedding or a funeral. Patrick tells us that there are over 900 people registered for this conference. There are so many people who wanted to speak that there are 5 concurrent speaking sessions in which presenters are limited to 12 minutes talking and 3 minutes of questions. There are over 500 posters spread among 4 sessions in 2 days. The amount of student involvement is so much higher than in the US. One of the sessions that covers both days is hydrogeology, and our talks are scheduled for this afternoon.
Patrick brings us our badges, and we walk around a bit. Inside our badge packet are tickets for lunch on both days and a ticket for our conference gift. The gift turns out to be a cup with a lid and a briefcase. There are many fewer vendors displaying their technical equipment (I think I counted 2), but a much larger display of books and reference materials for purchase. It's almost time for the Key Note talk, so we wander upstairs to the main presentation hall.
It appears that not many people are interested in hearing the Key Note Speaker talk about investigating earth science using a diamond anvil, because the hall is relatively empty. However, I am surprised when I realize that the speaker was part of the group at dinner last night. I am embarrassed to admit that I had problems staying awake during his talk, but the combination of dim lighting and a topic that did not particularly interest me led to my demise.
Thirty minutes later we were back downstairs listening to talks about hydrology. There are definite differences between presentations styles in the US and styles in Taiwan. In the US, we try to put very little text on our slides and instead use many more maps, graphs, and pictures. In Taiwan, the dominate style is text based slides with bullets. This made understanding the talks agonizingly difficult for the most part. However, interestingly, about a third of the talks had presentation slides in English, but the talks were conducted in Chinese. Dr Wu's assistant David had the last presentation before lunch, and it was interesting to see him in his element.
Lunch was the traditional Taiwanese "box lunch". In order to get it, we followed directions written on large yellow feet that led to the box lunch distribution point, several buildings away. Ted opted to skip lunch and stay behind, scouring the internet for news about Obama campaign in the US. After getting our lunch, we searched a bit for somewhere to sit and eat. Patrick suggested that we return to the main hall to the VIP room to eat. I think we all would have been perfectly happy to eat outside, but off we went.
Today's lunch box was a chicken thigh on rice, some sort of egg and tomato mixture, something that resembled stuffing, cabbage, and a green vegetable that looked like spinach. No soup this time, which surprised me because they didn't distribute a drink with the lunch either.
We all were scheduled to talk after lunch, with Shuying and I speaking before break, while Ted and Melinda spoke after break concluded. They all went well. Shuying did her talk in Chinese, while Melinda, Ted, and I of course did ours in English. Not a whole lot of questions from the audience, which didn't surprise me, although I did expect Shuying to ge a few. I figured the language barrier would be enough to foil our audience, so I was pleasantly surprised when I walked out into the hallway to leave for mid-afternoon break and was stopped by a gentleman who asked me many questions.
Patrick presented in the afternoon, after Ted, and I have no idea what he talked about, but he had pretty maps. By 4pm, I was ready to go back to the hotel and take a nap. No rest for the weary however, as we have yet another dinner tonight, and Shuying and Ted have to pack for their trip home. Patrick and Alan agree to drop us off at the hotel for an hour before dinner so that we can take care of some stuff.
Patrick and Alan were back again at 6:10p for dinner. Tonights dinner was with many people. There were 20 tables seating 10 each. It was held in the reception hall of a very fancy restaurant. The hall was decorated everywhere with pink fabric, and Alan mentioned that it is a popular place for wedding receptions. Tonight I sat in between Alan and Shuying for dinner, and for the first time Alan did quite a bit of talking in English. His English is actually quite good and we had a very pleasant conversation. Also at our table was an English speaking post-PhD igneous petrologist who is working in Taipei at the Academia Sinica IES. Ted sat next to him (he was across the table from me) and they seemed to have good dinner conversation.
The food tonight was not as good as other meals we have had, but the presentation was spectacular. Lots of decoratively carved fruits and vegetables. There were the usual 10 dishes and 2 desserts as well as fresh fruit. Like most dinners that involve geologists, the beer was flowing and 2 of the tables around us got into a beer drinking contest. I'm still not sure who won. At 9pm we left dinner and went back to our hotel. Dr Wu discussed the arrangements for returning Ted and Shuying to the airport in the morning, while Melinda and I discussed plans for the next day at the conference.
Ted, Shuying, and I decided to walk down the street to the local massage parlor to get a neck and foot massage. Unfortunately, the only options available were 60 mins for feet only or 60 mins for whole body not including feet. Neither of which were appealing to me. so I returned to the hotel. I'm tired anyway, and it's time for bed
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