I talked to Madre and then talked to the Scott's. The Scott family is headed to China as Mrs. Scott was born in China (she is the one who made me the Chinese flashcards before I left for Beijing). I am very excited to be seeing friends from home (even though I am very close to going home myself). I swam with Rachel, Danielle, and Hunter. They will be arriving on the 5th or 6th and have invited me to come eat duck with them. Mrs. Scott's father still lives in Beijing.
Not a real thrilling breakfast morning but I would feel remiss if I didn't share the day's food menu since it has been my tradition for the last 50 days on my blog - I had a peach yogurt and the "milk in a bag".
I went to the lab and we mixed soil and got some plants pulled out for the transplanting. We went to a place called "the forest" in Chinese to get pots; it was the same place that I went to get my plant for my room. The air was very clear today, but it is also raining. Hopefully it will clear up so that I can go play Frisbee tonight, if not I will be working on paper and doing my abs workout.
After mixing soils and getting everything watered, we took a spore sample out of several flasks of growing fungus and examined it. We did a spore count and accessed viability.
This morning I met a guy from the UK who now lives in western Australia and works in genetics and chemistry. We and one other guy who was Chinese and also visiting (the Chinese guy got a PhD from Texas Tech) went to lunch with Mr. Pan, Faith and Dr. Cheng. The lunch was one of the best that I have had (so I retract my previous statement that all "fancy" meals here are horrible). There was this one mushroom sweet and spicy dish that was very, very good along with a fried duck and sauce. This was not the Peking duck but another type. Yum. When we were finished, it was about 100. Faith and I packed up the extra food, and she took it to the lab for them to eat (much like Wendy did for the previous meal).
The AQI dropped from 251 yesterday morning to 30 this morning. It is so pleasant outside, and what is impressive is that it dropped from 170 to 30 in two hours!
After lunch I planted the samples in the larger pots. and then helped get some materials co-cultivated. It is my last Monday of work...I can hardly believe it. I have got to get out to the antique market this weekend to see whats happening there. Hopefully there will be a chance to purchase some old signs. I have got to bring my lab coat tomorrow to get some good photos. I took some today, but I need to get some where I look semi-professional (I'm sure my Mom is thinking to herself that achieving this is going to be impossible with my unshaven face and crazy hair).
It was a pretty uneventful afternoon at work apart from the fact that I actually worked. We co-cultivated more materials to increase the chance for functioning genetic lines.
I left work at 530 and then went over to Renmin. I threw the frisbee around for about an hour before heading back. I was not hungry tonight so I just nibbled on the food available in my room. I am plowing through another watermelon. I did abs and push ups in my room for my evening activity.
I am very ready to come home. The flight back is so near but so far (I leave from here on August 12th at 3 PM and arrive in the States August 12th at 3:50 PM). I have also got to get some more work done on my paper. I was gone quite a lot today so I did not work on it very much or play instruments very much. I will be sure to devote some time to that tomorrow.
I am up to 3700 words... only 8000 left but at least 3000 of those will be easy stuff to write (about methodology and such). I might not have any results though as the fungus has to be grown for three generations...bummer.
Good night and God bless.
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