The Thirty-Second Day

I went to bed very late last night, at around 1120, so I got up at about 720. I had a peach, yogurt, and nuts for breakfast before heading off to work. This morning when I got there I sat down and took about an hour nap in one of the chairs (it is a bit slow with Yulan being gone), and after that Mister Chi, Leo, and I made PDA, potato dextrose agar. We started by peeling the potatoes. They could not find the knives so I peeled one with scissors (probably not the safest thing to do). After the first tortuous potato peel, they found the "knives", two oldish and kinda rusty box cutters (yikes). After finishing the peeling, we cut the potatoes into small pieces, with the box cutters, and weighed out 1.2 kg. Then I was assigned (after Leo almost used the agarose for a flask) to put agar into all of the flasks. I did this while Leo and Chi started boiling the potatoes. The potato water was then strained, and this is what is used in the PDA. We produced six liters of it. (Sidenote: I drank about 3 liters of water this morning. Obviously, I was quite thirsty.)

Lunch was good. I had bean sprouts, bok choy, and a mushroom veggie meat stir fry.

After lunch, I had my daily serving of melon and practiced guitar and uke. I am having lots of trouble with F on the guitar, and my fingers need to develop some strength in that accord. (haha chord; accord...aren't I punny). At about 200 I headed back to the lab where I got to make PDA again as Mister Chi added the wrong type of glucose/sugar into the medium and so it did not coagulate. I spent the afternoon potatoing again after washing all of the flasks. I got to put in agar into the flasks again as well. Three grams in the small; Six grams in the large.

After work, I walked to the grocery store where I bought butter, sweet potatoes, brown sugar, salt, garlic, jujube bars, and bread. I will be eating homemade food tomorrow night after I go swimming at the Reiman pool (provided that the air quality is not worse than it was today; it was pretty poor today). I circled around in that store for quite awhile while I tried to find stuff. I think that the people in there thought I was lost. It must have been funny to them to see an American just randomly walking in circles with a nearly empty shopping cart (all I had in it was the butter).

I got back to my room at about 630 and heard Vincent outside my door so I poked my head out and asked it they would mind it I came with them to dinner. I headed out with them, and we went to our usual jaunt, the Sesh Wan restaurant. Vincent snagged an umbrella for me on the way there as it was going to rain. We had cucumbers, gizzards, lamb, and for the main course, a fish that was serve cut in half longways and then put in juices with tons of good stuff, garlic, ginger, onions, and so on. The fish is on a bed of tofu which was great. The only thing that I am not a fan of is that they do not take the bones out of the fish. But it was still very good. We talked while waiting for foods and stuff. I told them about swimming and they told me bits and pieces of stuff about Malawi. They have a fish there that is unique to that place that is very tasty they say. Vincent's last country mate is heading home for 5 weeks on Saturday, so he will be alone here, or at least without countrymen. It took a long time to get the fish and so we got back to the dorm at about 830. I ate a ton of the garlic that was in with the fish so I will be smelling great tomorrow (not that I am smelling too good at the moment). I have got to go swim tomorrow. I have got to use up some energy and get some yardage in. I am beginning to feel a bit flabby and hope that I am not gaining weight while I am here. I need to start to watch what I eat more, especially now that my swimming schedule is messed up and no more swimming 4 times a week. With the distance that the pool is from me and the admission price, I will probably be only able to swim every 3 to 4 days (so twice a week, maybe).

I am going to eat some more watermelon and watch The Blues Brothers. I can't gain weight on watermelon.
I watched Blazing Saddles over the last 2 days. It was interesting, but definitely funny in some parts.

Good night to all and God bless.

A photo from my photography portfolio - this one won 1st in Dominant Color at Districts.