I am eating a piece of Black Forest Chocolate Cake
and
blogging.
I suppose this is one of my new forms of procrastination when I really don't feel like facing the chinese language. After a week of being sick, it was an un-fun road back into chinese. I'm still on it. After only a week, I was having trouble writing the the basic of characters. This just shows I'm still in a very fragile stage of language acquisition and another week long illness could very well mean the end of my grades. I hadn't seen as many red marks on a paper I've gotten back in a long time- except for the one that I got back today. So-I didn't do horribly, but it's time for me to get back on track. On that note- i decided to drop my Classical Chinese class. While I really did enjoy it, I have too much I need to make up/remember, and I want to retain as much as this chinese as possible. i believe if i continued to take that class I just wouldn't have enough time for the language to soak in.
Other than that rude awakening, today was nice. I went on a little campus exploration trip today and tried this Bun/Porridge restaurant on campus. It's a really nice cheap lunch when one doesn't want to deal with hassle of the food court or the noodle house. I feel healthy again, and I can ride my bike again without worry.
Though, I noticed that there was actually very little traffic on the streets today. I guess its because its a national holiday. This week is China's birthday, and it looks like everyone went back to their home province. I'm used to swerving for my life at least 4 times a day, but I only had to once today.
I could really use a massage right now. I should have gotten one this weekend.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Chinese Bauhaus
So I've found myself a new coffee shop to haunt: The Bridge Cafe here in Wudaokou. In some ways, it's like an upgrade. Not only do I get an extensive (though expensive) coffee menu, but I also get a wine list, CNN playing on an LCD projector on the third level, and a menu that includes european style pastry, panini, soup, salad, and pasta. By Chinese standards, this place is a rip off. By American standards, this place is like that whole in the wall place that you go to the weekends after having some sunny jaunt through some happy place.
And it's filled with so many interesting people. I think I have met more Europeans and Latin Americans studying Chinese in Beijing than Americans. Chinese is the new French, and now that the French are studying chinese, China needs to open up cute places like the Bridge Cafe to give us Westerners a quiet haven from the 热闹-ness that is the crazy loud city around us.
For the most part, I just sit here with one ear phone in, writing characters over and over until they stick. It's not too loud, and they have fantastic wireless. This beats the French Pastry Shop for sure.
In other news, I'm mostly better. My stomach still tells me the contrary every once and a while, but I'm done being dizzy, fevered, heachached, and all that un-fun business. Now I just need to catch up.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Adventures in the Chinese Healthcare system
Dear World,
I am sick.
Two days ago i started getting a headache/stomach ache that gradually increased in intensity as time passed. When tried to sleep, I found myself having fever chills and waking often to use the bathroom. Deciding that my health was most likely screwed up, I showed up at school early to go to the University clinic. I remember the resident director of our program saying that students were afraid of going to the university clinic despite it being quite good and quite cheap. I decided that I would risk it. My headache was killing me and it felt as if someone was punching me in the stomach every once and a while.
I show up at the clinic at 7:00am only to find a flock of old people attempting to stand in line. Nothing seemed open yet, so I went back to my program's office to sleep on a couch until one of the staff showed up. At 8:00am, someone finally showed up and I dizzily walked over and pleaded in chinese that she take me to see the doctor. My chinese has gotten better, but effectively conveying medical history is not yet a forte of mine. Plus, that hospital looked like a jungle at 7:00am and I was not going to go into the jungle without a native.
The staff member told me that the hospital didn't open until 9:00 and that she had never been there. Apparently, Chinese people avoid seeing the doctor like the plague. They're big fans of self medication. It didn't take me long to figure out why.
When I arrived, I stood for 15 minutes in a registration line at the entrance of the clinic. It was here that i drew a conclusion of how diseases spread so fast in China. There are just so many people. But it isn't just that, the swarm of geriatric germ incubators stood so close to each other and myself that I could feel their breath on my neck. There also isn't a "cover your mouth" etiquette when when you cough or sneeze, so I often found myself being pelted by hacks, sneezes, and the ever popular audible open-mouthed throat clearing.
Once I registered, I ventured into a waiting room in which I told one doctor my symptoms and she blurted some orders at me to go see some other doctors for further instructors. I figured, she just wasn't a morning person. I arrived at the other doctors, and told her I had some stomach problems and a headache/dizziness, they then handed me a little thimble like thing with a lid and told me that they wanted a stool sample. I quickly responded, i'll try, but I really doing think you're going to get any.
They then snappily replied, "YOU MUST provide one if you have stomach problems." They directed me to the squatty potty and commanded me that i give them a sample. After a few minutes of trying, i told them I couldnt. And they said, "well, then you'll wait until you give us one." They then directed me to stand in line for a blood test.
