Beijing, China. What's Happening to Me: The Thirty-Fourth Day

Up at 700 this morning had yogurt and a jujube bar for breakfast. I went into work at 800 after reading some about the Temple of Heaven, which I will probably go to tomorrow. Yulan was back. She got back at 1200 last night and so she was very tired. We talked. It turns out that I screwed up when doing the planting; I put too many seeds into the dishes and too much water. It was okay though. We spent the morning talking about the transforming of the fungus and how that happens. They co-cultivate the fungus and transformed agrobacteria and then test it to see whether the gene was picked up or not. After that, they observe it and infect a tobacco plant and observe that. I will have a lot of information to put in the paper I believe.

Yulan told me a little about the camp. They spent some time planting rice which I did not get why they were doing that, and that was all the information I got out of her. Very short conversation.

For the planting this morning, we got some medium melted and dished out with antibiotic and cleaned seeds. We will plant them this afternoon. Lunch was pretty good - the bok choy was not what I was expecting though. I had a real stir fry today, not just a mound of tofu.

This afternoon was pretty light on the work end. We planted seeds in the medium for a little while; until about 330, and then I played solitaire until about 415. Then I left and went down to Ben's lab and sat with him and listened to him talk about things. The conversation centered on topics that I was actually interested in today so that was a plus. While we were talking, Ghana, one of the people in his lab from Sudan, came in and was talking to us. He said that someone working with sorghum at TAMU did some research on drought resistance and that he had read about it and used the findings, I suppose. We never figured out who he/she was though but most likely, he/she was one of my Dad's students or someone closely related to the program. He told me about the ways that they use sorghum; how they make a drink out of it that I need to try and the bread that they make. They make a thing similar to injera from Ethiopia. It is called kisra, and it looks like we could make it at home if we tried to. The recipes are online I believe. I told Ghana that I would love to learn to cook from his wife and learn about the Sudanese foods so hopefully he will invite me to come and cook. Same as the Bangladeshi family.

After talking to the peeps in the lab we headed out, Ben, Young and I. We ate at a fish place. The fish was not as good as the one that I had had with the African guys on Wednesday, but it was still very good. After that we stopped by the restroom behind the store and then headed to Renmin to go to English Corner. Oh, and speaking of restrooms I made one of the urinals overflow because I "went" for so long that it flushed 4 times. It was rather annoying. On the way there, Young told me that one of the women in the lab commented that I was rather handsome. Ben was rather angry about that one.

At English corner, it was rather fun. (Remember - this is where the Chinese students come to practice their English with one another). I talked and talked. I met a guy who is applying for TAMU PHD program in hydrology. I gave him my email so that he could get in contact with me and so that I could help him while he is at TAMU (should he get chosen for the PHD program there). It was great. I talked a ton. One guy really wanted to know about the casino system and gambling in Texas. I told him to look at the Wiki articles (afraid I have no experience with that especially since I'm underage). I had fun and will probably go back there next week. At about 1000 we headed back to the dorms. We stopped at a very American-like shopping center and used the facilities there (I drank too much of this very delicious drink that was served with our dinner - similar to Kool-Aid but way more classy). On the way out of the center, they began closing the doors with bike locks - rather sketchy. There was a bakery in the shop on the first floor similar to the one that I went to last weekend at the Temple of Heaven stop. I will go get some bread there tomorrow as it looked good. I would have grabbed a loaf tonight, but they were already closed.

On the way back we ran into Ghana as well and talked to him. He just ate his breakfast and will eat dinner at 230 am. and go to bed at 400 am. It is certainly an interesting tradition of the Muslims (Ramadan). Today for the first time,I also heard about the stuff happening in Gaza and about the plane that was shot down. I have got to start looking at the news...