Having such a great ending week makes it this much harder to pack up and leave Hong Kong.  The past couple weeks I decided I wanted to learn mandarin (for Xiamen and Beijing), so they have all been helping me learn the basics.  They are highly entertained by my sentences that I can formulate (and butcher…).

On Wednesday, my lab group and I did not have to work.  Instead, we had the most fun day ever imaginable.  Because my professor is affiliated with Hong Kong’s “Reef Check”, a program to maintain a healthy relationship with the coral reef ecosystems of HK, it meant that we all got a free day of fun.  While some people on the large scuba boat were spending the day measuring coral, my lab mates and I had the opportunity to tag along.  The day was spent swimming, snorkeling at the reefs, eating lots of food, sun bathing (sun burning…), and generally having a great time. The most interesting part of the trip was definitely introducing Yanan to water.  While my lab mate is completely comfortable and in control in the laboratory setting, one thing she has never mastered is swimming.  In fact, I believe it was her first time in a body of water.  Coming from mainland China, she did not have a lot of opportunities to learn to swim.  Having grown up as a swimmer and lifeguard, my life has revolved around the water.  Yanan knew she was in good hands. Initially, with a life jacket on, she could not turn/move in the water.  Adding in goggles and snorkel to the equation was another issue…  I was happy that for once I was able to be helping Yanan.  There were times when I literally had to take her by the hand and pull her away from the coral.  I also had to swim her out to the reef, by pulling on her life jacket.  The combination of being out of shape, having to swim her extremely far away from the boat, and not wearing a life jacket myself, meant that it was quite the feat… But by the second snorkeling session, she did not want to leave the reefs! While she was still lacking motor skills, Yanan was able to become moderately comfortable in the water.  I think that it was a great experience for both of us.

On Thursday, my lab team and I (and Stephanie) went to have a farewell hot pot dinner.  Steph and I were thinking it would take an hour, two at the most, for this celebration.  Boy, were we wrong.  Four hours!!!! Four hours of non-stop food consumption.  I do not know how they do it.  Once again, I had a great time.  Sharing the boiling pot of soup in the center of the table to cook our foods led to constant interactions.  I tried eel, ox stomach, pig liver, and all sorts of foods that seem foreign to me.  Side-note: Last week I tried jelly fish, (called “sea blubber”) not so good.  When thinking back about all the great times I have had in HK, the hot pot festivities will rank highly.

Today was the day filled with goodbyes.  My lab crew, usually such sticklers for the rules, tried to convince me to not hand in my key card.  When I told them I was going to hand it in, they said “No, you should keep it! That way you can come back in anytime.”  I handed it in anyways, because it had to be done.  After having the key card in my back pocket for 7 weeks, leaving the building for the final time with an empty pocket was a strange feeling.

Being in a foreign country, I make a point to try all the local dishes; regardless of meat.  This past Friday, we had a dinner party at one of my lab mate’s apartments. All fifteen of us crammed in a tiny Hong Kong apartment actually was a really fun time.  And typical of any gathering within Hong Kong, the food never stopped coming.  I always think that dinner is over, and then more food is brought out.  Culinary highlights of the night: trying to eat a chicken wing with chopsticks (semi-successful), trying to decapitate and de-shell a crawfish with chopsticks (unsuccessful), and finally: the carp eye.  You only live once right? Yes, I ate that carp eyeball. No, it was not good.

