First evening in China = Bike + Grapes

I arrived in China on August 17. One of my labmates - Li Chao picked me up and we took a cab back to the University. After dealing with Beijing traffic, getting wrong directions about where to register for the dorm and lugging around 50 lb bags we finally found Warren/the front desk.

Warren, is my Beijing expert as he has been here the longest which is a whole 2.5 weeks. That may not seem long but he has helped me set up my internet, tried to figure out what was wrong with my AC, took me to his lab where I met Kristin and then took us for dinner. I don't know what we had for dinner that night - there was some fungus, tofu and some kind of meat. It was pretty good though.

After dinner, Warren wanted to get his bike back to the dorm but since I still don't have my two wheels, Warren now assumed the role of driver. He also decided to take some grapes which I was supposed to hold while sitting on the bike and not falling off. That bike ride was very interesting, to say the least. First of all, the seat is made of metal so it ends up poking your butt, then there are speed bumps/inclines which aggravate the said poking and finally, the bike not being tall enough causes your feet to touch the ground while you try and straddle the metal framed seat. We did make it back to the dorm though, without falling. The AC was still broken in my room when we got back. They sent a repair guy but all we said to each other was - wo ting bu dong i.e I don't understand. But the conclusion was that it couldn't be fixed that night and would be done the next day. I had to haul two giant comforters up to the 5th floor to sleep in Warren's air conditioned room on the tiled floor. But I have to say, that I slept like a baby because of all the flying, the food and the bike ride.

Speaking of the bike ride, the next morning we found evidence of our epic bike ride in the form of little green grapes scattered here and there on our path.