The past months have been filled with a lot of flying, building acoustics and a lot of holiday. At the beginning of December, I flew to Honolulu where I attended the 2006 Internoise, a conference for noise and vibration. As with other Inter-noise conferences that I have attended in the past, there were some interesting presentations such as one where a man from the US presented a noise study that he performed on a shower in a bathroom that he was renovating. Seriously, it was really interesting because he showed that by resiliently mounting the pipes, he could prevent the vibration of the pipe from the flowing water from being transmitted to the wooden studs from where it was transmitted to the wallboard where it was radiated as noise. He reduced the noise in the master bedroom by 40 dB which is a huge decrease for such a simple solution. The presentations were good, but more important to me this year was the chance to meet others who are working in my area of building acoustics. In this regard, the conference was a huge success because I met people from all over the world who have worked in my area of research in the past or who are currently interested in my area of research. A lot of people were really supportive and I got offers of help by reviewing my data once I have some or offers to share their own data. I am continuously surprised by how much how much enthusiasm there is for my research and I haven’t done anything yet.
During one of the cocktail hours, I met several students who had attended the Technical University of Denmark and once again, my degree from that school opened all sorts of doors as far as friends that I made at the conference. I even ran into a friend from Denmark on the street in Waikiki who was there for another acoustics conference which was held the week prior to Internoise. I also met a man from the Sierra Club who attended the conference to gain a better understanding of annoyance by noise as part of a campaign to limit the number of small aircraft allowed to over fly the Grand Canyon at any one time. But one of the most unexpected outcomes of the conference was an interview of sorts at a building acoustics firm in Boston for which I have always wanted to work. The meeting at the company came about when after speaking with one of the directors at the conference, he invited me to stop by the office to meet people and to see what it was all about. So after I flew to Boston after Honolulu, I took him up on his offer.
Hawaii is a really neat place. Smoking is banned from all public buildings and flights into the state are required to separate their trash and recyclables for disposal. Waikiki is more built up than I expected and was a mecca for tourists, particularly Japanese tourists. Menus or signs in Japanese were common and there were even special buses to shuttle the Japanese tourists to the souvenir shops that catered to the tourists. Waikiki is nice but I would have really liked to have seen more of the islands. One person I met arrived several days early for the conference so that he could hike on one of the islands. Unfortunately, my time in Hawaii was mostly work and so I didn’t get to explore much more than hiking about Waikiki the day after my arrival. Being able to pay attention to presentation after presentation all day while still having energy to meet people required good nights of sleep. I had always wanted to go to Volcano Park if I were ever in Hawaii, but unfortunately, that will have to wait for my next trip to Hawaii. But, with round trip tickets from Boston to Honolulu costing only $400 on United, I may be able to go again someday.
My stay in the US was both long and fast at the same time. It was nice to be back for the holidays to visit with family and friends, especially since I may not be back in the US for some time.
On January 3, 2007 I began the trip back to New Zealand, accompanied by my friend Sue who will be visiting for the next month. Sue has joined in travels to Easter Island, the Galapagos, Eastern Europe, Denmark, etc and was naturally the first to come to visit. I have not flown that much so I don’t know how often this happens, but my nap on the first flight from Boston to LA was interrupted when the stewardess made an announcement over the intercom asking if there were any doctors or nurses on the flight. It turned out that the woman two seats behind me was having trouble and fortunately there was a doctor on board. The doctor conferred with the stewardess who was standing next to my seat and told the stewardess to inform the captain that an emergency landing might be necessary. The captain decided to not take the risk and to make the landing in Chicago which is to his credit. The unscheduled landing would cost United in fuel costs, time and missed connections but these are small costs to save a life. What is odd is that we turned around to fly back to Chicago rather than going to another city such as Madison which was more on our route. Maybe it was because there were ample United gates in Chicago which is one of United’s hubs. After a hard landing (so hard that the airline required the plane to be inspected for damage which delayed our departure), we pulled up to the gate and were met by an ambulance. The paramedics took the woman off the plane and we were free to then continue on our journey. However, first the inspection had to take place, a new flight plan submitted, etc which delayed our departure long enough that Sue and I would miss our connections. I called United and they told us that there was a later flight to Honolulu and they booked us on that. Unfortunately, we would miss going into Honolulu for dinner during our layover, but fortunately, the later flight was not full and we had ample room to spread out for the five hour flight.
