Done with tests and off to do some testing.

Hello everyone! I finally finished my tests and it feels great to be done, although it hasn't quite fully sunk in yet. Over all I am pretty happy with them, some went really well, others just ok. But atleast it's over and I get to have a much needed break from school. I just wanted to post quickly to say that I am leaving today to go to Yangjuan for a week with Deborah and Matt to do research. So, if I am MIA for a little while not to worry. I'll check in again when I get back.

In the lab

Today I finally got to start doing some real research. Though not the most exciting part of my research or my stay in China for people to read about, I thought I would share the field notes I wrote up this afternoon. In other news, I also found out my Reading final test today, 92 out of 100! Yea for me. Makes me feel better about the other tests too, three more to go!

Field notes 1/23/2007. Calibration

Today Liao Wenjie, Jiang Laoshi’s graduate student who has been assigned to help me, took me to the lab to use the scale and calibrate my equipment. The lab was located in the Hydrological Engineering Building near the West Gate of campus. The room we used looked like many of the other lab rooms I have seen on campus, about 10’ x 20’, dirty, and cluttered with all sorts of glass wear, some containing mysterious brown solutions that looked like they had been sitting for weeks. The state of the laboratory rooms I think is representative of the quality of research that occurs. The dirtiness and disorder of the room would be unacceptable even for an undergraduate lab in the United States.

However, the room did contain a scale accurate to 0.0000g which I was very grateful to be able to use. The scale was small and had sliding glass doors. Inside the weighing chamber there was a small 100ml beaker containing what appeared to be salt crystals that were absorbing chemical ions in the air. The crystals were blue at the bottom of the beaker and reddish/pinkish the rest of the way up. I recorded the brand and any other data I could find about the scale in case it became useful. I also photographed it.

I began weighing the filter paper and placing each in a labeled carrying device. Since I only had 10 plastic carrying dishes, I put the 1^st trip Yangjuan and Juizhaigou weighed filter papers in them. After that I devised a scheme to layer the filters in the case they arrived in with the piece of paper that had separated them denoting the label of the filter directly beneath it.

I realize that this does not protect the filters as well as if I had cases for all of them, but I only had 10 cases and this is the best solution I could come up with given I had to weigh all the filters I will need now because I may not be able to use the lab again before my second research trip. I weighed and labeled all the filters I thought I would use, the blanks, and 8 extra just in case, about 50 filters in all.

I had also planned on calibrating the rotameters today and had brought them to the lab as well. Unfortunately, when I arrived Liao Wenjie informed me that there was no 1L titration burette, the largest they had was 50ml. I was very surprised to learn this because this is a very standard piece of glass wear, but I guess I should learn not to be surprised in China. I explained what I wanted to use it for and he said he understood the concept but had never done it before. I asked how people usually calibrated things like this at Sichuan University and he said he didn’t know; there was no air research going on. While I finished weighing my filters he thought about something else we could substitute. After a while he told me he had called a friend who had made a 1L/min calibration device but had never used it. Even though I wanted to calibrate at 10L/min, I thought if I could see the device maybe I could think of something. However, when the friend arrived he said that it was “corroded” and didn’t work.

So, I still have not calibrated my rotameters and pump and am leaving for Yangjuan and Xichang with Deborah and Matt on Saturday. As soon as we return from Yangjuan, around February 3^rd, I will take the bus to Juizhaigou to meet Andrew Scanlon and another woman named Dawn who will be accompanying me into the valley where I will do my research. They will be working on a garden project there. I plan on carrying out the experiments anyway, since I have weighed the filters and that is the most important part. I have emailed my advising professor back at UW about possible alternative methods for calibration. I also emailed Liao Wenjie about where Sichuan University buys their glass wear so perhaps I can purchase a 1L titration burette to use. Once I can find one, I will calibrate the equipment after all the data has been collected. Though not ideal, I will at least be able to back track and use a more exact flow rate for calculation.

