Visit to Yale University

Hello, I am Zhao Han, a Ph.D. student in the Kawasaki lab. On December 8, Prof. Kawasaki and I traveled from Tokyo to New Haven, Connecticut, USA, to visit our colleagues at Yale University.

Our jet initially touched down in New York, and as we traveled from that city to New Haven, we were able to see Manhattan, the city's busiest port. On the way, coincidentally, Prof. Kawasaki and I also met a Chinese researcher who was going to New Haven with us, this trip was filled with excitement.

We traveled for almost two hours before arriving in New Haven, home to Yale University, a renowned institution of higher learning both domestically and worldwide. It seemed like Yale was everywhere as we got closer to downtown. After a fantastic lunch, we finally met our co-workers Reed, Zach, and Salma from Franch. Reed and Zach then showed us around Yale's beautiful campus. Yale University is the third oldest university in the country and has no gates, making it an open campus. The university's accommodation buildings are quaint and all the buildings are unique and full of humanity. I was most impressed by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the largest building in the world dedicated to the preservation of rare books and manuscripts.

After that, we traveled to a building deep inside Yale University to discuss the status of our research progress. Unlike online meetings, the face-to-face format helped us to better comprehend each other's perspectives. After the discussion, Reed also invited us to try the special potato pizza at Bar Restaurant and super delicious ice cream in downtown New Haven. Here, the pizza was thin and crispy, and the portions were enormous in comparison to other places!

In addition, Newhaven is especially lovely at night, and because it's almost Christmas, everyone is in the holiday spirit. The streets were decorated with choirs, ice-carved reindeer, and all sorts of lights decorating the roads at night. On the last day, it even snowed slowly in New Haven, the first snow I had seen this year. After that, I went to the Yale University Art Gallery, which I had been wanting to see. It had four floors of historical and cultural artifacts from four continents respectively, and entry was free. It is filled with precious ceramics, African sculptures, and paintings from the European Renaissance.

This trip to Yale will always be one of my favorite experiences.