lab, Wudakou

06-23-10

12:26 AM

So I suspected the insane energy was ephemeral and indeed it was! I was exhausted this morning, and nearly slept through my alarm, so I ended up rushing to catch the bus to the medical school campus with Drew. This campus is about 30 minutes away by bus, substantially closer without traffic (12 min?), but I was late anyways because I got lost trying to find the building the lab was in.

Lab so far has been very dry… I mean that in the experimental sense; it’s been more hitting the books than running experiments. Plus, most of this stuff is medicinal, so it’s generally not horrifically toxic, so people cruise between wet and dry work. I spent a long time today talking to two of my labmates in Chinese; Zang’s English is good enough so she generally prefers to use it with me (even though I like to talk to her in Mandarin) but these labmates didn’t really speak much, so it was actually easier to use Chinese (!)

We did an uncharacteristic amount of loafing today in addition to our actual work; after lunch they took me to a grocery store where we bought fudgesicles, and after that we went to go buy watermelons, just because we could (0.99 RMB/kilo, 0.15¢/kilo). After that (it took two hours!) two of my labmates took after-lunch siestas at their desks. One of my labmates broke an Erlenmeyer and cut her hand a bit badly and had to go to the hospital; I learned quite a bit about the Chinese healthcare system. Think the opposite of The Barbarian Invasions; they only have private companies and health insurance doesn’t cover small injuries at all. Plus there’s no worker’s comp, which I thought was horrible. Apparently she didn’t want to go to the hospital because she couldn’t afford it, but she was bleeding a lot and another labmate offered to spot her. I didn’t see it happen, though.

I enrolled in classes this morning at the charming hour of 6 AM, and then went to work, where I ran an HPLC and learned about alternate NMR resolution techniques. More on that later. I also took photographs of me and Zang.

This photograph is one of my favorite pictures, ever. See, Chinese people don’t tend to smile in photographs. I forgot, hence I have a huge grin on my face, whereas Zang looks unenthused:

God, I love that picture. Here’s the second picture, where I remembered and tried to do the Chinese stoic face. I think Zang is trying not to laugh in this one:

I also took a picture of a sign posted in our lab. Note the bottom left corner:

I heard someone swear today after breaking something, and he dropped the F-bomb in English, not Chinese. Why? No idea, I guess it’s for the same reason people here say “bye-bye” in English rather than in Chinese.

So Drew and Katherine and Robert and I actually went to that hot pot restaurant yesterday, which was actually rather disappointing, so I guess I’ll just stick to making my own. I did like the broth, although it was almost too spicy to be edible, let alone palatable, even for someone who enjoys ridiculously spicy foods like me.

After that, we went to the Carrefour (a large grocery store, kind of like a Target but with a much more extensive food section) just before closing time and got lost in the mall. Understand, much of the mall is underground, tortuous, and enormous. At one point, we were just trying to find our way out of the complex without dying; the lights started to shut off and Drew joked that we were in a horror movie and that I would die first since I was the native guide/only nonwhite person, so that they would be more thoroughly screwed. Native guide? Far from it, a native guide might actually be able to read things…

Afterwards, we took the bus to go shopping in Wudaokou. I didn’t buy anything, but Robert bought a fake Rolex, which he would periodically stroke to remind himself it was in fact his (RMB 25= USD $3.63): “I’m so juiced I copped this Rolex, man!” Drew and I were curious as to whether they actually overcharged white people, so I approached a lady selling belts and asked her in Mandarin how much they were, and he later went up to her and asked in English. To me, she said half the display was 55 yuan and the other half was 35 yuan; to Drew she said the whole display was 55 yuan (difference= RMB 20= USD $2.90). Hey, that’s almost a fake Rolex! I saw some amazing shirts; my favorite was a Communist Panda shirt, and my second favorite was a New York shirt featuring the British flag. There was also a boxful of the most adorable puppies alive for sale. Afterwards we went to a pub/bar and watched the World Cup.

Chinglish of the Day: Not even Chinglish; Robert was reading street signs in English and announced, “I want to go to the Scarface Café!” We were expecting Al Pacino; we approached the building and found the “Star Fate Café” instead. In his defense the letters were stylized. Second best: Katherine spotted a sign advertising “Spicy Grandma.”