Joining a Delegation of Chinese Journalists

I decided to visit the Technion.  That's Israel's technical university -- engineering, computer science, medicine and (only) a few other things.  There was something I wanted to take a picture of something that would be meaningful only to family members.

So I took the bus (without incident, I might add!).  Of course, it's easy to figure out where to get off when lots of 20-somethings with backpacks all get off in at the same place.  [yes, 20-somethings....Israelis all do military service starting at age 18 -- men for 3 years and women for 2 -- so they're a bit older and presumably wiser when they start college.]

Made my way to the Technion's visitor center.  Got a tour from a Kiwi-Israeli and was able to take my pictures.  Incidentally she also provided me with an English version of the tourist brochure.  Anyway, when we got back to the Visitor Center there was a delegation of Chinese Journalists and I was invited to join them to see a quick film about the Technion.  Sure.  After the film the Vice President of the University spoke (in English).  He was articulate and did a nice job of tailoring his comments to his Chinese audience.  I was supposed to get a tour of the visitor center, but the guide wasn't back so I stayed as engineering professor started talking....about total knee replacements (does that make this trip deductible as a work expense? I suppose not) and I was fascinated.  He then talked about robotic snakes for search and rescue which was also extremely interesting.  At this point the tour guide came to "rescue" me and I assured him that I was pleased to hear these talks so I got to stay til the professor finished.

At this point I joined a three-some from Washington -- neighbors? no, seems they were from DC, and not entirely pleased that my default Washington is the state across the river.  I received a gift of a stamp in honor of the Technion's 100th anniversary earlier this year, something that apparently the DC-ites had asked about so I got lucky.

Then I had the choice of continuing the tour with them or going to the Aerospace Engineering department....so I hopped into the van with the Chinese journalists and got to see a demo of nano-satellite technology that will be launched in 2015 (for satellites, nano=10kg or less). Very cool!

A fine way to spend the morning!