Sue and I rented a car to make a large tour of both the South and the North islands. We rented the car in Christchurch and as part of a repositioning of the rental company’s cars, they included a free ferry crossing for the car if we returned it in Auckland. We still needed to pay for ourselves on the ferry which is expensive, but less expensive than flying. Our travels included fiords, hiking on glaciers, hiking into active volcanoes, kayaking (an unintentional swimming), and all sorts of fun. It is amazing that you can go from walking on ice to walking on brimstone in such a short distance. There are lots of stories to be told and they will be coming in future emails.
During one of the cocktail hours, I met several students who had attended the Technical University of Denmark and once again, my degree from that school opened all sorts of doors as far as friends that I made at the conference. I even ran into a friend from Denmark on the street in Waikiki who was there for another acoustics conference which was held the week prior to Internoise. I also met a man from the Sierra Club who attended the conference to gain a better understanding of annoyance by noise as part of a campaign to limit the number of small aircraft allowed to over fly the Grand Canyon at any one time. But one of the most unexpected outcomes of the conference was an interview of sorts at a building acoustics firm in Boston for which I have always wanted to work. The meeting at the company came about when after speaking with one of the directors at the conference, he invited me to stop by the office to meet people and to see what it was all about. So after I flew to Boston after Honolulu, I took him up on his offer.
Hawaii is a really neat place. Smoking is banned from all public buildings and flights into the state are required to separate their trash and recyclables for disposal. Waikiki is more built up than I expected and was a mecca for tourists, particularly Japanese tourists. Menus or signs in Japanese were common and there were even special buses to shuttle the Japanese tourists to the souvenir shops that catered to the tourists. Waikiki is nice but I would have really liked to have seen more of the islands. One person I met arrived several days early for the conference so that he could hike on one of the islands. Unfortunately, my time in Hawaii was mostly work and so I didn’t get to explore much more than hiking about Waikiki the day after my arrival. Being able to pay attention to presentation after presentation all day while still having energy to meet people required good nights of sleep. I had always wanted to go to Volcano Park if I were ever in Hawaii, but unfortunately, that will have to wait for my next trip to Hawaii. But, with round trip tickets from Boston to Honolulu costing only $400 on United, I may be able to go again someday.
My stay in the US was both long and fast at the same time. It was nice to be back for the holidays to visit with family and friends, especially since I may not be back in the US for some time.
On January 3, 2007 I began the trip back to New Zealand, accompanied by my friend Sue who will be visiting for the next month. Sue has joined in travels to Easter Island, the Galapagos, Eastern Europe, Denmark, etc and was naturally the first to come to visit. I have not flown that much so I don’t know how often this happens, but my nap on the first flight from Boston to LA was interrupted when the stewardess made an announcement over the intercom asking if there were any doctors or nurses on the flight. It turned out that the woman two seats behind me was having trouble and fortunately there was a doctor on board. The doctor conferred with the stewardess who was standing next to my seat and told the stewardess to inform the captain that an emergency landing might be necessary. The captain decided to not take the risk and to make the landing in Chicago which is to his credit. The unscheduled landing would cost United in fuel costs, time and missed connections but these are small costs to save a life. What is odd is that we turned around to fly back to Chicago rather than going to another city such as Madison which was more on our route. Maybe it was because there were ample United gates in Chicago which is one of United’s hubs. After a hard landing (so hard that the airline required the plane to be inspected for damage which delayed our departure), we pulled up to the gate and were met by an ambulance. The paramedics took the woman off the plane and we were free to then continue on our journey. However, first the inspection had to take place, a new flight plan submitted, etc which delayed our departure long enough that Sue and I would miss our connections. I called United and they told us that there was a later flight to Honolulu and they booked us on that. Unfortunately, we would miss going into Honolulu for dinner during our layover, but fortunately, the later flight was not full and we had ample room to spread out for the five hour flight.
Sue and I rented a car to make a large tour of both the South and the North islands. We rented the car in Christchurch and as part of a repositioning of the rental company’s cars, they included a free ferry crossing for the car if we returned it in Auckland. We still needed to pay for ourselves on the ferry which is expensive, but less expensive than flying. Our travels included fiords, hiking on glaciers, hiking into active volcanoes, kayaking (an unintentional swimming), and all sorts of fun. It is amazing that you can go from walking on ice to walking on brimstone in such a short distance. There are lots of stories to be told and they will be coming in future emails.
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