Last day of chemistry experiments

This picture may look very familiar. We went to this exact location earlier in the same week. This is a pretty famous spot, and the food was just as good as the first time when we ate here. I really enjoyed this hibachi style restaurant, and I am quite sad to know that this was my last time eating here, as we head back to Taipei. The best food here was their garlic chicken and their vegetables. I really liked the cabbage, it was seasoned really well and even had a kick to it, which added a needed degree of hotness, although I ended up burning my tongue because my vegetables were unknowingly boiling on my tray. After we ate our meal, we walked back to the chemistry lab to meet up with a guy named Winder. He lead us to the place where Dr. Chiu-Ming Chang was located. Dr Chang specializes in Chinese medicine, and acupuncture. He did acupuncture on all of us, cupping, and Moxibustion. Once we finished with all of this we went back to the lab so we could finish up the last of our experiment, and then we finished the day with an amazing outing with some of the Taiwanese students we had been working with for the entire week in the chemistry lab. 

All of us and Dr. Chang.

This is what the acupuncture needles look like. They are disposable, which means they are already sterile and ready to use once opened. They are inside a tube which allows for precise placement of the needles. 

Acupuncture is used to remove pain and dissipate colds, so I got acupuncture done for my lower back. Since the pain was on both sides Dr. Chang did meridian points on both my left and right arm. I have never had acupuncture done before, and was really scared it would be painful. They explained the side affects and then I watched some others in the group go first before I decided to go. I will tell you now, it was painful. Not the insertion of the needle, but what was done once the needles were in my skin. He would turn the needles in like a circle and it literally felt like he was scraping the bones that make up my wrist. It was painful enough for me to ask him to stop. I am not sure if my back stopped hurting because of the the idea behind acupuncture, or if it stopped because my body was more focused on the pain I was feeling in my wrists. However, my back did feel better. 

Another form of Chinese medicine is Cupping, where local suction is created on the skin. This was fire cupping, so they would put fire into the cup before placing it onto my body, and the lack of oxygen is what causes the suction to occur. It was pretty fun, and didn't hurt as bad as I was assuming it would. The last thing that was done which isn't pictured is the moxibustion. He would burn some moxa and then hold it close to meridian points. To be honest, it burned and I am not sure if it helped or not. 

This is our finalized products after drying our samples in the rotovap machine. As you can see, some vials have a lot of compounds in them, and some have essentially none. We had 10 vials, and the consistency of the compounds inside of the vials were all different. Our 1st vial was like a syrup, and then the next four vials were super dry and stuck on the walls of the vial. 

The last five vials were kind of filled with a crust. Vial eights compound was like the consistency of a pork rein chip. While vial nine looked similar, the crusty was wet, almost like some wet graham crackers.  We needed to leave majority of the samples we collected behind, so we took between 1.0 to 2.0 mg of sample from the vials we could, which we were bringing back to Taipei. 

Here are the eppendorf tubes we used to place 1.0 to 2.0 mg of sample. We collected from vials 1,6,7,8 and 9. We were able to take the actual vials of 2,3,4,5 and 10 with us to test on the zebra fish embryos.

The Taiwanese students in the lab brought us some snacks. It was unexpected, but delicious and very well appreciated. This was two different kinds of cake. Chocolate and vanilla. Then they also brought us some pineapple cake,which is a very famous Taiwanese dessert. I should of bought some to bring back home with me.

We finally made it to the night market, and it was absolutely amazing. Out of all my night market experiences, this has been by far the best. I enjoyed everyone I was with, and almost all of the foods we tried. This was right at the entrance. I am unsure what this is called, but this is like a whole bar full of different candies. You get a bag and you fill it up until you are satisfied. Its about 2 dollars for every 100 grams. They also let you try a lot of them to see if you like them before you buy them. I appreciated that aspect of this because for the candies I didn't like I was able to avoid buying. In the end I only spent about 8 USD for all the candy I ended up grabbing. 

Strawberries covered in melted sugar. It was super cute because when I would ask for translations from the Taiwanese students, they would always call sugar , maltose. 

These were a lot better than I was expecting. Its like dough, but its hallow on the inside. These are yam flavored, and the girl holding the other one is named Tina. Next to her are Renada and Rachel. All three of these Taiwanese students were very helpful at the night market. They were patient and very kind. They were able to practice their English, and we practice our Chinese. I will really miss them, but we all have connected via facebook, snapchat, and instagram.