Slightly broken

I'm back in Golmud, a little earlier than expected (supposed to be back on the 10th). The four of us in the field crew were managing the elevation change fine (minus the usual wheezing), but I came down with a cold on Monday. Worse was the cough that came with it. I spent the day in Toutou He resting, hoping maybe the cough would get a little better, but colds just don't improve when you're sleeping at 15,000 feet. And there is a good chance the cold will escalate into something worse, like pneumonia, bronchitis or AMS. So, I rode back down to Golmud with Lau Zhong Zhifu (one of the drivers), who hadn't been dealing well with the elevation.

So, that's it. Pete is with a solid crew, so he'll get lots of samples to bring back to stuff into a mass spec back in Santa Cruz. I'm kind of bummed. It is hard to think about all the time and money that other people put in to get me there, essentially for nothing. The early days in the field were initially to check the outcrops and plan the later half, so all the sample collecting is going on now. It isn't much fun feeling useless, but I guess that is kind of how it goes out here too. Anothere reason to be grateful my field area is right in my backyard.

At this stage, I'm playing the waiting game to find out how I will be getting back to Beijing and eventually home. There is a chance I'll get back early, but who knows. In the meantime, I'm sleeping a lot and set my self little mini-adventures (where is a phone to call the US? where is the internet?) to keep myself entertained. There isn't a whole lot to see in Golmud....