erhu ready for your closeup?

Recently, I serendipitously discovered a local erhu teacher. Following a brief intro lesson, I decided to take several lessons. Lessons haven't begun yet because of National Holiday/parents visiting/lack of erhu. 

But the other day I ventured into a musical district in Beijing that was really interesting: after exiting the subway, I found a street lined with musical instrument shops. Each specialized in different types, such as brass, violins, drums, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, and traditional Chinese instruments. It was really quite a sight to see!

After a bit of inquiry from several shops to get a feel for prices and characteristics, I spoke with a shopkeeper through broken Chinese and English and explained my musical background and need in an erhu. I tried out few and settled on a beauty with a nice open tone. Of course I bargained a little, but held back in an attempt to keep it classy. 

When I took it back to lab, I played the Chinese National Anthem and song from Phantom of the Opera for lab mates. At first some didn't recognize their anthem, which could either because they didn't expect it from me or because of my lack of ability...

Anyway, here are a few photos:

Get in my belly!... please?

The night started out innocently enough: Lab mates decided to go to a national hot pot chain. We've been a few times and it is de-lish. You make your own dipping sauce (my specialty is a sesame peanut sauce with a health dose of garlic) and then they bring out lots of raw meats and fresh veggies that you then cook in spiced broths and eat, family-style.

pretty raw meats!

they even have in-your-face noodle making!

I usually stick to the beef muscle (you wonder why I have to specify "muscle"?) strips and pâté along with potatoes, mushrooms, noodles, etc.

water lilies are edible! surprise!

Somebody usually orders cow stomach (see?) and coagulated duck blood slices, and I will nibble on something of it partly to be courteous and partly to provide my Chinese friends with look-at-the-foreigner-gagging-on-food-we-think-is-totally-normal entertainment.

Well this night, I decided to embrace the culture. Afterall, I've been here three months (!).

Down went the coagulated blood.

I slurped up the prickly stomach.

Up next was new.... duck colon?? Well, "when in Rome..."

I just... really hope they clean these things well.

But then came the crowning event of the night....

no caption can do this justice.

oh yes. brains. pig brains. Now, I'm sure I've eaten brains in things before (let's start--and stop--at sausages), but never a mouthful of pulsating, spongy brain. After it sat in the boiling broth for ~10 min to kill any parasites (wait... can that denature prions too?..) they pulled the ladle out and I ripped a chunk off with my chopsticks.

open the grub gate!

Sadly, it took me a few seconds to gather myself. When I gingerly popped it into my mouth, I chewed a few times and it wasn't as chewy as I thought... I guess the other times I've played with brain was in physiology when it was fixed with PFA. But actually the feathery texture just made it worse so I swallowed it whole and willed it down my throat.

One (rather large) bite was all I was up for, but Jinyang devoured the other half of the brain by himself.

imagine your teeth cutting into the frontal lobe...

I stuck mostly to the safe grub for the rest of the night and thought frequently--while my sweet potatoes cooked in the spiced broth spiked with residual brain juices--of the blood, stomach, colon, and brain soup digesting in my own stomach.

Phase 4 trial of a traditional Chinese medicine

A few weeks ago, I noticed a few reddish splotches on my midsection. They weren't raised or itchy, so I figured they were just bruises (you know how much I frolic about). But they didn't go away. In fact, they've slowly multiplied across my body. (to clear up any over-exaggeration, I really only have about 15 spots)

Keeping it rated PG, here's a photo of one splotch on my arm:

splotch.

I've tried figuring out the cause, but I'm not allergic to anything (thanks for the genes and upbringing, mom and dad!). It very likely could've been bed bug bites from Jiuzhaigou. However, they aren't irritated at all, I don't see any bite sites, and I think a few developed weeks after Jiuzhaigou. I am getting pretty old, but I don't think age spots should set in this young.

Anyway, I sent above photo to my fam, and I was recommended antihistamine and hydrocortisone. An overnight benedryl didn't help, so I visited the pharmacy on campus with lab mate Jie.

No hydrocortisone- apparently you have to go to a doctor for that (maybe they thought I meant cortisone shots?). So after some fun translation games, we settled on a traditional Chinese medicine.

my tube 'o TCM with lab notes in background. I'm so studious.

I really have no clue what this is, except that it smells kinda like icy hot... which paradoxically makes the splotch itch (or is it "ironic"? someone text Alanis Morissette for me). Also, the pharmacist said "no spicy food", but considering my addiction fondness for gong bao ji ding, I'm not sure how great my patient compliance will be.

Beijing Halloweeeeen

It's 11:30pm and I have to present in lab tomorrow. I have no slides completed. But I had planned on spending three hours tonight doing flow cytometry until my advisor told me that an alternative--and much faster/cheaper--method for determining nanoparticle uptake would suffice. So it's like I have three FREE hours tonight --> I'm writing a blog post instead of finishing my presentation three hours early and actually sleeping tonight.

