Weekend in Review

Friday:

Brazil vs Portugal... Apparently there are Brazilians in China too. I have never seen the Wei-Ha so packed, and I have never seen so many foreigners in one place since my arrival in China. The game was boring, but the crowd was a lot of fun. The pub was standing room only with people literally pouring out the door.

Saturday:

Saturday morning started off rough. I had to do some tedious work in the lab, followed by the preparation of my powerpoint for Sunday's presentation. Using excel and powerpoint in Chinese is not so fun though. Making a graph when your options tab is all in characters did not work out so well for me, so I pleaded the english card and went home to work for the rest of the afternoon. After completing my powerpoint and taking a nap, I ventured with Taryn to go shopping in Tangu. Tangu is slightly bigger than TEDA and right by the water. Shops and street vendors everywhere selling fake everything, department stores full of overpriced, imported clothing blaring Journey and Eminem. By fake everything, I mean fakes that don't even look close to the real thing. Fake Calvin Klein underwear with cartoon prints... I don't recall the last time CK did cartoons, and I also am not sure I see the appeal of buying fake underwear from a street vendor. Also, the Chinese are extremely into denim... acid wash rompers, hot pink jorts, and jean shoes. They even had puppies for sale. After our shopping adventure and a challenging taxi ride (honestly, it seems any taxi ride is a bit of a challenge), we returned to Wei-Ha to watch more soccer; Uruguay didn't draw quite the same crowd as Brazil. Unfortunately, I had to be up at 6 am on Sunday, which prevented me from watching the 2:30 am USA game.

Sunday:

The day started at 5:57 am. At 6:15, I boarded the bus to head to the main campus, which arrives there at 8:00. Seminar starts at 8:30 and was underwhelming at best. This week, all of the students were required to present in English, or rather chinglish... they actually refer to their english as chinglish. The English grammar here is so painful; no one knows when to use was or were, so after the first few slides, most people fell back into Chinese. Then, the prof's critique the results from each presentation, in Chinese, so I spent the majority of the morning spacing out until my turn to present. After presenting, my professor told me of 3 more sets of experiments that he wants me to finish in my time here. Mind you, this is only the 3rd time he's spoken directly to me, and his expectations are definitely unreasonable. I reminded him that I will only be here for 6 weeks, but not sure that sunk in. The other prof in the research group is really nice to me though. He was a consultant for a british company for 10 years and speaks really good english. He asked me where I had gotten to travel since my arrival in TEDA, and I told him only Beijing because I have been in the lab everyday. He told me that there are so many things to see in China that I must take some time off and explore and have fun. He told my professor to let me take some time off to travel, so that is a huge relief. Xi'an here I come!!

After seminar, I was ready to come home and sleep. The bus trip in the morning was less than pleasant, and listening to presentations all day was draining. Unfortunately, the research group had a different plan in mind. I got trapped into going to KTV (karaoke). I had asked them for the characters to go to the train station, but they told me that I could leave early from KTV, so I went along. The first hour was actually pretty entertaining; they put on some Lady Gaga and made me sing. They also played a lot of Avril, who knew that she was so popular in Asia, and then a lot of chinese songs... and some Backstreet Boys. I perused the song options: so many rap artists, even Chingy, yet no Journey. After a few hours, I asked again for the characters to the train station, but instead, another girl that wanted to go back also decided to go with me, which meant that we did the 45 min bus, 45 min train thing. I would have preferred the 10 min taxi ride to the 45 min ride in a smelly, 2 story bus, but the other girl insisted that we take the bus. I've decided that I'm really not a fan of public buses here; they all smell pretty awful and I'm definitely always the only foreign person aboard, which elicits many stares. We finally made it back to TEDA around 7:00 pm, after having left at 6:00 am. I went straight to meet up with Taryn. We had a fun night of playing cards and watching more soccer and some Wimbledon. We even got lucky and had english music in the taxi on our way home.

Monday:

I went to the lab this morning, and was locked out. After waiting 15 min, I called the girl that is working on the same project with me... yeah, they decided they "wanted extra rest this morning," but no one thought to call me. At least it means that I'm getting to update my blog rather than scrubbing bottles this AM!! And I must say, despite having to work and attend seminar, I managed to have a lot of fun this past weekend!

