Up this morning at 730, kinda late I know. I downed my typical morning fare of peaches and yogurt for breakfast and talked to the family before heading out for the lab. This morning we actually were engaged in work for most of the time. We started off by preparing the DNA samples we took yesterday for PCR-ing and got them started. I then discussed with Yulan about how the original vectors were made for transferring to E. coli. We went up and water plants on the 6th floor and transplanted some. Yulan is not happy with this as she needs the wild tobacco to grow faster then they are; she has to wait for it to get old enough. Afterwards, I went to water the materials in Dr. Cheng's area where I ran into Dr. Cheng and someone new. It seems that we have another intern now. Her English name is Faith, and she is a junior at one of the colleges around here I think. She will be working with me and Yulan. We unloaded the autoclave and loaded it back up again, and I watched Yulan make primers for a while before one of the peeps called me over to talk about Taiwan. Again. Yippee.
She tried to akin the Taiwan/China situation to the situation where the mainland USA is not connected to Alaska but Alaska is still part of the USA. She did not seem to understand that that was a rather different scenario as the people in Alaska want to be part of the USA... I also tried to explain some other stuff to her before Wendy got involved. He tried to gave me an example where there are a ton of Chinese in LA so if LA wants to be a part of China then they should be able to secede and be part of China... At this I laughed at him and told him that he does not seem to know how a democracy works and that in order for this to happen all of those Chinese would have to vote and therefore be American citizens. I do not see how this supported his theory that Taiwan is part of China. I also brought up my point of "who here comes from a country with no censorship?" That would be me.
By this time, Faith got involved. She told Wendy that most Americans believe as such and then made Wendy give up trying to argue the point, I think, because he left and Faith and I started talking. She told me about the way that the government here tells its people things to make them believe stuff. Also that it happens in Japan as well but not to the same extent. She knew about Tienanmen Square in 1989 and told me some other interested tidbits. Her sister is a person who does the censorship for the government, and she basically uses the same thing that I use - a VPN in order to get news that is not censored. After this we talked for a few minutes about it before I took the samples out of the PCR machine and went to lunch. At lunch I told her about Frisbee, and she wants to come. She plays a lot of tennis and likes to play sports
This afternoon was pretty good. We started by getting some more materials ready to PCR. I got to do my first batch in terms of that. I made some gels and ground a lot of samples with the N2. It was a very busy afternoon with most of the same stuff. I accidentally left one of Wendy's pipettes on a lab bench, not at its maximum level (so not ready for him). I think that I know how to deal with him now. Just say ok, sorry and then walk away. Otherwise, he will try to tell me the reason (that I already know) in very disjointed English and then think that he is doing me a favor. I am not a grande fan of Wendy, nor he of me.
I was grinding samples until about 530 at which point I left to go and throw the frisbee. Everyone coming from the lab canceled on me, and when I check in Silvio's room he was not there. So I went alone and got there at about 615. I saw Samess on the way out. Once there at the field I stood for a second and then started pointing with the frisbee at the people sitting around the area. I got a throwing party going and threw for about 2 hours. I nailed one girl who was sitting at the edge of the field (oops), and I hit another girl in the face with the frisbee as it went through her hands (not really my fault but I did make the throw). The last 30 minutes I threw with a group of three ladies. It was rather good not to have to run for those few minutes.
At 830 I headed out. While I was walking through the area that I had planned to get food, I found that none of the stores were open. It seems that what those places do is not supposed to be legal, I guess, as the police officers were confiscating things. I think they had a large truck that they were loading things up on. At that, I decided to make eggs and toast at the dorm. The meal was more than satisfying. I think that after swimming tomorrow, I will try to go eat and then get some mushrooms to saute in butter as a snack... yum, yum.
I said "hey" to Silvio as well when I came in and asked him his plans. He may come swim with me tomorrow, but we will see. I am still mystified as to what happened at all those restaurants -- I hope that I will still be able to go eat.
Good night and God bless.
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