2nd week of research

I finally got started on my formal experiment and so far things are good :). I prayed to God to just guide me and help me in lab, and I think I am making some good progress now!!
A few of my lab members (Gong, Lilly, and Hu Jun) and I went out one night to have some fun. We went to this cool outdoor restaurant and laughed the entire night. And then, the tried to challenge me to eat the most spiciest chicken in the restaurant -- translated it is "abnormally spicy chicken" -- it's supposed to be the hottest spice level lol........... And I was freaked out when they kept scaring me and telling me that it will be HOT lol.....when the plate came out, there was once stick of spicy chicken wings for me....it was literally covered in crushed hot peppers!!!!! I couldn't even see the chicken hahaa!! So i set it aside to eat later in fear of the pain my tastebuds would endure....but when it came down to it, I took a bite from the chicken and.....it was not bad at all!!! hahahaa....I freaked them all out!!! My mentor, Gong, is from hunan province, where they are known to have some of the spiciest food in all of China, and he was astonished!!! They were all scared of me after that hehehe :P

In terms of research, I've gotten really good at IV injections – usually one poke or sometimes a second poke and it’s done. I thank God for this! Especially with the technique they use to hold the mouse still so that I can inject -- it is so much harder than in America where we have the cylinders that we squeeze the mice in so they dont move -- here they are in a jar with a small hole where their tail sticks out...but sometimes the mice jump and i can miss my poke with the needle =(

Also random note, one of my lab mates (Hua Lei) and I always joke around about "shuanging" ourselves in this terrible heat lol  (shuang means cool in Chinese)-- there is no A/C except in the mouse room, so we always go to “check on the mice" and say "schwan!" once we're in the room. And whenever there is a big A/C machine in the cafeteria, me and him have to stand in front of it for a few seconds before we leave the building, because as he says: "If you can schwan yourself, just do it!" =)