As far as preparing myself for Xiamen, another issue that has arisen in Hong Kong is stalking!  Sure, I catch kids and some adults staring at me sometimes on the MTR.  Not a big deal.  But on Saturday night, this was taken to a whole new level.  While waiting for the MTR in Kowloon Tong, I could feel someone staring at me.  I look up, and sure enough, a man next to me is staring.  After staring back at him, he did not stop staring.  Actually, I started laughing at him, because he was clearly unashamed about his behavior.  We get on the train, and he stands across from me and continues to stare.  At this point, even my ipod could not distract me.   After a couple stops I need to switch trains.  Sure enough, he gets off the train too. As if a scene from a movie, I veered in a strange direction to try and shake him off my trail.  On the next train, I try to ignore him as he stands next to me.  Soon our elbows are touching… And I have had enough! I get off the train and start running.  As I get to the exit of the train station, I take my headphones off.  I look to my left, and the man is still next to me!!! He says “Why did you laugh at me?”.   He tells me that he was only staring at me because I am so pretty. (Probably just because I have red hair, actually….) This weirdo clearly was not going to leave me alone, even after I told him to go away; he was following me down the street.

This is where my luck comes into play.  I see my friend (!!!!!) on the corner, handing out fliers for the Indian restaurant he works at.  Side-note: He is a chubby, 14 year old Indian boy who had given me a secret restaurant VIP card a couple days earlier.  My room mate and I had talked to him for a while, he definitely remembered me.  So I see my Indian friend, and I say “Take me to your restaurant! NOW!”.  He asks me if my boyfriend wants to come, and I tell him to walk faster.  The creepy Asian man follows for about another half block, and finally gives up.  Joking with the kid, I tell him that the man was going to chop me up and eat me. The boy responds “Yes, they do that here.”  Completely serious.

The boy refused a tip, even though he probably saved my life.  So I gave him a USA nickel.  He was excited for his “souvenir”, I was excited to be alive.

This is an issue.  I have tried: changing the amount of DNA in the initial mixture, creating a new DNA template, checking DNA concentrations in the template, changing the PCR program temperature, using brand new buffers, new primers, new polymerase, changing PCR machines, changing electrophoresis machines, increasing/decreasing electrophoresis voltage, everything I can possibly think of… but nothing has given me the correct results.

It takes nearly the entire day to learn the results; there is no DNA in my agarose gel. Then I do it again.  I have been working 10-6, a couple times coming back at 8:30 pm.  It is really frustrating to work all day, and then finish with no results.

Last Thursday was even more frustrating.  At 2 pm, after waiting all day for the PCR to finish, I found the machine had been turned off! As if my week was not discouraging enough, someone ruined my samples! I had to completely re-start the day’s work.

Today, I booked the PCR machine in advance. (THE PROPER THING TO DO) Then, when I went back downstairs with my samples, someone had put their samples in the machine and had started running their PCR! This is a 2.5 hour procedure, so obviously I was annoyed.

Having 10 failed attempts at PCR is clearly upsetting. Today, (otherwise known as attempt #11) I am trying to use a new gene, with a new primer.  If this does not work, then I will have to think of a new method for #12…  While reading a National Geographic (I am finding myself with a lot of free time while PCRs are running…) I read the phrase “Persistence commands success”.  Generally I do not give inspirational quotes a second glance, however I find this exceptionally relevant.  I kept it in the back of my mind for the past 5 or so PCR/electrophoresis attempts, and I think it is an appropriate summation of the past week.

Hopefully next time I report back it will be with positive news!

Yes, this was extremely discouraging.  But today I managed to turn things around!  I am sure Yanan was nervous to leave me alone again, but she took a sick leave anyways. Yesterday I messed up while she was just on another floor, how much trouble could I get into with her gone completely?!  Actually, I managed to successfully end the day with no mishaps; and my results turned out very good! In conclusion, lab work can be overwhelming.  Instead of getting upset with me yesterday, Yanan simply said that each mistake equaled a new opportunity to learn.  How insightful. Today I got back on the horse, opened that PCR machine, and showed it who is boss.  I finished today in a good mood.

Good news!! I may have discovered a new sub-species of polychaete.  Laugh if you want, but I am excited.  As I said in my last entry, I needed to go worm collecting in order to start my project.  While buying worms at the bait shop was enjoyable, collecting polychaetes was AWESOME.  Yanan, Holly, and I went by train, bus, and finally boat in order to get to the floating fish farms.  Honestly, nobody could give me a clear answer on what the fish farms actually do- I guess it is a very primative aquaculture system.

