Emory, Georgia and Smoky Mountain

Nov 4 – 6, 2005 Siemens IDEA User’s Meeting, Atlanta, GA

 

Although three days away, my head is still spinning after driving 12 hours back from Atlanta. Nevertheless, it’s a great meeting and Emory University is a very nice private school, sitting on the historical Druid Hills, just as the Washington Univ. Hilltop Campus. Perfect deep fall weather in Atlanta for outdoor activities.

 

On my way back from Atlanta, I drove up north-east and took a detour to the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s the perfect season for a splendid view of different layers of colors. The one hour driving experience inside the mountain area more than compensates the hassle. Westbound On Intersate 40 from Knoxville to Nashville is another big enjoyment: 200 miles chasing the Sun! I had to stop at Nashville, not only because of my empty gas tank but also my empty stomach. The bar on the Commerce Rd  under the big BellSouth building has great live country music going on. Portraits of those legendary country singers (like Billy Bob) hung on the wall. Three guys were on the studio stage performing. Although their turkey sandwich tasted like hell, I still left a handsome tip for the waitress just for her nice and cute smiles. Two bucks in the bucket for those singers on my way out of the door. Man, I was refreshed. Nashville, the country music city! Maybe I should consider an offer at Vanderbilt Univ.?

 

后记:Emory

Emory Univ.的建筑用磨光大理石夹杂青褚色自然纹理，大概是因袭罗马风格加上现代元素(reminds me the buildings in the game Caesar III)。不象WUSTL的哥特式建筑墙面用浮雕砖并且有意仿古做旧。Emory校园中间的博物馆令人印象深刻，收藏规模虽然不能和国家极博物馆相提并论，但藏品颇精（俱真品）且广，覆盖古埃及，古希腊，罗马，古印度和非洲，并有巡回展厅。展厅布置也精美，vey professional。最吸引我的是刻画在楼梯斜坡上的一副古埃及地图，沿尼罗河顺流而下直到三角洲，pretty creative design to carve it onto the floor.

另：黄昏时从Druid Hills（Emory校园所在地）眺望Atlanta Downtown也是一景。

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Trip in Europe (10) London

Sep 28 – Oct 03, 2005 London UK

After returning from Fussen, we left Munich very early the next morning (Sep 28), flyiing to London. I took my second ESMRMB workshop: Rapid Imaging at the Imperial college, which is at the center of London city. The Stuart Hotel, which is a small and old four story mansion we stayed in, was only two stops away from Imperial college. 

We didn’t take the chance to explore much of the London city and the nearby Cambridge or Oxford due to my tight schedule and fatigue after two weeks touring around Germany. I am not regretting. There will be plenty of international meetings and symposiums take place in London in the future.  Frankly, I was not thrilled by London at all, not only  because aesthetically numbed after the intensive old town experiences in Germany but also because used to be quite familiar with the big city life. London is an intriguing city, nevertheless. Maybe I was just not in the mood of tasting it. The Local host invited us to cruise the Thames river at the night of the closing day. The scenary looked a bit like Huangpu River, Shanghai from the boat.