It's Halloween! I've heard that eastern Beijing (the international part of town) actually has festivities, but at Beida, I haven't seen so much as a fake cobweb. I don't even love Halloween that much (though my favorite costumes growing up include X-Men's Cyclops where I wore sweats and safety goggles, a homemade zombie outfit [it was awesome to rip up an old suit], the hiker guy from Double Rainbow, and "change you can believe in" where I glued coins to my shirt.) but it was a great opportunity to share a lil culture with my friends. and eat copious amounts of candy.

Kai and I rode bikes to the vast underground supermarket, Carrefour, in search of pumpkins. Not totally surprising, they had no jack-o-lantern-sized pumpkins, but just baby squashes for eating. Actually, at first we couldn't find those and considered carving watermelons (which actually might be awesome/more delicious). I also raided the candy section and got gummies and chocolate.

Ok, I'll just stop writing and just post the photos so that I can work on my presentation.

Lemon cake. "But wait," you say, "there aren't ovens in China!" Well this is a microwave lava cake!!!

Room mate Bobby (yes, the 2nd Asian Bobby room mate I've had), Tanu, Lab mates Kai and Jie.

spook.y.

Lab mate Kai.

Then we watched a scary movie. No, not The Grudge (for obvious reasons).

Happy Halloween!

dawn of the panda hat

When people make a to-do list for a visit to China, I think that the list goes like

1) hike the Great Wall and ponder the engineering feat

2) consider our quests for immortality while reviewing the Terracotta Warriors

3) OHMYGOSH PANDA EVERYTHING.

Well upon our arrival in Chengdu, we immediately booked our trip to the panda breeding center (in my opinion the video provided excessive details regarding techniques to ensure progeny). After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over pandas (!) for a few hours, we exited through the gift shop. A certain panda had quickly caught Tanu's eye and she bought it without haste. For me, however, Jim Carey's "The Mask" taught me to distrust any potentially enchanted masks/hats--and anything panda is most certainly enchanted.

True to Hollywood, for the next few days we had an Indian panda with us. Tanu transformed and would often speak in the third person--er.. animal: "panda is hungry" or "panda is tired" or "panda wants to do jump shot."

feed panda!

panda must hug prayer wheel!

panda loves cheesy Chinese poses (we actually did see this pose)

The hat eventually wore my defenses down and I tried it on. But hungry for my soul, it took me about three steps too far:

Not sure what I was thinking. Oh wait, I wasn't thinking- THE HAT WAS CONTROLLING ME.

I guess my parents'd trade me for a panda any day.

Just like my almost-was addiction to World of Warcraft, I was able to pull off the monster pretty quickly after this fiasco and returned to normal (for me).

Now it sits in Tanu's room, perched on the top of her book shelves, waiting for another host...

Jumpin' Jiuzhaigou!

Tanu and I are basically rock stars.

Proof:

Exhibit A: Amazing Jump Pic abilities

During National Holiday (where everyone in China goes on vacation for a week, making it impossible to import some cells that you really really need for research), my parents, Tanu, and I visited southwestern China, including the national park, Jiuzhaigou. It used to be home to nine (that's the "jiu" part of "jiuzhaigou") Tibetan-esque villages dotted among gorgeous landscapes of waterfalls and lakes of vivid colors.

At one lake, some hawkers offered traditional Tibetan clothing to prance around in. Initially we poo-pooed the idea, but after seeing how much fun the Chinese tourists were having in fur-lined garments, we donned the robes (much to their delight). And as ambassadors of awesomeness, we effected cultural exchange by introducing jump shots to our pictures.

Judging from the gasps in the crowd, this was an entirely new concept for them. Now, the Chinese are very inventive when it comes to poses, but we got similar reactions when we'd add some air into our shots.

this is a lil twist on the jump pic. think pairs' ice skating.

okay, so sometimes our timing is off. but even olympic synchronized swimmers make mistakes!

These observers came over afterwards to look at the pictures.

At one point, the crowd was especially interactive. First they observed.

Then one woman tried some herself. We jumped in for support.

This spawned others' jump pictures.

And one novice hopper requested I document her glee.

All in all, I would say it was a successful day: we got to see beautiful natural scenery and start a photographic trend in China!

entr'acte

Life has been very busy recently: in addition to being a full-time student, I've become a part-time tour guide for my parents who've come to visit. It's been fantastic having them here, but it means that my other part-time occupation as blogger has taken a back seat.

But rest assured that highlights of our experiences will be posted soon. To whet your appetite, here's my current favorite photo. It comes from the album, "When we mimic poses that others really actually do."

Also, Tanu may have brainwashed herself into believing that she's part panda.

But more on these things later.