i want to ride my bicycle i want to ride my bike

7/2/10

10:00 AM

I’ve revised my previous estimates of seminar comprehension as overly optimistic (former estimate: 8%). Additional data points (the current meeting, the two yesterday) suggest my understanding is closer to 0.2%. In other news, I am in another seminar and just found out I am required to attend all of them (4-5/week). In Zang’s words, “I don’t like.”

But! Nothing can get in the way of my utter elation at buying myself a bike. I bought it used off the PKU chat boards, and when I say “I,” I mean Jerry, one of the grad students in this program, because all the boards are in Mandarin. It is somewhat sturdier than Drew and Cunningham’s bikes (which have lost some vital piece every day, necessitating many returns to “Bike Homie” for repairs) but boasts a broken back brake and kickstand, for the grand price of 100 kuai (RMB 100= USD 14.29). With it came a basket, a lock, a supplemental seat should I want to trot along another person, and a blister on my right palm because I can’t pry my ass off this thing, it is so fun. Best purchase so far in China!

Afterwards, we hit up Carrefour for snacks then retired. Drew and Robert have bought the world’s most disgusting liquor; it is 56% booze and 44% turpentine by taste. It genuinely boasts a 56% alcohol content, and will probably make you blind. The aftertaste is so awful that the smell of it mixed is a hundred thousand times grosser than Popov straight. It also costs about 3 kuai a flask (3 RMB= USD 0.43¢). I only mention it because Drew convinced Cunning to drink an entire flask by telling him (lying) that it was called “The Spirit of China” aka the national drink. I had a mouthful and I swear I could still taste it the next day. I will probably bring a flask home to substantiate my claims.

The next day (yesterday) was fairly mellow. I was slightly late to work, but Zang’s alarm failed entirely so she rolled in an hour and a half later. I am working on HMBC and HSQC interps of some fairly complex biomolecules, which I like a lot. It kind of makes me want to go home and learn COSY and NOSEY because I know we use those in Diaconescu group on occasion.

After work, I went home and studied/worked for a bit. The girls had a late lunch, so I had dinner with Cunningham in a back alley restaurant where people pried their eyes off the game purely to ogle him/watch him eat. Shirley, Drew, Cunning and I then went to Wudaokou to browse. I didn’t buy anything, but I did assist Robert and Drew in a purchase. Basically, Robert bought himself a new toy, earlier toys being his bike and Rolex: he and Drew bought 50mv green lasers which even I have to admit are very cool. I am petrified that they are going to blind someone, possibly me.

Poor Shirley has no luck with the bikes; she tried to ride Katherine’s to Wudaokou but it was so tall she crashed it into a bush and severed both brake lines (!) and gave up and rode with Cunningham. I rode mine to the restaurant and Wudaokou without incident.

I also met up with my cousin Nick and his British girlfriend Rebecca the night before yesterday; it might have been my first time meeting Nick as we aren’t literal cousins but merely good family friends. He has spent the last many years traveling, so I might not have had an occasion to meet him before. He and Rebecca had just returned from Tibet that morning and were planning on leaving for Scotland in two weeks. Rebecca was very nice and extraordinarily quiet. We are planning on meeting for dinner in the near future.