As I spelunked deeper into this hive, i felt the air change. You know that sterile smell of American hospitals that some people get freaked out about? Well, that smell would have been a comfort compared to this smell of squatty potty, nursing home, and stale unmoving air. Soon I arrived at the line for the blood test. This grumpy looking man in line began to speak to me. So whats wrong with you? It would have been fine to converse with this man, except he like all the other people in this hospital stood alarmingly close to me, and like every person in the hospital patient or doctor, spoke 100 decibels above what is normally acceptable for human hearing. I felt as if my head was going to explode. It didn't help that he, like many other chinese people, had this "know it all- I told you so" attitude. At that point, i just wanted to punch him. though, that would have been bad diplomacy and decided that it was the sickness making me do things.
After dizzily standing in like for another 15 minutes, I then discover that the blood test machine is actually broken and that they can't actually test blood. It had been broken for the last 15 minutes. They didn't exactly tell those of us standing in line. By then, i told the staff member that I was with that i just wanted to go home and sleep. She said, we're here, we might as well try to get them to give you something. We went back to the first doctor that commanded something at me and that doctor handed me a thermometer and told me to put it under my arm for 7 minutes. The staff member with me said she would time me with her phone. when the time was up, she brought the thermometer back and said it registered at 39 Degrees C or 102 F. The doctor was scolded "7 minutes hasn't passed yet!" By this time, I think that doctor just really enjoyed yelling at patients. the staff member responded, "I TIMED IT." The doctor replied, he still needs to give a stool sample.
We left.
We then returned to my program's office and the director advised that I go to an English speaking international hospital. It unfortunately was one district away and usually would take about an hour to get there. I hopped in a cab an then made my way to the hospital. Lucky me, there was a traffic jam and my head got to be split by the chorus of a hundred chinese car horns. Another thing about China is that they really like to use their car horns, sickeningly so.
When i arrived at the hospital, they nearly turned me down, saying they had no appointments open. I pleaded with them that I came from an hour away and was running a high fever. They found an opening and let me in. While sitting in the waiting room, the nurses at the station were yammering away "fever? he's come here for a fever? you dont need to come here for a fever." I decided to ignore them and wait for the doctor. Because China has so many people its understandable that those in charge would do anything to make the lines shorter. At least this hospital was more cordial.
I finally saw the doctor and he told me that I was either struck with a stomach virus or bacteria. He prescribed some rehydration salts, ibprofen, and zythromax, and i was on my way home.
Since then, I have been sleeping.
and sleeping.
And trying to to move because the world spins.
kind of like now.
goodnight, world.
bureaucratic healthcare sucks.
I am sick.
Two days ago i started getting a headache/stomach ache that gradually increased in intensity as time passed. When tried to sleep, I found myself having fever chills and waking often to use the bathroom. Deciding that my health was most likely screwed up, I showed up at school early to go to the University clinic. I remember the resident director of our program saying that students were afraid of going to the university clinic despite it being quite good and quite cheap. I decided that I would risk it. My headache was killing me and it felt as if someone was punching me in the stomach every once and a while.
I show up at the clinic at 7:00am only to find a flock of old people attempting to stand in line. Nothing seemed open yet, so I went back to my program's office to sleep on a couch until one of the staff showed up. At 8:00am, someone finally showed up and I dizzily walked over and pleaded in chinese that she take me to see the doctor. My chinese has gotten better, but effectively conveying medical history is not yet a forte of mine. Plus, that hospital looked like a jungle at 7:00am and I was not going to go into the jungle without a native.
The staff member told me that the hospital didn't open until 9:00 and that she had never been there. Apparently, Chinese people avoid seeing the doctor like the plague. They're big fans of self medication. It didn't take me long to figure out why.
When I arrived, I stood for 15 minutes in a registration line at the entrance of the clinic. It was here that i drew a conclusion of how diseases spread so fast in China. There are just so many people. But it isn't just that, the swarm of geriatric germ incubators stood so close to each other and myself that I could feel their breath on my neck. There also isn't a "cover your mouth" etiquette when when you cough or sneeze, so I often found myself being pelted by hacks, sneezes, and the ever popular audible open-mouthed throat clearing.
Once I registered, I ventured into a waiting room in which I told one doctor my symptoms and she blurted some orders at me to go see some other doctors for further instructors. I figured, she just wasn't a morning person. I arrived at the other doctors, and told her I had some stomach problems and a headache/dizziness, they then handed me a little thimble like thing with a lid and told me that they wanted a stool sample. I quickly responded, i'll try, but I really doing think you're going to get any.
They then snappily replied, "YOU MUST provide one if you have stomach problems." They directed me to the squatty potty and commanded me that i give them a sample. After a few minutes of trying, i told them I couldnt. And they said, "well, then you'll wait until you give us one." They then directed me to stand in line for a blood test.
