submitted!

Well, the paper is finally submitted. Monday morning, Nov 1 (the day it was due), Dr. Qiao personally called the Chief Asia Editor of Lancet to ask for an extension. I am a little confused as to why the request was granted, but whatever--we finally finished, and the rejection (or less likely, acceptance) will come in the next few weeks.

From a cultural standpoint, this experience was a fascinating insight to what it's like to work in China. As you know, two weeks ago, Dr. Qiao decided that I would switch gears from a paper on HPV prevalence to one on the accuracy of self-collected HPV-DNA testing...and I've been working on this paper ever since. Though Dr. Zhao, the director of the cervical cancer research team, tried to explain it wasn't feasible, Dr. Qiao said as long as we worked hard, it would get done. And because he said we had jump, we said, "Is this high enough? Because if not, we can jump higher next time!"

Though I had already completed a preliminary draft (thank god, because otherwise, the paper would never have gotten done), since Thursday, Dr. Zhao (head boss), Shangying, and I worked 18-hour days revising text (my job) and tables (Shangying's job). Between tasks, regardless of the hour, I was expected to be next to my computer, waiting for one of them to send an updated table or edited section unless I was told it was ok for me to sleep (at 2 am, 3 am, and 1 am). I found the breaks the most frustrating part because Chinese people, by definition, are masters of euphemisms. And I am waaaay too dense to think outside the box, especially when I'm tired. Classic example was at 1 pm on Saturday, after I emailed Dr. Zhao yet another revision. When I asked for my next task, she said that I should eat lunch. Considering they ordered in lunch and dinner Thursday and Friday so they could eat standing up in <2 minutes, I frantically gulped down some leftovers...and returned a few minutes later to ask for my next task. And she said, "I think now is a good time for a young person like yourself to talk a walk. It is beautiful outside." A moment later she followed up with, "Perhaps a short walk. It is too cold." I took that to mean that she was closer to sending me new work than she originally thought, and, sure enough, 10 minutes later, I had something to do. It made me miss good ol' American bluntness.

Now that it's over, I can say that I'm proud of the paper, am excited to see what reviewers say, and am ready to have my life back. On that front, next weekend, Dr. Qiao, Sarah, LiRong (Sarah's twin), and I are going to Yunnan province to launch another site for the vaccine study, to give presentations to Chinese physicians (mine is on Healthcare in the U.S...gulp), and visit the tin mines responsible for the extremely high number of men who get lung cancer in neighboring towns. It's where Alison and I want to travel for a week in February, so I'm really excited for my first taste of this must-see location.