The Twenty-Third Day

This morning I was exhausted when I got up at 700. I talked to Kelly and ate a breakfast of yogurt and nuts and the leftover pumpkin stuff.  I did not really feel like eating, but I knew that I needed to get something into my system. I left for work at the 800. This morning was rather slow: we checked on the plants that are in the tissue culture area on the 6th floor, then washed the electro transformation tubes and put plasmid into bacteria. I took a nap in there as well (during the acceptable nap time, of course).

Lunch was decent - the rice that they serve in the cafeteria is not the greatest, but it satisfies. I also had a pig liver and celery stir fry and a cucumber, potato, and meat(?) stir fry.

This afternoon was very productive. I spent the time talking and sharing photos with Yulan and then making dishes for planting and sterilizing seeds. I figured out what the game that Leo plays is: it is called PlagueInc. He won once today that I saw (guess gaming is a universal thing). I spent some time preparing things to be autoclaved as well.

The air quality is again too high for me to do a hard swimming workout so I will head over to the pool soon and do my 2000 nice and easy. I have a 3M mask now that I am wearing - it will provide better protection as I make my walk over to the pool.

Swimming was good decision today.  It definitely revived me. I had planned to swim slow and easy for the workout but found that my body wanted to be pushed more so I did 6x250; 200 free, 50 back, moderated to hard on the free, long and powerful easy on the back. I then did another 900 meters of miscellaneous. After my workout, I walked to the store and bought yogurt in what looks like a 1/2 gallon jug, bread and something that looks a lot like Brie (cheese), but I am not for sure. When I walked into my building, the people downstairs gave me a package to give to the person in 516. He is an African from Cape Verde named Silvio.  He looks a bunch like Darnell from "My Name is Earl" without the big hair. I hope that I understood the directions from the front desk and that the package was meant for him and not me. I expect that he will give it back if it was for me. He mentioned a place where there are many Americans - Beijing Cultural University or something. He offered to take me there. "Just knock on my door and ask", he said.

That is all for today.  I believe my malaise is being caused by the very poor air quality - hopefully there will be a reprieve at some point.  When I return to Texas, I certainly will never take my wide open spaces and good air for granted.

Agriculture is in my blood.
Working in a sorghum field in my home
state of Texas.