Playing with Swimming Friends

After a relaxing Saturday, today I went to a Buddhist temple called Luo Dai to "play" with my swimming friends. There is a word in Chinese, wanr, that the Chinese use all the time and means to go so something fun but is literally translated as "play" and I love it. It is one of my favorite words. Anyways, the place was really cool. It was in the mountains by a lake about 45 minutes outside of Chengdu. The Buddhist Temple was cool and beautiful, but alot like all the other Buddhist temple in China. The cool part about this one was that there was a huge stone wall, like a mini great wall, that you walked on up and down mountains for like 3 miles to get to the temple. The scenery was beautiful and it felt really good to get out of the city. It was foggy and kind of mysterious-seeming too. The wall was equipped with, like every Chinese tourist site, people selling snacks and incense every 50 yards. The most common snacks here were pineapple on a stick, sunflower seeds, corn on the cob and candy corn. The amount and availability of food in China still amazes me.
The temple was very pretty too. Some of my swimming friends lit incense and prayed in front of the Buddha statue. On the way down we took a different route that was a smaller path with stone steps that went by alot of carved Buddhist statues from the Tang Dynasty. The age of things here is amazing too. These are hundreds of years old. We just don't have stuff like that in the US.
After arriving at the bottom we walked around the tourist village for awhile and had lunch. Then we returned back to ChuanDa to go swimming. After that Huangjie and another lady took me out to Huo Guo. It is good, but it is so greasy and spicy that I never feel good afterwards and I don't like that. I wish they would just take me out to noodles or something. But it is really fun to hang out with them and I can tell I am getting better at Chinese everyday. I can actually have a semi-normal conversation now and I lasted all day in Chinese. I used to fall apart after like half a day and my brain would just get too tired. So that is exciting. It gives me confidence as I go into finals week next week, I have taken 3 now and have 5 left. The three I have already taken are my Chinese movie watching class, TaiChi, and Chinese Composition. They have all gone pretty well so far. Tomorrow I have Reading Comprehension, which is the class I am most worried about. Wish me luck!

You yong guan and UW-SCU lian huan hui

Today was my first real final. It was my Chinese writing class final. It went pretty well, which was good. After that I went swimming and took a picture of the place where I go swimming. It is the big building behind the trees. The next picture is of the entrance, which is around back.
This guy I swim with also sent me some pictures the other day, so here is a picture of me swimming at my pool. Then we had a holiday party with the Sichuan students that one of the Chinese teachers organized. It was fun, and very well orchestrated. It felt a little like we were in middle school again, but I'm still a child at heart and I think everybody had a good time. We divided into 4 teams and played lots of different games and whoever's team had the most points at the end won. My team won. They made us a banner for the event, which you can see in the background. It said "UW-SCU Exchange Program New Year Party". In China, they make red banner's like that for everything. They are all over campus and the city with political slogans on them and they change weekly it seems. I guess they just want everyone to know what sort of event they are attending, in case they forget. Well, other than that it has been a pretty boring week. I am getting ready for excitement though, getting my research ready and preparing for my parents to come.

News from China

Hello Everyone! Just a quick update. This is a picture of a pond in front of the building where I have class. My mom asked for more pictures and this is the only one I remembered to take, so there you go. We call it the Mao pond because on the left hand side of the pond (the way you are looking at it now) there is a huge statue of Mao saluting (as always).
As for good news today, I went swimming at the indoor pool again and tried doing butterfly and backstroke for the first time since my surgery and it went slowly, but better than I expected. Also, I am now on the Women's Rugby Team of Chengdu. It's not as impressive as it sounds and as you all know I don't know how to play rugby. But, I was walking over to the track to go for a run this evening and as I was standing at the entrance a group of foreigners who were across the field started waving at me. I didn't know who they were but I thought I would walk over and see what they wanted. They were playing Rugby and wanted to see if I wanted to play. I decided to give it a try and it was a lot of fun. It was very informal and we just played touch, not tackle. There were 3 guys and 7 girls and we just played a pick up game for an hour or so. The guys were all from Britain or Australia and had played before and the girls had been playing for a few months anyways, but I caught on pretty quickly and they were all very nice. So I told them I would start playing with them regularly. They practice or have games about twice a week and the next game is on Saturday. Even though it's not really Chinese at all and I am just hanging out with a bunch of ex-pats, it's really fun and I am really excited about it, to learn how to play, to make some new friends, and to be on a team again. After "practice" we went to Peter's (one of the Western restaurants) as a goodbye/birthday dinner for some of the girls who had been playing. I hadn't eaten Western food in a really long time and it was overwhelming just to look at the menu. I ended up getting taco's on the recommendation of one of the British guys, Scott. I usually take recommendations at the western places because they are very hit or miss. The tacos were OK, but nothing to write home about (even though I am). It's just interesting because I thought I would miss Western food alot more than I do. I'll get little cravings every now and then, but if I just go eat some delicious Chinese food I am fine. I get cravings to make Western food more than to eat it.

