Mid-autumn party, courtesy Sigma-Aldrich

It’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which means MOON CAKES! all the time!! My only disappointment is the lack of chocolate content.

Yesterday lab mates told me how a chemical supplier gave us a bunch of gift certificates as thanks for our orders (um, Atlanta Sigma-Aldrich vendors, are you reading this?) so we decided to have a lil Mid-Autumn party funded by the supplier. To get to lab mate’s apartment, we all road our bikes like the Buttercream Gang across town where we met friends who’d done the grocery shopping.

Mates prepared some common things, like vegetarian meatballs and fried chicken (and moon cakes!), and then some more uncommon (to me) dishes: bean skin, duck stomach, fungus things, (duck?) liver, jellyfish. To prove that I’m not a finicky eater, I did at least try all of the dishes. I think Tanu enjoyed eating the jellyfish mostly to make me squirm (and squirm I did).

Sometimes I feel like what my nephew Logan (1 yr old) must feel: where he’s around people he knows, but doesn’t understand a thing they’re saying except occasionally his name. But tonight I didn’t feel isolated; although I understood only some of what they said, we still chatted in English and Chinese, talked/laughed about the people dancing on the tv, and generally had a fantastic time.

But I was mostly stricken by how wonderful my friends are. I have to admit that before moving here, I was afraid that I’d be with stick-in-the mud over-studying Chinese lab mates. One of the perceptions I’ve looked forward to in/validating is the homogeneity and demeanor of Chinese people. The reality is that (at least) my lab mates are helpful, compassionate, and funny (and hard-working!). I mean, there’s always at least one person in lab who’s humming or singing The Phantom of the Opera. I think I’ve found my niche.

To cap off the evening, we rode our bikes back across town to campus. This time, it felt more like E.T. where they’re riding their bikes away from the cops/evil scientists. But we dodged busses and rickshaws instead of police cars, and instead of carrying E.T. in a front basket, I had a lab mate balancing on the rack over my rear wheel.