Alright so I am a bit behind in my blogging as things have been quite hectic here at the WMUTE 2010 conference. Resuming the thread from my last blog post; at one o’clock in the night Didac storms into me and Oskar’s room and enlightens us that it is time for a beer in the bar next to our hotel. We thought that was a rather bad idea, so Didac and Bato went for themselves. After breakfast the following day there was no sign of the two beer lovers and we tried to call them from the reception. The first sign of life from those two that we got was via Facebook, as Didac had written an unforgettable status message somewhere around four in the night. Some time before lunch they finally arrived at the conference venue looking quite weary. It turned out that they had been having a very good time at the bar, involving beer, whiskey and a drunk manager at the bar.

The first “real” day at the conference was a mixture of good and bad, where the highlight for me was to hear a bit of Adam’s work at the COLLIDE group and meeting Hiroaki Ogata’s master students from Tokushima, Japan, for a discussion about possible future collaboration. Later that evening we went downtown to check out a river called the “Love river” and had some Japanese food and a beer or two with Adam. Check the photo below for a wicked dragon statue located just by the love river.

As Didac and Bato were not in a party mood and as four out of five CeLeKToids were presenting the day after we didn’t stay out that late. Back at the hotel we went to bed before midnight if I recall correctly, eager for yet another exciting day in Kaohsiung. I will add more to this blog asap but right now I need to go to bed; I got my presentation tomorrow and I don’t want to mess it up due to lack of sleep. Meanwhile I suggest you check out mine or Oskar’s photostream on Flickr for some awesome photos.

Finally the jet lag is starting to release its grasp from me. When I woke up this morning at 08:30 local time here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, my body was telling me that the time was 02:30, and rightfully so. I can’t say I was very hungry during breakfast, but I managed to squeeze down a bowl of noodle soup and some fry-ups after a while.

The trip to Taiwan was quire okay; after travelling by bus, train, three flights and a taxi for ages, me, Bato and Daniel arrived at the Lees hotel here in Kaohsiung on Sunday evening. After we had located Oskar and Didac, who had arrived a couple of hours earlier, we decided to go for a quick bath at the hotel’s spa facilities. They had this Roman-Taiwanese bath that involved steam bath, sauna and cold bath, which what just what we needed to get back on track. After the bath all five of us went out for a bite at a seafood restaurant a few steps from the hotel. The food was excellent, better than my camera could capture in the photographs below.

After eating we defied our tired eyes and walked aimlessly through the streets of Kaohsiung, ending up at a neat night market. Two of the major findings from this event (see photos below), apart from tons and tons of various unidentifiable (and often living) dishes, fruits and vegetables lined up along the streets were a fashionable popcorn machine and a hilarious attempt to sell a NES console clone. Tired from tons of impressions, we headed back to the hotel for some hours of sleep.

08:30, or rather 02:30 as mentioned in the beginning of my blog post, we managed to get up and have breakfast. As the conference welcome ceremony was scheduled at 15:00 there was plenty of time for some tourism. In 32 degrees celsius (and schorching sun I might add) we paid a visit to the love river, which wasn’t very romantic at noon time to be honest. However, we did find some neat figures lined up along the river (see photographs below).

At 15, we went by mini bus to the conference venue. The event involved good conversations and lots of Asian food; the only thing I missed was beer (although they served delicious ice tea). Looking forward to tomorrows program. Speaking of which, it’s time to get a few hours of sleep now, over and out!