Poor poor pitiful me

It was bitter sweet leaving everyone today at the airport. It is not like I will not see them again, I plan to see this group of people again on many occasions!!! But, it was the end of a very special and magical experience that we all shared and that was a little sad. Not to mention that I am green with envy that the teachers get to tour Beijing before they go back…I want to see the great wall so very badly…guess I will just have to come back one day, hopefully with my husband that time. :)

So, the day has come where I had to leave the pack and travel to Guangzhou to start the research portion of this trip. I had mixed feelings about this, excited about the possibility of working in a different rice blast lab and observing and participating in their research but nervous about walking into something that I am completely unprepared for. You see, I have had very limited contact with Dr. Pan and the little that we have talked via e-mail has been choppy and very rarely directly answers any of the questions that I asked him in my previous e-mails. I have no idea if anyone even speaks English and from my experience in Nanjing…having someone to communicate with is VITAL to your survival in China. I am unsure what his expectations are of me in the lab, or the program or otherwise. It could be the experience of my scientific career or the longest 2 weeks of my life.

The first hurdle was cleared without a problem...being met at the airport by Dr. Pans wife/lab assistant and taken to our hotel. Second hurdle, the hotel...not so cleared!!! I was worried from the start based on the picture of the outside that I found on the Internet, but Ming said that he saw pictures through the Chinese site that made it look very accommodating. So, who was going to be right??? I hate to say it but I am very very sorry to report that I was right on this one. No one speaks English, there is no elevator (and we are on the 3rd and 4th floor) then we arrive in our rooms and the wall paper is peeling off the walls, the wall air conditioner worked for about 20 minutes then shut off and will not come back on (did I mention that it is around 90F outside?). There is no fridge to store water, nor is there even 1 English TV station (I get lonely without TV :). The worst part is the bathroom. The shower head is attached to the wall and there is a drain behind the toilet and this is the "shower"!!!!! It is all in the same 5x5 space. The good news...and it is minimal...is that there is Internet!!! This is a relief for sure. So, the first thing that I did...after talking myself out of crying...was to get on the Internet and try to find a better hotel that is within a short taxi ride to the lab. Now, I am no whiz kid on the computer, but I can make my way around a search engine or two and I could not find a workable map of Guangzhou let alone a website that would give me a list of the 5 star hotels within range of the University to literally save my life. I have been working on it for about an hour with no luck. Ming and Jon (the project leader) are here with me (Jon is leaving on Tuesday morning so of course he thinks that the accommodations are suitable LOL). I beg to differ. The price per night of this hotel is not even that reasonable...I would think that I could find something a lot better for about the same price. I think that it is because it is on the University campus that it is so high, but it is a nice benefit that it is a 15 minute walk to the lab and the entire University is gated. I hate to say it, but I think that I may be stuck here and that this might just be the longest 2 weeks of my life (and that is my positive outlook, for those of you thinking that I am being too pessimistic).

I started this blog before dinner tonight with my new collaborator (the scientist hosting my visit here in Guangzhou and who’s lab I will be working in Dr. Pan) and there have been some developments. Since I was so upbeat in the first part of the afternoon, I decided to leave it to let you know that I was not always as suicidal as I am going to sound in a minute. Ming talked to his cousin who lives here in Guangzhou and turns out that this “hotel” that I am staying in is actually known as a hostel to most people which make a lot more sense given the accommodation. But, according to Jon, it could be much worse, so I guess that is suppose to make me feel better, and for some reason at the moment it doesn’t. The real tragedy is that Ming is leaving me!!! Turns out that his research station is almost 40 minutes away and a $17 (USD) cab ride one way so him commuting each day from this hostel is absurd so he is going to leave tomorrow afternoon for his research station and stay in a wonderful 5 star hotel across the street from his lab…this gave me a bit of a panic feeling but I was still doing okay. Then we met Dr. Pan, his wife (who picked us up from the airport) and 2 of his graduate students in the lobby for dinner. It started off okay until I quickly realized that no one was addressing me. All questions were being directed at Ming and Jon. So, I started to pipe in and even asked a few questions and they responded, but still seemed to direct all engaged conversation in the direction of Ming and Jon. I was still going with the flow, but that panic feeling was creeping up and up with the thought of “who are they going to talk to when they are gone tomorrow?” It is going to be a very long and awkward 2 weeks at this rate. Dr. Pan decided that his students would take me sightseeing tomorrow morning, but not before checking to make sure that Ming could come too before leaving for his research lab. I am sure that the fear is over taking me but I am struggling at the moment and all I want to do is go home. I am sure that this feeling will pass, I just hope that it passes soon.

I would love your comments or e-mails more than ever at the moment…I am feeling VERY home sick. :)

So, Guangzhou is a city of ~15 million people with the “suburbs” included. To put that into perspective for you, Indy and Tulsa are under 1 million…Atlanta is ~3.5 million….NYC is ~10 million. It is the 3rd largest city in China after Beijing and Shanghai. It is very mountainous and has a lot of vegetation. I hope very much that I get a chance to see a little more of it before I leave. On the ride from the airport we had to go under 2 mountains to get to the University campus. There is my upbeat way of closing this blog so you all dont think that you need to send reinforcements...but if anyone would like to come to Guangzhou on a whim...you can stay in his lovely little place with me totally free of charge! :)

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