Elevator

The elevator in this building allows for passengers to "cancel" a request. There had been several instances prior where, for example, Sergiu leaned against the panel and accidentally pressed 5 buttons, and either the student or the secretary with us would keep pressing the lit buttons until they go off.

So today we asked the elevator lady (yes, they have a driver for the elevator car in the morning and afternoon rush hours), and, indeed, this behaviour is programmed in. If you hit a lit button twice consequetively within a short period of time, the signal to cancel the stop request is supposed to be sent to the elevator computer.

For a while I wondered why anyone could even think of programming a cancel mechanism in elevators. Then I remembered that when I was a young one in Taiwan, a lot of the kids liked to play a prank by pressing all the buttons in the elevator. Suddenly this invention makes a lot more sense to me.

Badminton

I spent lots of time talking to this one kid in the class we teach. He is an avid ping-pong player. After learning that I play badminton, he told one of his friends, and I got invited to their game tonight.

On average, the Chinese students at Peking University play much better than the students at Princeton. My host is rather good also: he is at least one whole level beyond my abilities.

The big problem for me, however, is that I couldn't run. Not that I am out of shape... well, I am a bit, but that was not actually the main reason for my bad mobility today. The floor was really dusty, and slippery. On the one hand, it is great that the university has a dedicated facility for badminton, on the other, it is kind of sucky that it looks as if it hasn't been mopped in weeks. I spent more effort trying to stay on my foot and not fall on my behind than actually running. Worse yet, once I got onto the court, I realized that it might have been a bad idea to try to play badminton one day after climbing Xiang Shan (again). Yesterday we went mountain climbing: this time Pin came too. There were seven of us, so Sergiu, Pin, and I rode a taxi there. On the way back, the five of them (including Sergiu's family) somehow squeezed into the car, so Pin and I took a bus back--and stood for another hour. I couldn't feel the tension when walking and warming up. But once I really try to run and jump, I realize that my quads were extremely tight.

But hey, exercising is good.

Thinking back, I really, really miss the wonderful badminton facilities that I played in when I was in Taiwan.