TEDA College, Nankai University

As I spend the majority of my time on campus, I've decided to share some pictures. The campus is extremely small with only a few lab buildings, including engineering labs, biology labs, and an entire building dedicated to the school of applied physics. In addition to the labs, there are a lot of dorm buildings, more than 10 blocks of buildings at 6-8 floors each. I'm not sure how many students are on campus, but a lot of the apartments sleep 9+, so for such a small campus, there are a lot of people. The campus is designed in such a way that you never have to leave, and many students don't seem to venture off campus very often. The canteen (dining hall) is 3 stories, and a lot of local business people come to campus for lunch because the food is extremely cheap. There is also a post office, a barber shop, basketball courts, and a convenience store that sells everything: fruit, bottled water, beer (it humored me that I saw PBR on the shelves), routers, toilet cleaner, notebooks, etc.

The entrance to campus:

Here is a dorm building; each apartment has a porch to hang laundry:

A random statue of a man playing a saxophone, but I don't believe that they have a school of music, and I have yet to see anyone playing a musical instrument:

I finally ventured to the post office today to get out some letters, hopefully they actually make it!

And basketball courts... There are basketball goals set up throughout campus, and the main court is constantly crowded, often with guys in NBA jerseys:

Also of note, should an emergency arise, I'm literally across the street from what claims to be an international hospital, but from what I've gathered, the international part means that they have a translator on the premises:

Lazy Sunday

On Saturday morning, I woke up with some weird stomach bug, throwing up and feverish. I spent the majority of the day in bed, and by this morning, I was feeling much better. After rehydrating with some gatorade, I popped into the lab for a few hours, but luckily made it out by 11:30 am. After a nap, I met up with my friend Taryn in the park to write letters and listen to music. It was a scorching hot day in TEDA, but the first one I've seen here where the sky was actually a shade of blue. Usually the sky is always gray from the pollution, but we've had a series of storms that hopefully cleaned up the air for a few days.

After about an hour, we decided to migrate out of the heat and over to Wei-Ha Pub. It's the main place in town for ex-pats to hang out. They have a pool table, a small library of books in English, a friendly staff from South Africa, and a menu full of western food, ranging from pasta to quesadillas. Today, they even set up a make shift beer pong table. Overall, it was a relaxing Sunday, and I was happy to spend it in the company of other English speakers.

Dragon Boat Holiday

June 14-16 is a holiday in China... to celebrate the Dragon Boat Racing Festival. In order to take the 3 days off for holiday, most Chinese businesses require their employees to work the preceding weekend, thus only allotting one actual day of holiday. Since I work on the weekends anyway, this 3 day holiday was a welcomed reprieve from the lab, and I enjoyed three of the best days that I've had since my arrival in TEDA.

Day 1:

After a non-stop week of experiments, I decided to just relax on the first day of the holiday. I cooked up some fresh veggies in my rice cooker and took a leisurely stroll around TEDA. I even stopped into the sketchy dvd shop, which moonlights as a children's clothing store, to purchase a movie. The movie was of surprisingly good quality until 54 minutes in, at which point it was completely defective, but at $1.50 USD, it was not a major loss. Later in the evening, I joined some fellow Americans at the Wei-Ha Pub to watch the World Cup, Denmark vs. Netherlands. I was shocked to find a very large contingency of ex-pats here from Denmark, all representing their country in jerseys and singing the national anthem. It was a very festive bunch, and a local photographer was snapping up the scene for the local paper.

Day 2:

I left my dorm at 6:30 am to head to Tangu Railway Station and catch the 8:30 am train into Beijing. Due to the holiday, I left early to get a seat. Upon arrival in Beijing, I met up with Sarah, a friend from orientation, in the Wudaokou area, which is an area with many universities and a large student population of both local and foreign students. We then met up with another orientation buddy, Andrew, to begin our journey to Houhai Lake, a manmade lake near the Forbidden City. Our goal was to see some dragon boat racing in honor of the holiday. From everything we read online, it seemed that anywhere there was water in China, there would be dragon boat racing. After several wrong turns and a long walk down some very traditional chinese streets, we made it to Houhai Lake. After a long stroll in the scorching heat, our first order of business was finding lunch. We ate at a nice thai restaurant right on the waterfront. The only boats in sight were paddle boats, but the people watching was good. After inquiring in a tourist information center, we were informed that dragon boat racing was at the north end of the lake, so we began a leisurely stroll around the lake. Despite the no-swimming signs, rebel swimmers were in abundance; most simply wearing underwear rather than actual swimsuits. Upon arriving at the north end of the lake, we spotted some kayakers, and some docked dragon boats without their dragon heads, but no racing. We stopped for popsicles in the shade and continued to watch swimmers and bikers, and wedding photos in the park. In China, it seems to be very trendy to have your wedding pictures taken on a day other than your wedding day, when the weather is guaranteed to be sunny sunny. Brides change into many different western style wedding dresses and take pictures all over the city for a more diverse wedding album.

