1) Today it has been pouring since morning till evening. Not a good time to go out, but luckily I was at the school gates when the first drops hit me. I made a dash to the building, but the rain has not stopped since. So we're in a bit of a situation here - on one hand it's raining cats and dogs, and on the other, we've got to eat. The nearest canteen (Cafeteria No. 7/8) is a good 10 minutes' walk/ 2 minutes' bike ride away, so that would not do. So what do we do? Order delivery of course! Through an app called "饿了么" ('Hungry Yet?'), we ordered food delivery from a nearby restaurant.
2) My lab mates sure know how to order good food. Shredded potatoes, red braised pork belly, chicken strips, fried egg with chilies - it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal, and one that reminded me of the culture of sitting and eating together at mealtime. Meanwhile, everyone probed me with questions about Malaysia, and especially the culture and types of people there. Apparently, while many mainland Chinese (the ones who I spoke to, anyway) have not set foot out of the country before, a lot of them are familiar with something called the "新马泰" (Sin-Ma-Thai) which is basically a tour covering three countries - Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand! How cool is that?
3) Meanwhile, for the rest of the day, I was privileged to be able to attend two conferences, one large and one small. The large one involved all labs on the 3rd floor, with me and Dr. Yang (yes, he's the doctor with 15 years experience and currently pursuing his Masters) from our lab attending. The topics were very abroad, including research on Traditional Chinese Medicine - a field that may be less often heard in Western countries, but which is very heavily researched here. After this talk, we went for a smaller seminar, one which involved only our lab members and Prof. Zhang (the professor of the Molecular Cancer Research Lab). Basically, everyone other than me presented a paper, with Prof. Zhang giving his feedback afterwards. Essentially, the same thing as the morning seminar that I attend in the chemistry lab.
4) That has been a brief recall of my day today (I know I'm still a couple of days away from the current date but do bear with me), and thank you very much for visiting. Have a nice week ahead, and stay tuned for the next post. Cheers! :D
Everyone gathered round for a feast in the student lounge :)
This is "stone pot tofu" (Cafeteria No. 7)
delicate slices of beancurd cooked in a hot and savoury sauce in a stone pot, served with as much rice as you want, and soup!
Having stone pot lunch at Cafeteria No. 7
Large conference with everyone from the 3F labs
Mini-seminar with Prof Zhang (seated left) and everyone in our lab...
Close up of the delicious food! ^^
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