The US Trip '98

Though in Singapore it was still green everywhere (as always, and always will be), it was the "Golden" season in the States. It was Autumn, the Golden Autumn. I went for a conference in Rosemont, Illinois, near Chicago. The time was October, 1998. The duration was short: only two days more than a week. But the experience was quite interesting, some maybe even entertaining, maybe fun to share, with friends and family, or to recall when years pass by in the future.

Not Really Fond of Long Distance Travel

When I was in college, I hated long distance train rides: from my home in Chongqing to Northeastern University in Shenyang, it took two days and nights to reach Beijing to do a transfer before spending another night on the train to get to Shenyang. So, I was not fond of long distance travel. Most important part of the reason was that I always had to take a hard seat, the most economic class, where more often than not, the car was crowded, sometimes so squished that it was next to impossible to push to the toilet. You had to sit, all the time. I wished I was able to fly.

That was almost twenty years ago. Now I can fly, I mean, can afford to fly. Sometime even paid for, like this one. But I hate it. I mean the long distance ones, like from Singapore to Chicago, for which the total air born time is almost 20 hours (6 from Singapore to Tokyo and 13 from Tokyo to Chicago). Plus the transfer time, that alone can easily get to 3 to 5 hours depending on luck, it can really wear you down --- of course I'm talking about economy class where seats are small and narrow thus you feel you are oversized, maybe you need to go on diet or attend some kind of aerobic class, and the rows are closely packed so you're always reminded that your legs are also too long...

My recent trip to Chicago "refreshed" my memory of such experience. I felt that I was squeezed, maybe, as in a fighter plane pictured here. I really wished I were in the first class -- for nothing else but be able to stretch my legs. I noticed even in the economy class you could still realize that, I mean, stretching your legs: by sitting right in front of the emergency exits. I decided those are the best seats, and you don't have pay a penny more. I decided to book my return trip early to request a seat at the exit-row. So that was what I did. The lady at the check in counter was very nice, friendly, checked me in all the way though, including the transfer at Tokyo. I thanked her dearly, of course. Boy, now at least on my way home my legs could relax a little, I said to myself, feeling relieved. I got on the plane and happily looked for my "first class" seat in the economy section. To my surprise, the seat was already taken. "Hey, how could you take my seat, lady?" I thought. Just about to ask when I noticed that my row number was immediately behind her! Oh, my Goodness, the lady at the check-in counter failed her primary school math!

So, again, the long distance effect further reinforced. Well, actually, to be true to myself, I think what I hated wasn't the distance, but "in economy" L I bet if you put me in first class I wouldn't mind distance at all. J

 

The US Was In Recession Or The Southeast Asia?

The trip was to attend the 12th International Conference on Surface Modification Technologies held in Rosemont, Illinois during 12-15 October 1998. Rosemont is a tiny village five minutes drive from the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, population only 4,300. The town was built up only in 1950's on a vacant land by 84 pioneering residents, and soon turned into a convention village: really, nothing else but hotels plus hotels and plus hotels surrounding a huge convention center. The hotel was beautiful, but the eating was expensive: basically you had to eat in hotel restaurants, where just a cup of milk cost $2.15, and a simple lunch $15 and a simple dinner $25, and you had to tip. We were talking about US dollars. Times 1.63, spending S$25 for a simple lunch really made you think of the word "rip off".

Another strange thing was that no lunches catered. Maybe these guys organized too many conferences, thus getting too tired to cater for conference lunches. The registration fee did not become cheaper than others: US$495, not cheap at all. No bags to hold the conference materials. Well, there was one, but plastic. Like the grocery store kind. The handle was easily broken. Even more outrageous was that not even coffee for all the participants: the authors were given a special ribbon to stick to their name tags, thus allowed to enter the "Author's Coffee" for coffee and snacks. All other attendants were treated only to cold water at the door. I thought Southeast Asia was in recession, how come it looked like the US was even worse?

Heaven's Special Treat At Chicago

Besides the outrageous food price, I didn't like Rosemont also because virtually nothing to see, nowhere to go when no meeting was in session. The closest city was Chicago, about 30 minutes by train from Rosemont, where we used to drive from Madison to shop its Chinatown every other week. Once we even drove three hours all the way from Madison just to eat the Chinatown's beef noodle. That was the time Sheila was just with James. When women are in those conditions, whatever they want, they must have. Thank God she didn't want to eat snake soup!

So Chicago to me was too familiar to visit again. But nowhere else to go, finally I decided to drop by and say a hello to this "old-pal" of mine. Almost eight years passed, everything was the same. The big water fountain at the lake side was all the same beautiful. And even better: a moment after I arrived there, a rainbow appeared across the water fountain, formed in the water droplets/vapors from the fountain water shooting up into the sky, and shone by the Sun light at just the right angle.

Of course, I quickly pressed the shuttle. I liked the pictures. Maybe it was the heaven's special treat. After all, I came all the way from Singapore!

Old-Pal's Reunion

It happened that immediately after the conference it was a weekend, and the following Monday was Singapore's public holiday: the Deepavali, or New Year for Indians, like Lunar new year for Chinese. Thus I made use of the weekend to have a small old-pal-reunion in St. Louis, about 300 miles south of Chicago.

Here they are, Keming and Jian seeing me off at the St. Louis Airport. Our friendship began in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, some ten years ago. Keming was in biology, Jian was in nuclear energy and I was in materials. All Sichuan folks. Believe or not, just a few days before my conference, Keming was still in San Francisco. Then, his family moved to St. Louis, five minutes drive from Jian's. See, it must be heaven's will for us to meet again. I planned to drive down, but 300 miles driving alone would be too boring, wouldn't it? I flew instead. Short distance, not even an hour by air. After all, it was only US$180 a round trip. So we had a reunion, one that couldn't come often, and couldn't come easily. I was more than five years ago last time we met, in April 1993, when I was en route to Cincinnati for a the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society.

St. Louis is a quiet city by the Mississippi, where Mark Twin's story about Tom Sawyer took place. The most famous landmark is the 630 feet tall steel arch overlooking the Mississippi and the State of Illinois across the river. Built in the 50's, the arch is more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. Visitors can take the cage-like elevator to go up to the top and have a birds-eye view of the both cities by the river. Of course I went up. It was fun. And I also took a boat-ride on board Tom Sawyer on the Mississippi. A picture taken of the arch on board the boat looks great. My daughter said it looks like a post card. What do you think?

Finally I'd like to highlight the memorable yet incomplete "family" photo with the Song's and the Tang's. Keming's parents were there again from Leshan. Aunty was there when I last visited the Song's. Now she came again with Keming's father. Jane, of Jessica's age, grew into such a big girl that I would not be able to recognize if ever meet in streets. Wilbur was "grown" up also, comparing we last met 5 years ago in Indianapolis. Luke was Keming's 3rd born, "a gift from the God that you can not refuse", as Keming recalled. Jian and Jing look the same as we last met in Madison, April 1993. Their lovely daughter Ranny was born a pianist, I bet, whose piano debut left me deep impression. My friends in Singapore agreed with me after watching her video I recorded. Jian's second daughter, the cute little Tracy, was very different from her sister Ranny. She's always energetic, swift, merry. The reunion was great, but not without regret: The most regretful was that the hostess was missing: Keliang was still in San Francisco finishing up her job there before she could join the family in one or two month time. Without the hostess, the "family" photo is never complete. That was a pity.