negotiating traffic

Traffic is one of the most memorable parts of China. It is like nothing else I have ever experienced and like nothing I could have imagined. Whenever I am riding my bike I am constantly reminded of the part in finding Nemo where they are in the middle of all the jelly fish playing a "game" in order to get back into the open water and Marlin says "It's ok, we're having fun, we're cheating death and having fun at the same time." It really feels like a video game, constantly swerving and breaking to avoid hitting or being hit by cars, taxis, busses, other bikers, motor scooters, rickshaws, or pedestrians. I am sometimes surprised by how "normal" this part of China has become, even though it is by far the craziest and most dangerous part. It's hard to find the words to describe what it is like, so here is a humorous article someone wrote about traffic in China that I think epitomizes it pretty well.

Motoring madness puts spoke in China's wheel
Fintan O'Toole

Letter from Beijing: For the benefit of intending travelers, here are
some Chinese rules of the road:

1. Driving is like making cloth or baskets - the skill is in the
weaving. If there is more room on the far side of a three-lane highway,
your duty is to get into it as fast as possible. Lanes are for bowling
alleys.

2. Sound waves are a powerful form of energy. If you blow your horn
loudly and continuously, obstacles in your way will disappear, clearing
the road ahead.

3. Seatbelts restrict the flow of blood to the brain and may be
dangerous. Drivers may buckle up if they are approaching a police
checkpoint, but the belt should be removed as soon as the checkpoint is
passed. Passengers should on no account wear seatbelts, as attempts to
find the buckles which have been carefully stored under the seat covers
may distract the driver from an important mobile phone conversation.

4. When approaching a junction with a major road, enter the flow of
traffic immediately and decisively. The drivers on the main road will
be well aware of your presence, even at night, and stopping to wait for
a gap may be interpreted as an insult to their sixth sense.

5. Remember that Kung Fu movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
are entirely realistic. Chinese people can sense at all times what is
happening behind them, even without looking. They also have
lightening-fast reflexes, so any momentary danger will inevitably be
averted.

6. Overtaking is a spiritual quest, a homage to the gods of time, who
do not like to see their precious gift wasted. The less time wasted and
the more dangerous the maneuvre (for example, overtaking on a hairpin
bend on a mountain road with a ravine 5,000ft below) the greater the
devotion demonstrated. You will get your reward in the next life, a
destination which you may also reach sooner than everyone else.

7. Even the narrowest road has two sides - it is wasteful not to use
both.

8. If you find yourself facing a head-on collision with another
vehicle, it is vital to assume that the other driver will blink first
and take the necessary evasive action. If everyone abides by this
principle, then there can be no confusion. All drivers will understand
their proper responses in this situation and there can be no danger of
an accident.

I offer these rules as a cut-out-and- keep guide for anyone intending
to travel to China, because, oddly, they are not published by the road
safety authorities and can be learned only by observation. This might
suggest that they are not rules at all, but they are universally
observed in every part of China I've been to so far, and are presumably
so well understood that they do not need to be made explicit.

So deeply entrenched are these rules, indeed, that they turn on their
heads western perceptions of what is and is not good driving. In the
West, for example, someone who swings out into the middle of the road
while approaching a blind blend is a maniac who has no right to be on
the road. In China, such a person is genuinely a good driver. If you
assume that when you turn the corner, there may be cars bearing down on
you (because they are overtaking on the other side of the bend), then
it makes perfect sense to stay in the middle so that you have room, if
necessary, to swerve to either side.

This kind of skill may explain one of two astonishing aspects of Chinese driving: the relatively low rate of accidents. It is not that the carnage on the roads in China is not appalling, even by Irish standards. It is. In China, injuries from road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 45. Every
day, about 600 people are killed and 45,000 injured on the roads. But
if you travel in buses and taxis for a while, these figures come to
seem remarkably low.

