Routine... Kind of

I guess it's been a bit too long sense I last wrote, and a lot has probably transpired... but you wouldn't know because I didn't write it down. Well I guess I'll start with today then.
Life is slowly moving into a routine. I woke up arou 830, had a breakfast of zhou (which i think we call congee), which is a pretty rich meal of (in this case) rice (different kinds if you're feeling a bit crazy) and I through in some beans as well (small red beans). Then you cook it like you would rice, except you use a lot more water... I use chicken stock because it makes it so much more tasty. It's actually very similar to the Italian dish risotto, except a lot easier because you just let it simmer for an hour letting the stock slowly seep into the rice (and beans). Then you can top it with veggies or some meat. This morning I just added some pepper/salt and some spicy oil. But I had it again tonight for dinner and added some heated Duck confit (which also easy to make and good - duck cooked and stored in its own fat!!!). So it's a pretty easy but tasty and potentially diverse dish.
After breakfast I went into the lab where I'm working. Right now I dont really have any labwork but am helping write a few papers and doing some background research on potential projects that I may be initiating. We're working mainly on diagnnosing TB and because of my relatively amazing skills in English (actually everyone in the lab has pretty amazing reading and writing english skills), I get to be apart of a lot of different projects, helping to write up reviews and analysis of data. I personally want to work with a company that has been developing with potentially our help a new TB diagnostic for under-served populations. It looks pretty promising and I'm hoping to help them analyze it and redesign if necessary.

For lunch I had some small wontons (pasta wrapped meat, like dumplings, in a simple broth), and some steamed dumplings (which are basically like wontons without the soup). After that I took one of my lab friends to a cafe to give them a taste of my work ethic - which during my Northwestern years involved many hours at Peet's coffee. Although the coffee shop was not quite Peet's it had it's own flavor. In fact it's owned/run by a young Chinese man that I think just loves coffee and wanted to start something unique. It is American or European in coffee only but represents a Chinese spin on the small cafe that we see (although more seldomly) back home. It's in an old shanghai neighborhood of completely brick houses that were likely built by the british in the 1930s. Down one of the alleyways in thsi neighborhood there is a small sign that reads 162. It only differs slightly from anyother address indicating set of numbers and I'm not really certain that it has any other meaning than an address. But it distiguishes the shop from residences around it and that is the only way I find it evertime I swing by. Inside is just one room large enough to fit a small barista bar, a couch one large table and two small tables. The large table is usually occupied by a large group making cookies, which is the breilliant bit about this cafe. Because Chinese do not typically have an oven the cafe offers groups the chance to come in and make cookies using an oven that they placed in a retrofitted shack outside the cafe. Brilliant really. So that's where I like to go when I have a bit of computer related work to do.... Its a taste of home through the coffee but authentically china.
Dad, Mom and Aunt Catherine will be here on Friday!!!! Should be pretty fun!!!