Monday, June 16, 2008

The Start of Work

So finally I have started research in Dr. Dahui Zhao’s lab, the actual purpose for this trip. I am working with graduate student Qifan Yan in Dr. Zhao’s smaller lab in the old chemistry building. With the Olympics permeating most aspects of Beijing, chemistry is no different – the old building is being repainted to match with the new chemistry building, and most of the labs on the fourth floor where mine is located are empty as they are remodeled. I plan to work Monday-Friday, 9-5, staying later or coming in earlier as the experiments deem necessary. We have joint lab meetings with Dr. Pei and Dr. Ma’s lab groups Tuesdays at noon and Friday evenings. They’re normally in Chinese, but one of the presentations on Friday was given in English, allowing us to understand.

During the first week of research, I worked on learning my way around the lab, and the techniques in organic chemistry experiments that create better products. I had initially been scared of working in a chemistry lab, since my background has been in biology research, but observing my grad student doing the work then repeating it has made the task easier. Since I’m working in an organic lab, many of the procedures and syntheses I’ve performed are reminiscent of those that I’ve done in my organic chemistry lab class. I synthesized pretty pink crystals!

During this season in Beijing, carrying around an umbrella is a must, as I found out when Donna and I got caught at the cafeteria needing to get back to the chemistry building for the lab meeting as rain relentlessly poured down. After waiting for the rain to lighten for a good 45 minutes, we decided to make a run for it. Without a good drainage system, parts of the road were flooded, and there were huge puddles everywhere. Since there was construction of the new international student housing building next to the chemistry building, the road leading to the chemistry building was flooded with opaque brown water, and as I was running there, a group of security guards were yelling something in Chinese to me. Since I didn’t understand what they were saying and was trying to get out of the rain as fast as I could, I just kept running, and managed to step straight into a knee-deep ditch….which was probably why they were yelling. In trying to get out, I just stepped further into that ditch, and by the time I got out I was already wet and stopped caring about trying to stay dry. Looking at that ditch on my way out a few hours later after the rain had lightened, I realized the full hazard of the large unmarked ditch that I wouldn’t have missed in the daylight, and though now I can joke about the stupidity of falling into it, I will probably walk slower next time I’m caught in the rain.

Even though we’ve all looked forward to being able to sleep in and have a few days off this weekend, there is a guilt to being in such an exciting city and not exploring it that we try to find things to do. On Saturday, I met up with a friend from home who is currently in Beijing and speaks Chinese. She took me shopping and then to get my hair cut. The salon was pretty nice, and pampered their customers well with free drinks, and I got the longest haircut I’ve ever had, about an hour and a half long as the stylist kept being really picky and making the smallest adjustments. He had his own assistant, and I was lucky that my friend was able to explain in Chinese the style I wanted, so I came out really happy…all for the affordable price of 28 rmb. On Sunday, I went with Donna, Nicole, and Allison to Xi Dan, a place where our language teacher Liu Nian had mentioned was filled with shopping opportunities. After a ridiculously long bus then subway ride, we were thoroughly impressed by the large mall and shopping center filled with boutiques in that area. Shopping was hard to do in the crowd of people at the shopping center, and though it was easier to window shop at the mall, the prices were high even by American standards. Taking the taxi back was much faster and allowed us to stare in awe at the city we were in.

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