I can hardly believe that I've seen only one bad crash in the last two
months. (Though having my eyes closed most of the time may have had
something to do with it.) The other amazing thing is the relative
absence of road rage. In most other societies, driving would come to a
halt because the roads would be filled with the bodies of drivers who
had shot each other, or with the burnt-out wrecks of vehicles whose
owners had spontaneously combusted. But I've only seen one episode of
serious cursing, when a parked car suddenly and without any signal
pulled out right in front of a taxi I was in, missing it by a
centimeter. The taxi driver turned the air blue and the guilty party
gave a sheepish smile and an apologetic wave, as if he had accidentally
brushed up against an old lady's elbow.

When only the most egregious offences raise any objections, it seems
clear that all the other offences are regarded as normality.

This all means that there's no point in asking Chinese people to
explain the awful driving, since they don't regard it as awful at all.
On long drives, when I've got tired of taking the holy name in vain, I
try to calm myself by thinking up explanations. The most obvious is
that mass driving is a new thing here and that China has gone from the
ubiquitous bicycle to 130 million motor vehicles in the blink of an
eye. But such an explanation would equally apply if Chinese drivers
were slow and cautious.

I do think bicycles have something to do with it, though. Most drivers
learned their road sense in the bicycle era, when weaving around
obstacles made sense and the risks from a crash were small. Another, related, reason may be that the car is still a symbol of personal freedom, an escape from a communal rule-bound world into a private space where you can follow your own instincts. Or maybe it's just the peculiarly Chinese combination of fatalism "If I'm going to die, there's nothing I can do about it" and optimism "Sure, haven't I survived worse?" that comes from a hard history.>>

So don't be scared, although it's hard not to be. But there is nothing to be done but accept it and try to be careful, which I always am.

In other more uplifting news, I had my first final in my TV watching class on Monday and it went pretty well. We just watched a small ten-minute part of a movie and had to answer questions about it. 1 down, 6 to go. I also found out from my swimming ayi that the boy who took me swimming doesn't work where he said he worked, or so rumor has it. I don't know what to think but it i nice to know they are watching out for me.

I don't know if I should be flattered or scared

So the weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. On Thursday night I went out to dinner with one of my swimming friends, we went to a chuan chuan (hot pot with sticks) place. While we were eating, I was trying to make conversation and mentioned that I was going indoor swimming again on Friday night. I had arranged to go swimming with this guy who saw me in the paper and came to ChuanDa to meet me. I thought that was kind of weird, but that I had met lots of people randomly and he seemed like a normal enough guy so I agreed to go. My swimming lady did not agree. That night she called me just as I was going to sleep and I didn't feel like answering the phone so I let it ring for probably about 15 minutes straight until I finally picked up just to make it stop. She was calling to tell me she didn't think I should go swimming Friday night and I should send her his phone number. I told her I would and I would talk to her tomorrow, just so she would stop calling and I could go to sleep. This is a picture of me and Huangjie, in the blue coat. The next morning while I was in class she sent me 4 text messages reiterating the same thing. When I got a break from class I sent her a message back that said I was grateful she was so worried about me that it was nothing to worry about and that if I had any problem at all I would just call her. She sent me a message back that said she understood, but could I give her his number. So I text messaged her back his number, but that I thought this was not necessary and that I appreciated her concern but I could take care of myself and there was no need to worry. After that I didn't hear back from her. Later that afternoon I got a text message from the guy I was going to go swimming with that said something like "I'm confused, it's up to you." I didn't really know what he was talking about so I just replied that was sorry for any confusion and had been very busy but still wanted to go swimming this evening. He said "that's not what I was talking about, but OK I'll see you at 7." I was confused too at this point, so I just said OK. When I met with him at 7pm and he said that someone from ChuanDa had called him and said that it was against the rules for me to hang out with people outside of school because I was some sort of VIP on the ChuanDa campus. I didn't really get it but I just told him I was sorry for the confusion. So then we went to the swimming pool. I picked a lane and started swimming. When I stopped to rest, I saw an older woman from my ChuanDa swimming team there! I asked her what she was doing there are she said that she was a regular at this pool and everyone knew her there so my swimming grandpa had asked her to come and watch me to make sure I was OK! This is a picture of me and Swimming ayi (swimming aunt). Apparently Huang jie (the woman I had eaten dinner with) had called her and swimming grandpa to see what they thought about this new friend I had made and they all decided that it was very dangerous and that I shouldn't go and somehow found out I went anyway. I'm not really sure. At this point I introduced her to the guy that I had come with and then didn't know what else to do, so I just kept swimming. While I was swimming I saw her asking him all these questions. She told me as we were walking out that she was asking him for his student ID and registration numbers and his danwei (work unit) and phone number and essentially grilling him about who he was and why he wanted to know me. At about 9pm the pool was closing and we got out and I told the guy I would meet him in the lobby. Then I went to the locker room. My swimming ayi said a few more things to the boy before following me into the locker room. She really did know everybody there and was chatting with everybody while I got changed. When I was ready to go she said that she rode her bike here and asked me how I had come. I told her my bike was back at West gate (where I had met the guy) and we had driven his car here. She said that she would walk back with me and that swimming grandpa would want her to escort me back to make sure I got home OK. I thought that she had told the guy that after I left so I agreed. Plus, I already felt bad that I had put my swimming friends through so much trouble, even though it was unsolicited it was because I had not listened to them in the first place. So at this point I was willing to just go along with whatever they wanted to do. As we were walking home I asked her if she had in fact told the guy that I was going home with her. She said no, I should call him. So I called they guy and had to tell him that I had already gone home with my "teacher" and maybe I would see him again at the pool some time. Swimming ayi had told him that if he wanted to get to know me he could come to the Chuan Da pool to talk, where they could supervise I guess. I feel really bad for this guy and hope I don't hear from him again, for his sake. Swimming ayi walked me back to my bike and I rode home. I really don't know how to feel about this whole exchange. I am flattered that they are worried about me, but now I feel like I can't make any new friends. I also feel bad that they had to go through so much trouble, but also a little offended that they won't let me take care of myself. It is all very strange. Well, I'll see them all tomorrow and hopefully it will all be over and we can just move on.......to the next adventure.

