After a change of plans (no longer going to Urumqi, for various reasons), I am now in Beijing for a few days. In a hotel that has internet access (until we leave here on Wednesday)!

The last week or so has been wild. Absolutely wild. Unfortunately, the most wild parts are not things to write about online right now, which anybody who actually reads this will find out about later, since clearly after dropping a hint like this, I will have to tell the story behind it. But I’ll just say that we nearly had to come home a week early, and nearly got all our specimens taken away.

We were in the Qinghai province for about a week. Most of it was taken up my driving across the Tibetan plateau, although sadly never in Tibet itself. But that was pretty amazing. Many a yak and many a camel were seen grazing along the road, as well as goats and sheep, which are cute but slightly less exciting.

We also spent a few days in Xining, the capital of the province. Interesting city. There is a huge Muslim population in Qinghai, which was quite different from much of the rest of the country that we’ve seen. I experimented with fruits at street markets, with mostly wild success.

Beijing is a big difference after spending most of this trip driving around rural China. Parts of it (read: toilets, hot water, anybody that knows even two words in English) are a welcome change, parts of it (continuously gray sky, other tourists getting in the way of our tourism, destroying lungs by breathing the air) are less welcome. But we did some touristy activities today, which was a nice change from just driving around and looking at plants.

I also believe I am the only bio thesis student who has:  drunk alcohol made from your subject of research (Goji wine from Lycium barbarum/chinense), drunk said alcohol with your advisors, drunk said alcohol while playing a drinking game with your advisors (and random drunk government officials), gotten an hour-long foot message with your advisor, discussed (at length) toilets and toilet paper with your advisors, and heard your advisors swear at least 500 times a day for the last week. Okay, for the last one, I might not be the only one, but I bet my level of swearing is higher.

To conclude, I will be on a plane home in a week. And generally, I’m really excited about it.

I also think I might be able to upload some pictures here, so if I can, I’ll pick some of my favorites and throw ‘em up.