After leaving our perch in Houhai Lake, we stopped by an outdoor gym on our way back to the subway. Scattered throughout Beijing, there are public outdoor gyms, complete with elliptical machines and and weird ab contraptions, so of course, we had to try it out.

After more than 5 hours of walking around in the Beijing heat, we were hungry and exhausted. We proceeded to cook a tasty dinner of sauteed mushrooms with lemon, garlic, and olive oil served with bean vermicelli. Dessert consisted of a watermelon purchased from a street vendor outside of Sarah's apartment.

Day 3:

After our long day yesterday, Sarah and I decided to keep today more low key and stayed in the Wudaokou area. Our first order of business this morning was to go out for fresh mango juice and to the supermarket for SoyJoy bars. When I left the states, I had brought a stash of snack bars to eat and unfortunately went through them quicker than expected, and until now, had not been able to replenish my stash. Sarah had remembered that I liked SoyJoy bars and found them at the Lotus Supermarket across from her apartment, so this morning, I stocked up.

Next on the agenda was a hunt for Tiger Balm. In addition to my mosquito bites, I've been breaking out in some violent hives that have left my skin both itchy and raw. Apparently, Tiger Balm is a Chinese remedy for just about everything, but most importantly, it is supposed to combat itching. Also, it is a natural insect repellant. Chinese characters for tiger balm in hand, we set out to find the chinese apothecary that was supposed to be right next to McDonald's. Unfortunately, it was not there, but upon asking someone, we were given directions, in English, to a Chinese pharmacy that was right around the corner. We obtained the much acclaimed Tiger Balm, and I tried it out. So far, it seems to be helping, and if nothing else, the packaging is pretty cool.

I left Wudaokou around 2:30 to head back to Beijing South Railway Station, planning to arrive early enough to purchase a ticket for the 16:55 train back to Tangu. Unfortunately, the train was sold out, so the next one was not until 18:50. I found a quiet table in the station and read from Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits. I'm finding the book to be quite engaging, and the extra 2 hours at the train station passed relatively quickly. Despite missing the dragon boat races, it was a great visit to Beijing!

Rice Cooker

As previously mentioned, I have been doing most of my cooking on a hotplate. Unfortunately, the heat is very difficult to control, the buttons are all marked in Chinese characters, and my frying pan got destroyed during the first use. Not sure what went wrong with the pan, but while stir-frying veggies, metal bits started flaking off, and when rinsed, the pan rusted, so the pan was discontinued. I still have a pot for cooking rice and other such things, but given the fickle temperature of the hot plate, rice typically burns.

This left me eating lots of raw fruits and veggies, until an ex-pat friend suggested a rice cooker. It's stupidly simple; you literally add your rice and your water and press a button... 20 minutes later you have perfectly cooked rice. The rice cooker also steams veggies, so my cooking situation has improved drastically. Upon searching for vegetarian rice cooker recipes online, it seems i'll literally be able to cook everything in there: frittatas, soup, beans, etc. I am quite excited about this new, easy to use gadget!

Lab Life

It's Saturday afternoon, and I get a 2 hour lunch today while I wait for my samples to heat to the proper temperature, thus it seems the perfect time to share a little bit about life in the lab. The lab is where I spend 8-12 hours of my day, everyday, including weekends. I had to get permission last weekend to leave the lab for Beijing. The students arrive to the lab at 8:30 am, take half an hour to an hour for lunch, an hour for dinner, and they don't leave until 10 pm. They even stay in the lab until 10pm when they don't have work to do; they sit there on the computer or chatting, just so that they feel they're in the lab doing something. I assume this has something to do with the competitive nature of academia here; no one wants to be the first to go home for the evening. Well, I do! Luckily, I've been finishing my work around 8 or so and have been able to leave when I finish.

Another major difference in the lab here is the level of efficiency with which things get done. In any lab setting, there will always be a certain amount of downtime, while waiting for samples or solutions or for things to bake in the oven, but here, the amount of time lost increases exponentially due to a lack of equipment. There is only one scale and before you weigh anything from the oven, you must first let it sit in a covered glass container, of which there is also only one, for half an hour to prevent contamination. There is a constant battle to use the scale; if you miss an opening, you have to wait at least 45 min before you get another chance. Also, there is only one sink and not nearly enough bottles and pipet tips; they rewash the disposable plastic ones. A large portion of experimental prep is attributed to scrubbing bottles and plastic tips.

