Lunch was different today but very good. I had a spicy (relatively speaking) stir fry with sweet onions and chicken and bok choy on the side with rice.
This afternoon was productive as well. I set up stuff for the autoclave, then worked with Yulan on starting a electrophoresis to see if the bacteria had acquired the genes. We also transformed some bacteria. I got to fill one of the cuvettes and run it as well. 5 o'clock came quickly today! As I left for the day, I stopped by Dr. Cheng's office to ask whether we could talk about me getting data from her in the morning. She said that was fine so I have an appointment with her in the morn.
I left the building and walked quickly to the closest grocery store. I decided to take a new and "shorter" route but ran into some cast iron fencing right where I needed to go and so I had to turn around and head back out. I got back on the right track though and made it to the store only to find that the lines were VERY long. This was annoying so I turned right back around and headed back to my dorm room to grab stuff for swimming. I spent ten minutes in my room before leaving to go to the pool.
Swimming was great: I did 4000 meters although I was not really feeling it today. I think that it was because of my night of little sleep, fighting that clicking AC unit. I did 1000 warm-up, 1000 free fast, 500 breast, 500 back, and 1000 miscellaneous. When I finished, I visited with a guy who was from the food science part of the CAAS and told him about my Borlaug-Ruan internship. He wondered whether I swam every day in the USA and how long I would be here. He relayed this information to the person that I think really wanted to know - the older lifeguard. Most of the lifeguards and the people who work the pool really like me for some reason. They all say hello and goodbye to me and mostly are happy when they see me. It is good to have friends there, even if I cannot verbally communicate with them. The old lifeguard sits on a chair at the front of the pool and always nods at me and smiles: it is a warming gesture. I pretty much had my own lane the entire time tonight which was also pretty dang nice.
After swimming I walked back to the dorm area then left to go out to eat. I walked out the north gate and through one of the parking garage type gates (gates to prevent cars from going where they are not supposed to) and went to the "road" that the yellow restaurant is on. I ran into the same African guys at the same restaurant and enjoyed a meal with them. I first ate their leftovers (with their permission, of course) and then ordered my own food. I listened and talked with them while they drank and I ate. I had lamb ka-bobs and chicken gizzards on a stick (yummy); I also had a plate of fried rice.
The waiter tonight did not bring me chopsticks instead she brought me a spoon which was the awesome. It was the first time that I had eaten with spoon in 16 days. I did not even ask for the spoon yet she brought one to me. The guys said that the waitress was one of the ones who would try to speak English.
We had interesting conversation about the sports that the Chinese watch and how they asked about the NBA constantly. We also talked about the prices of things here compared to other places. One of the guys who had just graduated with his doctorate is going home on the 10th. He plans to go to one of the southern provinces to buy some stuff to send back to his home in Africa. He says it is cheaper to buy here and ship then to buy there. We meandered back to the dorm, I said good night to them, and I am now headed to bed. I did manage to buy another watermelon as I have devoured the previous one.
lunch
showing how to use camera
me! not a very good photo at that 
ditto
Rice with spoon at dinner (my first utensil in 16 days!) I forgot to take a photo of the lamb and gizzard Ka-bobs.