Call off the search parties

Hi everyone! Sorry I have not been a good blogger these past few days. In my defense, not alot "interesting" has happened. I thought I'd write a quick update to hold you over until the weekend when I have a chance to write more. So here's what I have been up to. I went exploring with Laura and bought a new coffee cup. It is big and grey and very pretty. On Thursday night I started feeling sick again, yuck. I took a Chinese test on Friday and got 9.9 out of 10! Yea! Then I went home and promptly got into bed and did not move all weekend. By Monday I was feeling much better, but I didn't go swimming because I didn't want to jinx it. Yesterday was quiz night again and we are moving up in the world, we got second place!! Although it was smoky, fun was had by all. Today after class I went swimming then watched movies with Matt, Little Miss Sunshine and the Sentinel. I don't know if my standards are going down, but both were very good I thought. I don't remember exactly when this happened, but this has also been the week of swimming presents. I got a navy blue and orange and a hat for participating in the New Years Winter swimming event and I got to be in the paper again! That's me getting in the water. This time I was mentioned in one paper and mentioned and had a picture in another, but the stories themselves were about the event, not about me. One of my swimming friends also bought me a traditional style cup and saucer too, but I'm not really sure why. I'm going out to dinner with all my swimming friends again tomorrow night too. I started swimming again on Tuesday and although the weather was beautiful (sunny and relatively warm) the water was ice cold, 5 degrees Celsius!! Brrr! It was just as cold today too, but they say this is as cold as it gets. Well, that's all I can think of for now. I love you and miss you all. I'll write again soon, I promise. And if I don't, just think about how lucky you are to be hearing from me this often. A few years ago a phone call or two a month would be alot to expect if I was studying here in China. Technology is amazing, let's just not take it for granted and expect to be updated every second of every day (mother). :)

Chegdu Excursions

I went to another temple yesterday with my swimming friend Huang Jie. This one is called WenShu and is also a working monastery. Before we went to breakfast at a Guangdong (Cantonese) place that was delicious. It was a bunch of little plates of different rolls and noodles and vegetables, like dim sum. Then she took me to the girls side of the monastery were we got to see the young girl students (about my age) saying prayer before lunch. There were little gold candles of yak butter lit all over the place and it was really beautiful. She knew alot about all the customs because her brother had trained to be a monk next door in the boy monestary. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand all of it, but it was still really interesting to see and I picked up maybe half of it. Then we went next door to the boy monastery, which is much bigger and was much more crowded. They also have a tea house, a vegetarian restaurant, a little hotel, and gardens to walk in there. It was much more touristy, but also very beautiful and nice to just walk around and talk. Outside of the monastery was even more touristy, an "ancient village" style place featuring all sorts of souvenirs and crafts. They even had 4 women working on the world's largest silk embroidery. They started it this October and won't be done until May. There was also a performance of "traditional" Chinese culture. It all seemed a little like Chinese Disney Land and a little false, but it was still fun and all the crafts were real and really amazing to see; carvings, weaving, painting, etc. Then she took me to a famous restaurant that featured traditional Chengdu style xiao chi (little snacks), which were also very good. Then we walked back to Chengdu. On the way back we passed the cell phone district and I took a picture of some people outside advertising. It is amazing what they will get people to do for money here. You always see crazy things going on in front of the big businesses to attract customers. This was people marching around wearing signs. You will also see little drum core, dance things going on. At the very least, they will line up all their staff outside the restaurant at about 4pm before the dinner rush and they all chant things in a call and response style. Sometimes I am amazed by what becomes normal here, it's hard to be phased by anything anymore.

