After a short flight to Newark, a 13 hour flight directly to Beijing, a 4 hour wait/nap sitting on the floor of the Beijing airport, a 2 hour but really, really bumpy flight to Wuhan, and a 1 hour midnight drive across Wuhan, we finally arrived at about 12:30 last night, China time. Which is 12 hours off. Needless to say, after that I passed out.
Today we met up with Jill and Rachel’s colleague at the Wuhan Botanical Garden, as well as three of the students in her lab. In addition to eating three huge and delicious meals (including two different kinds of lotus root and watching others suck marrow out of cow bones), we took a tour of the botanical garden, which was fabulous. It was a huge plot of land with thousands upon thousands of trees, vines, and flowers strewn about everywhere. Highlights: ginger flowers, kiwi plants (on vines! who knew!), banana flowers, pitcher plants, bamboo forest. I could have spent days just walking around, it was a beautiful place. I would load lots of pictures up here, but the internet in the hotel is dreadfully slow. Hopefully more will be up sometime later.
It’s still weird to think that this year is definitively over, and that I’m now on the other side of the world. But that’s a pretty thrilling thought.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Geoff Giller (ggiller10) // May 18, 2008 at 4:53 pm
OK, I can see that this blog is (a) going to be entertaining and informative, and (b) going to make me very jealous. (Except for the massive plane-ride part).
Also! Can you see if you can find any scholars’ rocks and bring one back? They are cool rocks that have been carved into weird shapes by natural forces (thusly): http://www.spirit-stones.com/nggallery/page-59/album-2/gallery-2/
2 Esteban Parker (eparker10) // May 18, 2008 at 8:32 pm
May I second Geoff’s actions and put in a request for something delicious and sweet from China?
Something candy-like. I DO BELIEVE JILL AND RACHEL ARE AWARE OF MY SELFISHNESS but I digress.
Oh, and if you find a durian, bring some back, if you can. They’re spiny fruits that smell apparently HORRIBLE inside but are supposed to have the consistency of marshmallows and be incredibly tasty. And I’m curious about them, if you can get it past customs.
3 bvincent09 (bvincent09) // May 18, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I expect cheap but delightful gifts. And did you sign up for SULA? Are we doing that?
4 Eric Schultz (eschultz10) // May 19, 2008 at 12:30 am
That sounds amazing. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing about/seeing pictures of your adventures.
5 katerina (kbyanova09) // May 19, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Congrats upon your safe arrival! Since people seem to have been compiling a list of gift requests, I will join in and second Ben on the cheap and delightful part. make it practical too
In return, I shall bring back incredible Caribbean rum to celebrate our returns from godforsaken (or rather not) places.
6 Deidra Montgomery (dmontgomery10) // May 31, 2008 at 8:05 pm
For a durian, visit Flushing. The trip is significantly shorter and less expensive.
Also, yes, bring me things.
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