The Nineteenth Day

The AQI (air quality index) was 300 this morning. This is the highest that it has been since I have been here. I went down and boiled eggs for breakfast and to have for other meals/snacks. The AQI climbed up into the hazardous range today - at 309 right now. I can barely see the building next to me.

This morning was went well apart from dealing with the extremely poor air quality - I wore my mask outside for the first time. Once at the lab, I packaged some pipette tips and then prepared medium to grow the knockout fungus with the agrobacteria. Today I definitely witness some interesting things. Wendy took the melted ice water and poured it into his turtle tank, and Mister Chi was sterilizing some mortar and pestles and did so by lighting a small bonfire in the middle of the lab.

Lunch was a stir fry with veggies, chicken and mushrooms, and a dish that had bean sprouts and eggs. I really like the bean sprouts here. I talked to Will for the first time in a long while; it was good to hear from him.  At 100 the air went down into the purple range, down about 30 points.

The AQI has dropped since this afternoon - it is now about 217. Apart from that, this afternoon was good. I worked with Yulan, and we started some fungus cultures with the agrobacteria and also started some modified E. coli flasks to grow.  I broke a bottle containing the glass beads that are used to stir things but all was good. I talked a bunch with everyone - I started learning the words for the Chinese numbers and told them about Gig 'em Aggies...that one took some explanation. I learned a ton and laughed a ton as well! The gels that I made were satisfactory, and I got to put in some DNA samples to run. I need to be sure to pay more attention tomorrow to what we are actually doing as opposed to just going through the motions. As a diversion, I made a "snowman", or at least an ice man. It was very funny.

I will be going to the Great Wall on Saturday, hopefully the air will be clear. On Tuesday I am going to the research station that is 80 km away in Lang Fang City with Mr. Pan. I am looking forward to both of these excursions.  I had a good day so far and am settling in to a routine with everyone.

I washed some shorts and played ukulele for a few minutes then walked to the Sesh Wan place (which I know I spell differently every time I type it) and had soybeans, boiled peanuts, and chicken gizzards. I thought that I was ordering the lamb but they were chicken gizzards. Oh well, they were great either way. Hopefully I will be able to make some of them at home when we get chickens again. While sitting there I watch entire families go by on mopeds. They would have the father driving, the kid either in between the mom and the dad or in front of the dad. I marveled at the efficiency of this compared to the way that Americans travel relatively short distances (<5 kilometers)... an American would family would get into a huge vehicle and use more gas. The AQI is steady at about 200 right now which is way better than this morning.

 Lunch

 Watermelon time

 putting samples into the gels

I made an iceman

Danger, made in China