Work, work, work
The last few days have been packed full of lectures, workshops and eating. The program is turning out to be pretty intensive, but I flew half way around the world to get here, so I guess that makes sense.
Today we had two workshops. The first was a basic ecological footprint calculator, which we ran in a bit more detail. It was interesting/depressing. If you are a fan of irony, you may be interested to know that simply flying to attend this conference on sustainability has increased my energy consumption for 2007-2008 by 50%. I guess I'd better actually do some good when I get home, or something.
The second workshop was on life cycle product design. We designed a chair. It was pretty sweet.
Yesterday, we had a creative thinking exercise where we had to design a board game, which was amazing, since it turned my dorky obsession with games into useful experience. My group's game kicked ass. It involved building up your society by investing in different types of power generation, while also trying not to destroy the environment that provides you with resources. And every once in a while, a nuclear plant explodes.
Last night, a few of us went down to Lawson (the local convenience store) and picked up a few beers to relax after a 12 hour day. Over drinks, I learned a lot more about my roommate Ashik, who leads the craziest life in Nepal. He's doing his masters in development studies, and his research is focusing on conflict in Nepal between the traditional kingdom and Maoist rebels. One of his research sessions involved hiking for hours into the Nepalese wilderness to meet with the commander of the rebel forces. The commander cooked him dinner and told him about his plans to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in Nepal. Apparently most rural Nepalese know that communism means "crushing the bourgeoisie", but significantly fewer of them can define the word "bourgeoisie". Also, according to my source, the commander of Nepal's Maoist rebels is a terrible cook.
Tomorrow, we're headed back into Tokyo proper for some sightseeing and a tour of some Japanese companies that deal in material reuse and recycling. Should be interesting. On Sunday, we're headed to Mount Fuji for 4 days to hike around, eat sushi, soak in hot springs and talk some more about how to save the world. Life is good.
Today we had two workshops. The first was a basic ecological footprint calculator, which we ran in a bit more detail. It was interesting/depressing. If you are a fan of irony, you may be interested to know that simply flying to attend this conference on sustainability has increased my energy consumption for 2007-2008 by 50%. I guess I'd better actually do some good when I get home, or something.
The second workshop was on life cycle product design. We designed a chair. It was pretty sweet.
Yesterday, we had a creative thinking exercise where we had to design a board game, which was amazing, since it turned my dorky obsession with games into useful experience. My group's game kicked ass. It involved building up your society by investing in different types of power generation, while also trying not to destroy the environment that provides you with resources. And every once in a while, a nuclear plant explodes.
Last night, a few of us went down to Lawson (the local convenience store) and picked up a few beers to relax after a 12 hour day. Over drinks, I learned a lot more about my roommate Ashik, who leads the craziest life in Nepal. He's doing his masters in development studies, and his research is focusing on conflict in Nepal between the traditional kingdom and Maoist rebels. One of his research sessions involved hiking for hours into the Nepalese wilderness to meet with the commander of the rebel forces. The commander cooked him dinner and told him about his plans to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in Nepal. Apparently most rural Nepalese know that communism means "crushing the bourgeoisie", but significantly fewer of them can define the word "bourgeoisie". Also, according to my source, the commander of Nepal's Maoist rebels is a terrible cook.
Tomorrow, we're headed back into Tokyo proper for some sightseeing and a tour of some Japanese companies that deal in material reuse and recycling. Should be interesting. On Sunday, we're headed to Mount Fuji for 4 days to hike around, eat sushi, soak in hot springs and talk some more about how to save the world. Life is good.
posted by Bryce at
6:30 AM
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