Day 22

I have officially missed out on my two favorite holidays this year: New Years’ and the 4th of July. This morning I slept in a bit later than I usually do as I have not been sleeping well here. I went to the lab, and Lily and I went to the greenhouses on the edge of campus. We helped Alex change the water for his cotton plants, and then added a chemical called PEG to them. PEG is a chemical that induces drought-like characteristics in plants. It deprives them of the ability to absorb water and nutrients. He used several different amounts and also had a control group that didn’t receive any at all. Then we went to lunch and took our afternoon break. I took the opportunity to finish up the rest of my laundry and pick up my room.
After the break, we went to the Beijing Zoo. I saw every animal possible, including some very adorable pandas. They have animals from all over the world. I saw almost every type of bird, snake, turtle, and deer like creature on earth. I also witnessed a crowd of people go nuts over a raccoon taking food through the cage. I never thought I would see the day when a raccoon would be a star at a zoo. I also saw an Asian leopard cat. It looked exactly like my cat Tara did. It was just a bit bigger though, and its face had longer hair. It is a nocturnal creature, so that explains why she never came out during the day. It was kind of sad though because it was so hot today, most of the animals were sleeping or laying down in the shade. People were throwing empty water bottles and such at them to get them to move. The zoo was huge. It had the animals sectioned off by both continent and type, so certain birds were in several different places. I even saw some Chukar partridges and peacocks.
We left the zoo at about six o’ clock because it was closing. We had to walk quite a ways to the bus stop. We ended up stopping at an outdoor restaurant on the way to have supper. Alex and Lily don’t really understand that I shouldn’t eat certain things, like food from a roadside vendor, because it could make me sick. I ended up just eating the hottest food that was served in hopes of not getting sick. I should be okay though. It was very spicy. Tomorrow we are going to leave pretty early in the morning, so we can go to The Great Wall. I am excited for it.