The major difference though is the way in which they help newcomers, or rather don't help them. I started my experiment this week, and while I was familiar with how to use some of the equipment, I had never done any of the experimental procedures before. When I asked the girl who has done all of the same experiments that I will be doing how to start and if there was a written copy of the procedure; she told me, "of course, but it is in Chinese." To this, I asked if there was anyway she could translate it or give me oral instructions. She told me that I had helped her with some experiments last week and thus should be able to use my brain and figure it out. Of course, the experiments I helped with last week were very different from the ones that I was supposed to do, so finally she gave me some very weak instructions. After completing the tasks, I checked with her to see what i should do next, and she tells me that I did it all wrong. I showed her that I followed her instructions step by step, and she goes, "O, I told you wrong. It's ok though, it's only the first experiment so it doesn't matter if it's wrong. I did it wrong the first few times, too." Rather than just admitting she told me wrong, she justified it by the fact that she did it wrong at first too. In GA Tech labs, students help one another so that previous mistakes are not repeated. Here, it seems as though they don't want you to get it right the first time. It can be a bit frustrating, as when I help this girl with her experiments, she gives perfect instructions and literally watches over my shoulder to make sure that I don't do anything wrong. The lab culture is a bit selfish to say the least.

Lab safety and cleanliness is another major difference. At Georgia Tech, we take an OSHA safety course every year and have a Lab Safety Director that is constantly inspecting labs and on call in case of any problems. Closed toe shoes and long pants are always required, and the labs are kept extremely clean. Here, anywhere near the windows, there is a film of dirt covering the equipment. Bottles are everywhere; some labeled and some not. People wear shorts despite working with chemicals and sewage sludge.

There are lots of differences, and while different isn't necessarily bad, I have a whole new appreciation for the lab facilities that Georgia Tech offers.

Epic Battle of Nicole vs Mosquitoes

Since my arrival in Tianjin, I have been eaten alive by mosquitoes. I'm not talking a few bites here and there... I'm up to over 50 bites, on my hands, my feet, my arms, legs, and even my face. I spend the day in a constant state of itchiness and have bumps all over my arms and legs. The girls in the lab are now joking that the Chinese mosquitoes are out for American blood. Yesterday, they asked me why I had not yet bought a mosquito net at the supermarket and all had a good laugh. They apparently all have nets around their beds and no mosquito bites and have seen me scratching every day but never thought to mention it. So this evening, while on break from the lab, armed with a slip of paper that had the characters written for mosquito net, I went down to the supermarket to purchase what I hope will be an excellent barrier from these horrible bugs. I also ventured over to the pharmacy to purchase some hydrocortisone cream. After much gesturing and explaining, they gave me some prescription strength cream to combat the itching.

Mosquitoes: 57+

Nicole: 2

Grocery Shopping in TEDA

This evening, my new friend Taryn and I went on a stroll to find a fruit and vegetable market that came highly recommended. Down a back alley, we stumbled upon the entryway, located amongst a plethora of local vendors selling trinkets and cooking meat on sticks and all sorts of other local foods. It looked like a place that Anthony Bourdaine would visit on No Reservations. The fruit and vegetable market was pretty awesome, stall after stall selling peaches and mangoes and lychees. I stocked up on fresh fruits, as the produce here looked much better than that at the Ren Ren Le, which is the supermarket i've been going to.

The term supermarket does not quite do the Ren Ren Le justice. It sells everything; washing machines, cell phones, produce, candy, cucumber flavored potato chips, and everything else you could imagine. It's kind of like a SuperTarget, only smaller, way more chaotic, and nothing is written in English, and none of the workers speak english, as I found out on my quest for peanut butter, which I did eventually find; they had Skippy brand, but the only thing on the jar in english was the word Skippy. All the fast food joints in town are located next to Ren Ren Le and there's a shopping mall attached too; the whole shopping center draws quite a crowd all the time, and of course, there's a KFC.

The last stop on the grocery tour this evening was a place called Opus, a small western grocery store. It was so nice to be able to read labels, but the selection left something to be desired. I managed to find some corn cereal and some granola bars. Apparently Chinese people prefer seaweed flavored crackers over granola bars for snacking, as I have not seen them in any supermarket yet. I was happy to come home and have some fresh fruit and cereal, neither of which require cooking on a hotplate.

