May 28th: More Presentations, More Friends, and WAY MORE food!

As the trip is nearing its end, I have fallen into a pattern. Wake up, get ready, then off for some kind of breakfast. Today we were meeting my roommate's buddy so she could get a lab coat for the lab experiments we would be doing later today. When we got there at the agreed meeting time at 8, however, we learned from other OSU students that she had been looking for us since 7:45!  YIKES! Luckily her buddy was still around and we got Faria her lab coat. Sadly I still didn't have one ^^' but I figured I would get one later.

Morning class was FULL of presentations! About 13 people had to present, so, not surprisingly, class ran long. AGAIN X). The topics today ranged from gender, to suicide, to HIV, and to more sanitation. Everyone did great though!

Before lunch, me and Faria finished making the lantern/balloon presents for my buddies. They ended up looking great despite the little amount of materials we had! Then we joined a big group for lunch and I had some more yummy duck with rice <3 SO GOOD. I was even able to eat the whole thing! After lunch we made it back to the hotel to wait in the lobby to go to the lab.

Apparently, our habit of arriving on time was far gone this late in the trip because there was only about half the group there and we were already late! Dr. Sun wasn't too happy, so he decided we would leave anyway! Too bad for the rest of the group D: (We had to tell them where to go once Dr. Sun led us there.) We had two choices of experiments, and (who knows why) I ended up picking testing mercury levels in urine. Kelsie ended up joining me though, so in our group it was us two and about 7 Chinese students. They were great though! They even let us put the urine in the test tubes ><'''. The lab ended up consisting of a lot more talking and laughing then learning about the mercury levels (at least for us Americans) and we left with two more friends! I can't believe how nice people have been in China. I hope these relationships continue when I am in the US again!

After lab, we hung out in the room until it was time for dinner. What was supposed to be me and Faria and her buddies ended up becoming a big group that included Kelsie and her buddies too. That seems to happen a lot in China, but the more the merrier!!! We ended up back on seafood street, but ate at a new restaurant with DELICIOUS food! The plates included mushrooms, green beans and potatoes, tomato soup with beef, spicy chicken and potato, eggplant, and salad. 7 dishes for 7 people is a LOT of food. After stuffing ourselves full, we made a pit stop at the cute store again. Money sure is in short supply! But it is always worth the fun <3.

We were all exhausted by the time we got home, but packing had to be done! How I will get everything to fit, I have NO IDEA. So far things have fit fairly well, but whether I'm over-weight I don't know. :(