Blog 9

Saturday and Sunday:

After talking to the other students during the week, I learned that most of the students go into the lab at some point on Saturdays, but do not go in on Sundays. Since USTC is still in the middle of a semester, many of the students spend their weekends in the lab or library getting work done. One friend from said that she is studying a lot for finals in a few weeks because she has 7 finals! I thought it was difficult to study for 5.

On Saturday morning I went on a run at the track near my house. After lunch, I went to the lab to do some work before I went to USTC’s Traditional Chinese Music Orchestra with Lee Kang Qi. It has been nice getting to know Lee Kang Qi because she is also an undergraduate in her junior year. We met because she also works in Professor Xu’s lab. Before the concert we went out to dinner at a restaurant that serves noodles and rouga mo. This food was definitely my favorite so far! So many people I have met think that I won’t like spicy food because I am from the United States. I did not know that Americans have this reputation, but I absolutely love spicy food! It was nice to have some on Saturday night.

Above is a photo of Lee Kang Qi and me from the orchestra concert



This is a photo of a small group performance of USTC’s Traditional Chinese Music Orchestra:

Though it was a very interesting experience to go to this concert, I did not like the music much. I thought the music would be more relaxing, but there was one instrument that made an extremely high pitched noise. It was not the soothing music I had envisioned.

On Sunday my big accomplishment was finding the grocery store by myself! I decided to get to know the area outside of the school gates better, so I went on a long walk. From my trips with other people, I knew there are a lot of shops near the school and I was hoping to stumble upon one. Luckily I did! It was about a half hour walk, but I made it all the way to the supermarket that I went to with He Yutong last weekend. There were a couple of groceries that I needed to get, along with a gift for Jiaqi’s birthday on Tuesday! By the time I got back to campus, I met up with Lei Fan for dinner. We ate on campus and went back to the lab until we had to leave to get seats for Jiaqi’s choir concert. I enjoyed talking to Lei Fan about the music we listen to. I had him listen to some of my favorite country songs and he let me listen to his favorite music.

There were a lot of students that attended this performance, and the choir did an excellent job! Unfortunately, there was no air conditioning in the room the concert was held, so I was very happy to get in the fresh air when the concert was over! This concert was a great end to my third week in Hefei!

Above is a photo of the USTC choir performance

This is a photo that another student took last week, but it is a good photo of a lot of the people from the lab!