The fish-farmer let us collect polychaetes from a marine ecosystem which magically appeared onto the wooden planks we were carefully balanced on.  The rope which the fish-farmer pulled up from the water had attached colorful tunicates, mussels, crabs, brittle stars, and a million other types of moving marine organisms.  That afternoon I spent searching for worms was the most fun I have had in Hong Kong.  When we got back to the lab, I identified the polychaetes through last entry’s procedure.  However, there were some weirdo polychaetes which were not identified in the book.  Luckily, they are in the genus which I am doing my phylogenetic study on.  So my project became about 100x more interesting, because now I am trying to identify if these polychaetes (3 with the same teeth patterns!) are genetically as well as morphologically different from the others in the study.  Even if my results come back indicating that all the subspecies are genetically similar, this is still a significant finding.  The separation of subspecies due to paragnath (teeth) positioning will be irrelevant.  However, I hope there are genetic differences in the subspecies.  I already have big plans for this worm, known around the lab as: Perinereis cultrifera gretchenia (Just kidding.)

The first day in lab I learned how to differentiate between the species of Perinereis through their differences in paragnaths (teeth).  The black dots and smaller brown dots in the extremely frightening picture (hopefully it works) are the paragnaths; morphologically different in each species.  Although I stole this photo off the internet (http://www.annelida.net/nz/Polychaeta/Family/Nereididae/PerinAmb1428thumb.jpg), I used the HK lab microscopes to take pictures and count the paragnaths. I can now look at an organism, magnify it, take a picture of it, and measure it; all through the microscope’s computer attachment.  This is actually a really important skill that I probably wouldn’t have learned at Eckerd.

Once I have all my species that I will analyze (probably around 5?) I will extract their mitochondrial DNA and begin the adventures of PCR.  Luckily I took cellular biology and genetics, I have had to go back pretty deep in my mind to uncover the details of PCR.  My partner in crime, Yanan, has been extremely helpful (and patient!) with my incessant questionings.  Basically, she is a saint.  She will probably deserve an award by the end of this, especially because I am making her speak english, which is a struggle.  Being from mainland China, her english is not as advanced as students in HK.   It has been very interesting communication-wise, for the entire day I was confused why she was talking about plants, and then I realized she was saying agar “plate”, not “plant”.  Oops.   She also tried to convinced me (unsuccessfully) that we use amphetamines within the laboratory process. Poor Yanan, amphetamines are considerably different than ampicillin…

My project will be more laboratory based than I originally thought, but tomorrow I get to go collect more species for my analysis. Yanan and I will go Sai Kung, a fishing area of Hong Kong, and collect them. I am sure that it will be interesting to update you all on how that goes…

Non-lab related writings:  Hong Kong is awesome. The subway system (MTR) is amazing; it is clean, on-time, and efficient.  There is always something to do in this city.  Probably my favorite thing that has happened so far occurred while roaming yesterday.  I was just walking down the street, no real plans, and I saw an antique shop.  Obviously I needed to go in…  I start looking at the tiny (and authentic!) foot-binding shoes; and I found it fascinating.  No customers in the store (I sure couldn’t afford anything in there…) the old lady that ran the store gave me a history lesson.  She got all excited to teach me about foot-binding, and brought out a book from the back and read the chinese symbols and showed me the pictures.  If you have not ever seen a picture of this  “aristocratic” procedure; trust me when I say that it is disgusting.  Without the tiny shoes on, there is nothing dignified about it…  But anyways, the old lady was awesome. She gave me a free photo of three ladies; two with their tiny feet bound, and their servant who had big feet. (After all, who was to carry around these girls who walked on their tip toes??) My afternoon at the antique shop taught me more than just about strange cultural phenomena,  it taught me that people in HK are genuinely friendly.