Now that's the way to start to new year

The weekend-long New Year's swimming adventure actually began pretty tamely. Wu Laoshi (from Taiwan), swimming grandpa, Ou Zhou Laoshi (other swimming grandpa), another important swimming guy and I all drove down to Chungzhou on Saturday at 4pm after I got out of class. We had class again this weekend because we get Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off (i know, it doesn't really make any sense because it is the same number of days off either way). It was rainy and foggy on the way down so it took us a little longer than usual to arrive, plus we almost ran out of gas which was a little scary. I can just imagine us pushing his car on the freeway in the rain. Luckily, we rolled into the gas station (barely). As soon as we arrived we ate dinner and then they had a meeting to I was sent to my room to "rest". I had a room to myself because I was the only girl, so that was pretty nice. I just read and actually fell asleep pretty quickly because I was tired and there was nothing else to do. The next morning after breakfast they had more meetings, but I was sick of being in my room so I wondered around the grounds of the hotel and explored a little bit. But then swimming grandpa came looking for me and said that I should stay in my room and "rest" because it wasn't safe. So I was stuck in my room again reading until lunch. Finally after lunch we got to go somewhere. We went to this little pool where the race was being held. We met up with the rest of the team. Since the pool area was very small, they only let the people in that heat through at one time. The guys raced first as teams of 10, each person swimming 50 yards. There were 4 heats of boy teams, then the girls. We raced as teams of 4, with each person swimming 50 yards. We were in the first heat and won by a long shot. It wasn't a very good race though. All the boys goggles kept falling off, so we decided not to wear any but you couldn't see AT ALL then and we weren't used to swimming in such a small pool. Our time was 2 minutes 30 seconds. In the 3rd and final heat of girl teams, one city had put together a team of these girls who majoring in swimming, so they beat us by a few seconds and we ended up getting second place. Oh well, it was fun anyway. People were yelling and beating on drums and it was a very exciting event. We also got 600 kuai for 2nd Place, so I got 150 kuai out of the weekend and didn't have to pay for anything. That night I changed rooms and shared it with 2 girls that were my age. After dinner Wu Laoshi and the two girls I shared a room with went to this cafe-type place and talked, played games, and drank wine until Chen Laoshi called us back. However, I sadly didn't make it until midnight and was asleep by about 11:30pm. I was up the next day when the New Year was changing in the US though, so I was thinking of all of you then.
The next morning was slow again. After lunch we left for the river. By the time we got there, a few hundred people were already there. All in all almost 1000 people participated and a few thousand people were there just to watch and cheer. The whole event was much more chaotic than I expected. Wu Laoshi and I stood around in the crowd for awhile until the rest of the team found us. We were in the second wave of people going. The idea was essentially that you would swim across the river dragging your clothes behind you in a waterproof bag to ring in the new year. So there was no racing or anything and once it was your "wave"s turn to go, you just got ready and went at your leisure. Then you got out on the other side, put on your clothes with everybody on the bleachers, and walked across the dam/bridge back to the other side. That was it, but it was still fun and everybody was really excited. I am also feeling more and more like an actual part of our winter swimming group which is really nice. I think these are the first actual, genuine friends I have made in China so far; partly because of language and partly I guess I just don't mesh well with the average "Chinese" personality, but I really like my swimming friends. All in all it was a good weekend and a great way to bring in the new year in a new country with my new friends. I can't believe it's already January, but I have high hopes for the rest of the year in China and can't wait to see everyone again when I get back! Happy New Year!