Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Olympic Village/Filet mignon

It seems that I've been hanging out with Alisa, Donna, Kelly, and Zach over the last several days seeing stuff around the city. Xu came back from visiting his relatives and joined our gang that headed out to the Olympic Village. One of the guys from Zach's lab also joined us. We were walking around National Stadium taking pictures when we saw these guys carrying stools and small bags walking in formation. We quickly learned that these guys were actually PLA soldiers...and there were several thousand of them walking around. They were all giving Kelly strange looks! We also got to get pretty close to the Water Cube as well.

Zach, Donna, and I went to Alameda for dinner. It's a restaurant over in the Sanlitum bar street area that serves "contemporary cuisine" (whatever that means). I had scallops with green beans for a starter and a filet mignon for my entree. The food was absolutely amazing! The sauces that accompanied each were delicious, the scallops were great, and the filet was tender (only 158 RMB for both). We also had dessert (another 38 RMB); I had an orange tiramisu that was nicely prepared, although it was a bit small for the price. Needless to say, we were quite happy after we finished our meal. I think that was one of the best meals I've had anywhere in the world.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Closing thoughts: For the record...

For the record, I'd like to say I've had a blast on this trip! I just spent 11 weeks together with one of the most amazing groups of people I have ever met. I have enjoyed spending time with everyone this summer. I'm going to wake up every morning back home and wonder where everyone is...and be in for a real shock when I convince myself I'm the only one there. It's going to be lonely being apart from everyone else. But we all have school to attend. I hope the 12 of us can meet again sometime.

While I didn't learn much Chinese this summer, I did learn a lot of chemistry and how research works in a real chemistry lab. I also learned a lot about the Chinese culture. Everything I learned will remain with me for the rest of my life. If you get a chance to do research there, do it!

So this is probably the last blog post I'll write. Thanks to the readers that have been following my blog this summer!



Monday, July 28, 2008

Art district/Old Summer Palace/A "Fowl" Farewell

Zhaleh left us on Sunday to head back to the states...we miss her already! Xu has been visiting his relatives for the last several days.
Zach, Alisa, and I went to the 798 art district near the airport with some folks from Zach's lab. There were all these small galleries that we saw with different kinds of modern art in them. Right after our delicious lunch, Zach and I went to use the W.C. (as Zach would call it). When I stepped up to the urinal, it started to overflow greatly, causing my leg to get just a bit wet and triggering a dash from the loo. (I tell this story because Zach found this so funny and dared me to post this on the blog. So this post is for you, Zach.)

Monday: We had our last group lunch at the Japanese restaurant today. Then we walked around the ruins of the Old Summer Palace. The flowers there are pretty nice and I got a scroll that barely fits in my large suitcase. Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to see there. My lab group took me out to Quanjude Peking Duck restaurant for my "farewell" dinner. The duck was absolutely fantastic! Quack, quack!