As I spelunked deeper into this hive, i felt the air change. You know that sterile smell of American hospitals that some people get freaked out about? Well, that smell would have been a comfort compared to this smell of squatty potty, nursing home, and stale unmoving air. Soon I arrived at the line for the blood test. This grumpy looking man in line began to speak to me. So whats wrong with you? It would have been fine to converse with this man, except he like all the other people in this hospital stood alarmingly close to me, and like every person in the hospital patient or doctor, spoke 100 decibels above what is normally acceptable for human hearing. I felt as if my head was going to explode. It didn't help that he, like many other chinese people, had this "know it all- I told you so" attitude. At that point, i just wanted to punch him. though, that would have been bad diplomacy and decided that it was the sickness making me do things.
After dizzily standing in like for another 15 minutes, I then discover that the blood test machine is actually broken and that they can't actually test blood. It had been broken for the last 15 minutes. They didn't exactly tell those of us standing in line. By then, i told the staff member that I was with that i just wanted to go home and sleep. She said, we're here, we might as well try to get them to give you something. We went back to the first doctor that commanded something at me and that doctor handed me a thermometer and told me to put it under my arm for 7 minutes. The staff member with me said she would time me with her phone. when the time was up, she brought the thermometer back and said it registered at 39 Degrees C or 102 F. The doctor was scolded "7 minutes hasn't passed yet!" By this time, I think that doctor just really enjoyed yelling at patients. the staff member responded, "I TIMED IT." The doctor replied, he still needs to give a stool sample.
We left.
We then returned to my program's office and the director advised that I go to an English speaking international hospital. It unfortunately was one district away and usually would take about an hour to get there. I hopped in a cab an then made my way to the hospital. Lucky me, there was a traffic jam and my head got to be split by the chorus of a hundred chinese car horns. Another thing about China is that they really like to use their car horns, sickeningly so.
When i arrived at the hospital, they nearly turned me down, saying they had no appointments open. I pleaded with them that I came from an hour away and was running a high fever. They found an opening and let me in. While sitting in the waiting room, the nurses at the station were yammering away "fever? he's come here for a fever? you dont need to come here for a fever." I decided to ignore them and wait for the doctor. Because China has so many people its understandable that those in charge would do anything to make the lines shorter. At least this hospital was more cordial.
I finally saw the doctor and he told me that I was either struck with a stomach virus or bacteria. He prescribed some rehydration salts, ibprofen, and zythromax, and i was on my way home.
Since then, I have been sleeping.
and sleeping.
And trying to to move because the world spins.
kind of like now.
goodnight, world.
bureaucratic healthcare sucks.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
school
Hello Friends,
Sorry for being out of the loop for a while, my program has kept me busy by taking me on an adventure through China, and then class began. So—here’s me catching up.
We left Beijing on August 31st 5:00pm on an overnight train to Xi’an, the ancient capital of China and the current capital of Shaanxi province. That was my first time riding in a sleeper on a train. I remember when I was really little, I had this infatuation with trains. I wanted to be an engineer and I played with my toy trains all the time. While the opportunity to sleep in a (hard) sleeper for a short while did fulfill some of my childhood dreams, and while the scenery we passed was beautiful, I was distracted by cigarette smoke always wafting my way. One isn’t allowed to smoke in any of the cars, but one can stand in between the cars and billow away. Lucky me, my bed at the end of the car, and smoke casually floated pass me as the car door opened and closed. Things were fine once I feel asleep. I got some of the best sleep that I have ever gotten on that train.
The next morning at 7:00am we arrived at Xi’an.
The city was wide awake at 7:00am, and the train station was a madhouse. We were caught in the middle of tour groups, locals, and merchants trying to sell things to tourists. We hopped into a tour bus and proceeded to our hotel. Once we dropped off out bags, we jumped back into the busses to visit the Terra Cotta Soldiers and the Ancient Walls of Xi’an.
The museum at the soldiers was very cool. What amused the most was a little display of a chrome infused sword invented more than 1000 years before the west even began using chromium.
(I dont have anything cool to say about the city walls other than it's more than 2000 years old and i got to ride my by around it)
: )
Despite the coolness of the exhibits, I was still constantly reminded of my status as a tourist. Everywhere we went there was at least 10 different gift stands, shops, and/or three streets of merchants trying to sell their wares. People shout out their prices, trying to convince people to buy. They use their one English word, “hello!” followed by the only other English words they know, numbers. I remember once I was scared by this little lady who snuck up being me and screeched “HELLO!” and waved a necklace at me. While I understand that these people are working hard to earn money, that freaked me out. I don’t think I’ve been that scared in a long time. The harder thing is that I see all these, mostly older women, trying to sell these products, and I can’t help be feel sad. So many of these merchants get shot down constantly, hoping to make some big break off of a tourist who will pay 10 times more than something is actually worth.
