Ramble on the Internet

The first day in conference
October 7th, 2007

It took me 25 minutes to the conference center by foot, but it took me one hour to drive down there. There were two reasons. First, I forgot to note down the name of the conference center I was going to, although I have been guided to there twice last night. No Internet in the flat, so no way to find it out. Apparently he GPS could not help me without a correct destination. Second, I did not know where to park the car on Sunday.

Finally I was there and registered. I spent a bit of time to try to find where I should go. I really wanted to go to the Doctoral Colloquium, although I knew I missed the deadline to register. That’s not always a problem for me. I believe there is no border for science, so I say there is no wall for my attendance to the Doctoral Colloquium. we need to break the rule occasionally. The worst thing happened to me. I couldn’t find the room of Doctoral Colloquium as it was shown on the map I had. I asked the staff working there. They asked me whether I had registered for it. I said I missed the deadline. They told me the Doctoral Colloquium was by invitation only and refused to show me where it was. I gave up. Worst thing sometimes turned out to be not that bad. This disappointment of not being able to attend the colloquium made up my mind that I should do something to improve my sense of direction. This changed my passive attitude towards space navigation I had before. I always believe attitude is the most important thing towards learning. No matter how little I know at this moment, a positive attitude can possibly led me to success. Instead of complaining I could not find my way around, I think I will try hard to work it out in the future.

Lunch time, I went to the printer center to print out the post for tomorrow. I found the STA in the basement of union to apply for an international student card. I suggest students get an international student card rather than a youth card before coming to the US. You could get 15% discount on train tickets. I couldn’t manage to get one before my trip, as I left Oxford around 9am in the morning. Later I didn’t find a STA travel agency in the airport. I had noted down the nearest location of STA in Ann Arbor the night before my department, which I thought it’s very thoughtful of me doing that small note. After traveled almost the half campus, I found it was not easy to describe myself as thoughtful as I thought at all. This note led me to a place where no one had ever heard of STA. A student told me that there was one in the basement of union. I walked all the way back to find it was closed today. Fortunately I passed the Law Department, which was very beautiful. I tried to find a mobile shop and buy a prepaid Sim card. They were all closed.

It was very hot with suits. After stepping into a university shop, I had a University of Michigan T-shirt on and a “M” bag for my laptop. I was such a Michigan-like student.

I went back to the conference center for a afternoon workshop. I kept saying the conference center, because I still didn’t know the name of it. It has a beautiful name I believe. I went to the Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) and Multi-dimensional Data Synchronization workshop. I really liked it. it was really interactive. We had a chance to talked about our own work and asked questions about their software. With the speaker’s permission, I took participant observation notes in this workshop. I hope I could use this for my research later. I was about to record it, but the recorder was out of power! I didn’t know the voltage was different from the UK.

I asked a student where I could buy a Sim card for my mobile phone. She was really kind and drove me to a shopping mall 20 minutes away form the center. I bought a T-mobile Sim card as well as a a memory card.

Because there was no Internet connection in the flat, I stayed in Michigan League building to review what I learned today. I really liked the hall in Michigan League. A big flat TV attracted some students to a glimpse of current news and comfortable sofas elegantly sat around. A big chandelier showed its grandness and different styled lamps brought fashion to this grand hall. Although I had a simple room in the flat, I do believe it was a 5 star treatment to stay in this Michigan League hall for review. After this, I could not be more satisfied with smile.