The Thirtieth Day

I got up this morning at 700 and had yogurt, peaches, PB&H, and a banana for breakfast. It was great for this morning. I was still tired though. The people outside are still doing the hammering or whatever it is they are doing, I still have not figured that out. I talked to Mom which always lifts my spirits - even though we don't chat about anything major. I got occupied doing something on the computer and was about seven minutes late to work, but it all was fine.  I am normally one of the earliest there, not to mention that we have no set starting time.

I started to work on what Yulan gave me to do (remember, she is gone for the next three days). I sterilized the seeds and got medium ready in petri dishes. I did this alone - my first solo science assignment. I think I managed pretty well.  At 1130, Pimpan came in and everyone, including Tony who was here for the day, left to go to lunch. We went to the fancy place below my window. It was definitely acceptable, although I like the Sesh Wan place better. There were tons of different dishes to try. I had frog for the first time today. It was pretty good although for the most part food was too hot to taste (too hot from a temperature standpoint). The dishes all came out steaming hot.  Once the food cooled down, it was fine (I was just impatient). There was a duck, chicken, beef, pork, soups, tofu, vegetables and the chrysanthemum tea that was really good. The others at the table were drinking toasts to Pimpan and Leo. Both of them got very, very red and embarrassed.  At about 100 we headed back to the lab.

At the lab, I planted the seeds and put them into the growing chamber. Wendy said that I may have put too much water in with them, but we will see. Hopefully they will sprout well. After that I helped clean out the chest freezer in the lab and then left for the day. I had finished everything that I was supposed to do for Yulan so tomorrow I may tag along with another person. I talked to Mr. Pan about the swimming situation, and he said that he would check for me about another pool.

I practiced guitar until 6 then went for a run. I ran for about 20 minutes so a 2.5-3 miles run. I then came back, stretched and did abs. I really wanted bland food for dinner so I had planned to go for watermelon and yogurt. I had a ton of salty food at the big lunch.

I went down to see if the Bangladeshi Family was in, they were not, so I walked around the area for a while. I ran into Vincent and another guy coming back from dinner and said hello, then kept on walking. ON the return trip, I ran into Samess and Daggi, Samess was the roommate of the African that just returned home - the one in the photo with me. Daggi was someone that I met on the first day here but had forgotten about. I went to dinner with them. I ordered what I thought was roasted tofu, but turned out to be toasted rice bread. It was okay but not what I wanted. I dipped it into Daggi's liquid portion of his noodle soup.  Daggi works with meat. And I forget if I mentioned this, but Samess works with economics. I had a good time talking to them. They told me about a Brazilian food buffet that was nearby and quite good. I will be going there one of these days. There are a ton of restaurants that I need to go try before I leave.

After eating, we headed back to the dorms. I bought some peaches and then ate some watermelon.
Sorry no photos tonight. not enough activity to warrant photojournaling today.

Good night and God bless.

Bonus photo from an event I took part in before I left for China - Food Challenge at Texas 4-H State Round-up.  And though our team didn't win, we still had a lot of fun and learned a lot of food and teamwork.