"It's 3AM I must be lonely..."
Nah..Yilin's here keeping me company as I frantically pack and bitch at all the weight limits and size requirements we have to deal with when going home. It really sucks, is what it is. I know I'd be confronted with this and no matter how confident I am with my back-up plans, there's always still a glitch. Coming back with a project/research in a 45x31x19cm squished box is insane, now I'm just hoping they'll let me take it as a carry on. It fits the demensions, it's not extremely heavy, but the limits they impose are just too difficult to bear when you're bring back a year's work. There are so many other options, but time was running out and connections you thought you had suddenly fall through.
These plants were suppose to be shipped to Shandong to get inspected and "phyto'd", but my contact in Heze failed to contact me in time. Now I'm bringing my dried, pressed specimens with plants and seeds to Beijing with me where Chen Yi as graciously offered to let me stay at her house until I leave for the states. If I'm really nice and the good lord is on my side, she'll inspect my materials and issue a phytosanitary certificate.
Aside from all the packing and whining that's taking place, I have to take a moment to realize that THIS IS MY LAST NIGHT IN CHENGDU, SICHUAN PROVINCE. So, what did I do during my last full day here? Well, since Damia left, I've been homeless and I actually spent last night here in lab trying at least 26 different positions where I could actually fall asleep. I cleared an area on the tabletop where three computers are set up and just covered myself with a blanket that was left here and did my best not to fall off or through the table. It was a rough nights sleep, but crashing on the couches outside was no better as mosquitoes would eat you alive and the nosy "fuwuyuan" possibly wondering what the hell I was doing sleeping on the couch.
I was awaken this morning by a call from Li Juan, our class advisor here. We successfully got my transcript all worked out, I handed her the work I've completed, and got the confirmation that I'll be receiving 24 SU credits to equal a year's full time study back at the UW! I passed Chinese with a score of 80% which I'm a little bummed about, but heck, I passed!, I got my Chinese Painting course on there with a 98 and Li Juan's comments from what the instructor told her was most flattering and encouraging, another surprise was actually getting credit for the dance class I took here. The mean teacher actually gave me an "A" and Li laoshi said, "he thinks you're talented dancer." Again, hard to believe, but it was nice to hear having endured "Chinese ballet torture" for several weeks this spring. As for my research, Professor Zeng kindly agreed to offer me 10 credits for my expedition work, research, and several papers I've completed this year! With a whopping 12 credits for comprehensive elementary Chinese, I topped out at 24 even! What a huge sigh of relief! Knowing that all this would work out, I swung by the flower shop to give Li laoshi a small bouquet of Sampaguita (in Chinese 茉莉花 moli hua）knowing that she would be giddy and excited!
I spent most of today just running errands: printing documents at a neighborhood printing service, going to the Life Scienes building to see Lin Wen and Professor Zeng one last time as I collected my herbarium specimens, I swung by the post office to embarass myself again trying to ask for a large box (ugh, don't ask), and then, of course, all the packing and rearranging of my stuff. I managed to give myself a break to take some photos around campus and have a bbq dinner with Joern (aka Yurn...been mispelling his name) and his friend Rosemary, Daisy and her friend (possible b/f, but doesn't want to admit it!). Afterwards, I joined Yilin at Peter's where I had dessert, a refreshingly cool Lime Rickey, and a photo with some of the servers there.
As of now, I'm still planning on how to "gracefully" leave Chengdu. How will I arrange the taxi ride to the airport? How can I bring my heavy luggage down from the 3rd floor without looking like I need 3 other people to help me?
The big problem right now is leaving instructions for the shipment of the herbarium specimens I couldn't bring with me. Unfortunately, this was the former UW/SU collection from a few years ago, but I had to put my project materials first. Should my Shandong contact come through, these can be shipped to him for inspection and shipment to the states.
Let me get my self together on this so I can get a little sleep before my flight tomorrow at 1PM.
G'nite,
R
These plants were suppose to be shipped to Shandong to get inspected and "phyto'd", but my contact in Heze failed to contact me in time. Now I'm bringing my dried, pressed specimens with plants and seeds to Beijing with me where Chen Yi as graciously offered to let me stay at her house until I leave for the states. If I'm really nice and the good lord is on my side, she'll inspect my materials and issue a phytosanitary certificate.
Aside from all the packing and whining that's taking place, I have to take a moment to realize that THIS IS MY LAST NIGHT IN CHENGDU, SICHUAN PROVINCE. So, what did I do during my last full day here? Well, since Damia left, I've been homeless and I actually spent last night here in lab trying at least 26 different positions where I could actually fall asleep. I cleared an area on the tabletop where three computers are set up and just covered myself with a blanket that was left here and did my best not to fall off or through the table. It was a rough nights sleep, but crashing on the couches outside was no better as mosquitoes would eat you alive and the nosy "fuwuyuan" possibly wondering what the hell I was doing sleeping on the couch.
I was awaken this morning by a call from Li Juan, our class advisor here. We successfully got my transcript all worked out, I handed her the work I've completed, and got the confirmation that I'll be receiving 24 SU credits to equal a year's full time study back at the UW! I passed Chinese with a score of 80% which I'm a little bummed about, but heck, I passed!, I got my Chinese Painting course on there with a 98 and Li Juan's comments from what the instructor told her was most flattering and encouraging, another surprise was actually getting credit for the dance class I took here. The mean teacher actually gave me an "A" and Li laoshi said, "he thinks you're talented dancer." Again, hard to believe, but it was nice to hear having endured "Chinese ballet torture" for several weeks this spring. As for my research, Professor Zeng kindly agreed to offer me 10 credits for my expedition work, research, and several papers I've completed this year! With a whopping 12 credits for comprehensive elementary Chinese, I topped out at 24 even! What a huge sigh of relief! Knowing that all this would work out, I swung by the flower shop to give Li laoshi a small bouquet of Sampaguita (in Chinese 茉莉花 moli hua）knowing that she would be giddy and excited!
I spent most of today just running errands: printing documents at a neighborhood printing service, going to the Life Scienes building to see Lin Wen and Professor Zeng one last time as I collected my herbarium specimens, I swung by the post office to embarass myself again trying to ask for a large box (ugh, don't ask), and then, of course, all the packing and rearranging of my stuff. I managed to give myself a break to take some photos around campus and have a bbq dinner with Joern (aka Yurn...been mispelling his name) and his friend Rosemary, Daisy and her friend (possible b/f, but doesn't want to admit it!). Afterwards, I joined Yilin at Peter's where I had dessert, a refreshingly cool Lime Rickey, and a photo with some of the servers there.
As of now, I'm still planning on how to "gracefully" leave Chengdu. How will I arrange the taxi ride to the airport? How can I bring my heavy luggage down from the 3rd floor without looking like I need 3 other people to help me?
The big problem right now is leaving instructions for the shipment of the herbarium specimens I couldn't bring with me. Unfortunately, this was the former UW/SU collection from a few years ago, but I had to put my project materials first. Should my Shandong contact come through, these can be shipped to him for inspection and shipment to the states.
Let me get my self together on this so I can get a little sleep before my flight tomorrow at 1PM.
G'nite,
R