Laboratory Stories!

The day was off to a rough start today. We've lost our meal card, so breakfast was botched but at any rate. We biked to the laboratory and did a lot of preparation of cultures and fungus (yay).

We got really bored waiting for the pressure steamer to get up to par and do its job, so we took to reading Chinese newspapers (hard for us, amusing for Yang), trying (unsuccessfully) to do Chinese crossword puzzles--I know! It blew my mind, too! Finally (and my favorite) we made paper hats out of newspaper and wore them around. Then we started with the cranes and fortune-teller-thingies.

Then we realized that someone (some JERK) had turned OFF the pressure steamer.. and we had been sitting about for more than an hour... for nothing. So then we spent the next hour thinking of punishments (many involving interesting stabbing devices) and talking about Chinese zodiac signs. Yang kept calling Allie baby rabbit and me boring tiger--she meant bored, because I kept yawning, but it was funny all the same.

We were going to try and calibrate the pH tester, but they've gone and broken the membrane (China...) so there are bigger issues at hand.

Then we went for lunch (... MacDonald's....). Allie spotted a Kaodegui seller on the way: think... old man with a bicycle and a huge roaster machine on the back, piled high with sweet potatoes. When she went to pay for it, Yang bent over the scale and we thought she was looking out for us to make sure the guy didn't jack up the price... Nope. When we're walking away she goes, "Interesting... I think that they charge you more because you are foreigners"

*headdesk*

We got to MacDonalds (I know she the only reason she was craving a Big Mac was because she was in the company of two Americans, really) and it wasn't too bad. It's a sort of comfort food. Don't give me that look. I know, I know...

We discovered that Yang doesn't know how to whistle, so we'll be taking care of that next!

On a science-y note, next week we'll be doing PCR and looking at RNA strains to see if DDT has any effect on the gene expression. This is the stuff that I am really interested in so yay!

Oh and I bought bananas and oranges today! Go me!