Halfway There

Today is the official 5-week mark. That means I have roughly 5 to go. I thought about this fact today and totally freaked out that I still have so much I want to do, but then realized my first week was wasted with jetlag and lack of transport and that I have managed to do everything I have in a mere four. In addition, I now know the system better and am acquiring more moxy with each successive week, so maybe I can fit everything in yet.

Tonight I went to one of our lunch places for dinner, but it was the first time I went alone. The menus were (obviously) all in traditional characters, and the two female owners came out and just stood over me, like I needed help. Naturally I did, but I was about to show it? Pshaw! I recognized a few things, one which I really really wanted (qing cai—like spinach, I could eat it all day long) and various soups and noodles, although I couldn’t recognize all the ingredients in the latter items. Instead of looking confused, I casually shot off a, 'Hao, ni tuijian shenme tang?' (That means, ‘Hello, which soup do you recommend?) She pointed to a few, and I didn’t see the character for fish, so I figured I was good to go. And I didn’t even flinch. Always a bit of a risk, but it turned out okay—it happened to be a simple soup with three seasoned pork meatballs.

As I got up to pay, the lady taking my money smiled and asked me a question, and I responded, 'Dui le.' Did I know what she asked me? No. But I figured if she were smiling, how bad could it be? I supposed if she had said that her son is looking for a wife and am I interested, that could have been bad, but I assumed that was an outside possibility. Honestly, I think she asked me about being accustomed to something, probably the language or city, and I smiled and said, ‘Yes.’

Lab projects are moving along, although I am going to alter my technique slightly next week in an attempt to get higher cell counts. After we concluded examining my transfection products under the fluorescent microscope, Zhuo and I talked about movies for about 20 minutes. I don't remember why or how it came up, but I taught him the phrase 'chick flick.' I then forgot to mention that he probably shouldn't dissect the phrase and call a girl 'chick' because some find that offensive. Oops. He'll either forget the term completely (which is the most likely proposition) or try it sometime on an English-speaking girl, be slapped, and then be sure to never forget it. Let's hope it's the former.

Thankfully this week passed rather quickly and tomorrow is the start of a new weekend. Saturday is jam-packed with miscellaneous activities around the city (assuming I can fit them all) and Sunday will be spent spreading the wings a little. (So if you want to make bets on dysfunction, Sunday is the way to go.) Photos and details will be available in the near future.

Oh, and just for kicks, I found this on the internet while I was googling myself to pass time yesterday (come on, you know y'all do it, too). Apparently some site has an archive of a selection of my articles, and charges people who want to read them. This amuses me to no end as 1) I can't imagine why anyone would want to, and 2) if they really want to, I could email them all my Word documents. Hilarious.