Foreigners Flock Together

On Friday, I had a stroke of luck and ran into a blonde girl on campus from Chicago that happens to be here for an internship. She's here until August also! Upon meeting, she invited me to go out with her that evening to an irish bar in town where all the ex-pats hang out. Apparently there's a network of foreigners that live here, mostly Americans and Australians. I even met a woman from Dunwoody, GA! Everyone was extremely friendly and it was so nice to converse at a rapid rate in english without the aid of google translator. After the pub, we went to the only other ex-pat hang out in town; a bar called SoHo, complete with Chinese and Russian go-go dancers and a band from the Phillipines playing exclusively american pop music, lots of Lady Gaga.

On Saturday morning, i woke up early to take the train into Beijing. The normal seats were booked, but for an additional five US dollars, I was able to score a seat in VIP, where i happened to meet a Taiwanese woman that spoke perfect english and had surprisingly lived in Buckhead for several years. The Beijing train station was much easier to navigate than the local train station, as all of the signs were in English. Upon arrival, I met up with a friend from Atlanta and his 2 traveling companions. We proceeded to spend the weekend exploring Beijing, including a trip to Tiananmen Square, where we got to climb to the top of the gate. In 2 weeks, we are taking a trip to one of the less travelled sections of the Great Wall; it's supposed to be a gorgeous 7 mile hike with not many tourists. Overall, it was a fabulous weekend, and I'm so excited to have made friends with some westerners in the area!

Arrival in Tianjin

On saturday, I flew to Tianjin, very excited to be moving into an apartment after 2 weeks of sharing a hotel room and living out of a suitcase...

I'm working at Nankai University, which is actually one of China's better schools, but apparently they have multiple campuses. I assumed I would be in city center, which is where the main campus is located. Instead, I'm at a really small campus in the Technological and Economic Development Area. To get to the city center, you walk the train, take a 45 min train ride, then walk to the bus, then take a 40 min bus ride... Yeah, I got to experience this fun commute on Sunday, when we missed the bus to return to campus. Every other sunday there are research seminars on the main campus, all in Mandarin, that we are required to attend for our lab group. In addition to the public transit option, there's a small charter bus that goes between campuses, but it fills up fast. We took it to campus at 6:30 am on sunday, and the bus had seats for 22 people; we transported 36. Some people were sitting on small stools in the aisle way. If nothing else, public transit here is an adventure. One of the buses I was on was a 2 story bus that was standing room only; if they had taken a sharp turn, I imagine it might have toppled.

Upon arrival on Saturday, 2 girls that work in the same lab as me fetched me from the airport and we did the train thing to get to my apartment, which is actually a dorm room... It had a kitchen with a sink and cabinets, but no appliances. The shower is not separated from the rest of the bathroom, and the living room furninture consists of 2 wooden chairs. There is hot water available for 2 hours a day in the shower. I'm pretty excited to have my own bedroom though; I visited the dorm room of my labmates, and they have 3 people living in a bedroom that's the same size as mine. i asked if there's a laundrymat on campus, and they laughed, so good thing I have a sink :)

I had already explained my dietary issues to my professor and he had assumed that i would have a fridge and stove in my apt, so he gave me a hot plate and told me that i should buy a refrigerator. The labmates took me to an electronics mall, 45 min away by bus, and haggled w/ some saleswomen for awhile, and i ended up w/ a mini fridge that was delivered a few hours later. in a lot of shops here, there are no fixed prices and you have to haggle for everything. either way, i now have a fridge and a hot plate, and kettle, so I am able to cook for myself.

Also, from my description, it must sound like i'm in the sticks, but technically i'm still in Tianjin, and there are still tall buildings everywhere. I'm in a very industrial area, which is probably the cause of the black dust that accumulates on the windowsill if i leave the windows open.

The labmates are all very friendly, but some of them speak very little English, so there's a lot of google translator going on. I started work on Tuesday, and apparently typical lab hours are 8:30 am- 10:00 pm. I start my new project next monday, and for now, I'm helping out with some of their ongoing experiments and also proofreading some of their english manuscripts.

On Saturday, I'm planning to take a train into Beijing and visit some friends. This is assuming that I can figure out how to get to the train station and which train to take :)

All things considered, it's turning out to be a good learning experience, and I'm getting lots of exercise each day since I live on the 6th floor!