Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2011 Day 1

Seems like my blog only revives during big events! I blog to record my experiences at big events so I have something to refer to when I forget parts of them. I’m at Los Angeles now, taking part in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011. I couldn’t get the Internet until today...

Day 1

I took a 4-hour flight from Singapore to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, and I watched Shaolin (新少林寺) on the plane. The inflight lunch was great but I forgot to photograph it so all I can remember is rice with salmon and vegetables. Hong Kong International Airport was an interesting place; there were mountains all around it.

The airport had a few exhibits on Chinese culture, such as Beijing Opera and Traditional Chinese Medicine. There were high-rise buildings clearly in sight of the airport:

We didn’t spend long there and we soon transferred to our 13-hour flight to LA. Again, the food (dinner) was really good and I started taking food photos:

(From top left and clockwise) Smoked salmon with cucumber and diced potatoes in cream, TimTam chocolate bar, Haagan Dasz vanilla ice-cream, salted peanuts (appetizer before the meal arrived), orange juice, green beans, baked fish, baked potato. The bun is missing because I ate it before remembering to take this photo.

Each seat had a power socket, which impressed me a lot until I tried charging my laptop and it didn’t work. Apparently I was just unlucky because my neighbour’s power socket worked and he was charging two handphones.  I played Metal Slug 3 on my laptop with my project supervisor until the power ran out:

End of Mission 2 (yes I'm the player on the left)

It was really hard to sleep on the plane so I only managed to get a couple of hours of sleep until I left off. In the meantime I watched Green Hortet and Inglorius Basterds. In a few hours came Brunch:

Omelette with baked beans, potatoes, sausages, bacon and crossiant (read items have been eaten before the picture was taken)

I noticed a really nice pattern on the lower half of their cups:

Right before landing, the in-flight entertainment system had some problem and had to be rebooted. We found out that the system used Linux:

We landed at about 1pm in Los Angeles, and we took a bus to Figueroa Hotel. We passed by the Los Angeles Convention Center, where ISEF 2011 would be held.

We got to Hotel Figueroa, which supposedly has a Moroccan theme. We also found to our dismay that internet came at USD$5 per 24 hour period...

Team Singapore went for early registration at Los Angeles Convention Center, where we received our Finalist lanyard. If it was misplaced, we'd have to pay USD$200 to replace it!

They always miss out the second word in the first name... >.<

My supervisor and I in front of the entrance to the contest area, Tom Bradley Exhibition Hall.

As we went for dinner, we saw a few interesting sights. L.A. has mainly low-rise buildings and humongous signboards, while Singapore has high-rise buildings (think HDB) and tiny signboards. We also caught this on the streets:

So many screens showing the same scene - see if you can spot the real screens and their reflections!

We had dinner at the "Original Pantry Cafe":

Huge hunk of bread with butter - really nice :)

Coleslaw. It had black pepper in it, is that supposed to be the norm?

Fish and Chips - my order (and almost everyone else's). The portion was extremely large and all of us except one adult could finish what we ordered.

What my table looked like after we couldn't shovel down any more.

And that concludes Day 1.