As I expected, today was much slower.  Either people had already left, or were hitting the beaches, or had decided the coffee wasn’t good enough to bother.  The tea was bad enough I tried the coffee, which was either bitter or, when I added too much condensed milk, tasted like that icky stuff.  But the fruits – starfruit, dragonfruit, papaya – are fresh and tasty, so I get those, and force down the tea because I don’t want to fall asleep. 

I walked in on some nanomaterials presentations.  The first I heard was by a Chinese guy.  All he did was read verbatim what was on the overheads, clearly struggling with the English language and, I suspect, at times unsure of what it was he was saying, a bit like me in some of my Japanese presentations.  When the chair opened the floor for questions, he couldn’t understand what the audience members were asking until they switched to Chinese themselves.  The chair, as chairs do, asked a question himself, but the chair’s Scottish accent was even more lost on the poor speaker.  The experience also revealed to me the disadvantage of abbreviations, because several speakers kept referring to their figs and tabs.  Furthermore, I noticed that some speakers even when speaking English revert to their native language for their “ums.”  (Or is that “um”s?)  Toward the end of the day, an American gave a talk on nanoswords, and although it was easier for me to follow him, I doubt the Chinese could.  I also noticed how often he went ahead and used “go ahead and” or “went ahead and” as fillers.  That alone must have thrown many a Chinese for a loop. 

Back at the booth, another one of the organizing staff walked up to me with “Hi, you want a candy?”  They mean well, they’re just being kind, I know, also when they ask if I’m not going to lunch, and then warn me that I “will miss something delicious.”  I think that deep down what bugs me is that I think of myself as self-sufficient, and their constant care sometimes seems to imply I’m not.  In this case it is I who needs to learn. 

I took some pictures of the resort again, this time with a little more light. 

A nice little swing under the palms trees.

Sanya’s Yalong bay beach after sundown. 

The naval vessel and its lookalike rock out in the bay. 

After the pictures I went to the conference banquet.  It wasn’t my Korean neighbor’s fault I was bored, nor was it the fault of the professor who presented the best paper awards, although he should have had amuch tighter rein on the proceedings.  It was that all I was doing was waiting to sneak out and call Janet on skype.  So I snuck out and despite partially poor connection we got to hear each other and my, was that ever good.  After Janet had to leave for class, I got the added bonus of a short chat with Alain before he leaves for India, which brings me back to my original point: Mannheim Steamroller loves his fudgemaker. 

And, by the way, someone must have stuck a Durian in my minibar fridge.  It reeks.