I see the cities where they live, I see their homes as I walk through these tourist traps, and feel sad. These feeling subsided when we went to Chengdu to see the pandas
(one of the most adorable sights on the planet), but quickly came back as we arrived in LiJiang. Known for its “ancient city” and “ancient architecture” LiJiang is famous for its tourists. The only thing really ancient about LiJiang is the fact that the ancient city was built on the site of the ancient city. Most of the other buildings were built within the last 50 years. Though, some parts of the city were very saddening. Despite the modern status of the city, many citizens still did not have running water and had to use the canal system that ran through the city to obtain water.
LiJiang was also the first city that we traveled to in which we were exposed to a very strong Chinese ethnic minority population, the Naxi. Historians are actually debating now if the Nazi population history outdates that of the Xia civilization in the east of China.
Despite having this exposure, I feel like my conception of the Naxi was skewed. China apparently has a system of official tourist sites that people can visit and LiJiang is one of them. At the same time, it seems like the ethnic minorities are tokenized as part of these tourist attractions, very similar to the first nations peoples in the US. Though, I am in no place to judge. Tourist commerce seemed to really help the local people.
Dali was similar to LiJiang –except the beer was cheaper and apparently its one of the drug capitals of China. There were also a lot of foreigners in Dali. There are so many of them that they made them a “foreigner’s street.” It was strange for me to see “western food” advertised as exotic. Hamburgers were exotic. Cheese was exotic. Pizza was exotic. I guess it made me feel that much more special to know that my home was in America.
A couple days later, we drove into Kunming and flew back to Beijing. Class started and my brain has started to get tired from the daily work again. Because I haven’t studied Chinese in so long, I’ve been struggling to relearn the characters that I should have known in high school. But its doable. Yet by the end of the week, I am trashed. With 8-9 hours of Chinese in school, followed by 3-4 hours of homework, I’m totally destroyed.
Back to work.
Miss you all
-George
p.s.
theres a lake on my campus. The reflecting pool on the SU campus is cool. but a LAKE? man. a lake.
Sorry for being out of the loop for a while, my program has kept me busy by taking me on an adventure through China, and then class began. So—here’s me catching up.
We left Beijing on August 31st 5:00pm on an overnight train to Xi’an, the ancient capital of China and the current capital of Shaanxi province. That was my first time riding in a sleeper on a train. I remember when I was really little, I had this infatuation with trains. I wanted to be an engineer and I played with my toy trains all the time. While the opportunity to sleep in a (hard) sleeper for a short while did fulfill some of my childhood dreams, and while the scenery we passed was beautiful, I was distracted by cigarette smoke always wafting my way. One isn’t allowed to smoke in any of the cars, but one can stand in between the cars and billow away. Lucky me, my bed at the end of the car, and smoke casually floated pass me as the car door opened and closed. Things were fine once I feel asleep. I got some of the best sleep that I have ever gotten on that train.
The next morning at 7:00am we arrived at Xi’an.
The city was wide awake at 7:00am, and the train station was a madhouse. We were caught in the middle of tour groups, locals, and merchants trying to sell things to tourists. We hopped into a tour bus and proceeded to our hotel. Once we dropped off out bags, we jumped back into the busses to visit the Terra Cotta Soldiers and the Ancient Walls of Xi’an.
The museum at the soldiers was very cool. What amused the most was a little display of a chrome infused sword invented more than 1000 years before the west even began using chromium.
(I dont have anything cool to say about the city walls other than it's more than 2000 years old and i got to ride my by around it)
: )
Despite the coolness of the exhibits, I was still constantly reminded of my status as a tourist. Everywhere we went there was at least 10 different gift stands, shops, and/or three streets of merchants trying to sell their wares. People shout out their prices, trying to convince people to buy. They use their one English word, “hello!” followed by the only other English words they know, numbers. I remember once I was scared by this little lady who snuck up being me and screeched “HELLO!” and waved a necklace at me. While I understand that these people are working hard to earn money, that freaked me out. I don’t think I’ve been that scared in a long time. The harder thing is that I see all these, mostly older women, trying to sell these products, and I can’t help be feel sad. So many of these merchants get shot down constantly, hoping to make some big break off of a tourist who will pay 10 times more than something is actually worth.
I see the cities where they live, I see their homes as I walk through these tourist traps, and feel sad. These feeling subsided when we went to Chengdu to see the pandas
(one of the most adorable sights on the planet), but quickly came back as we arrived in LiJiang. Known for its “ancient city” and “ancient architecture” LiJiang is famous for its tourists. The only thing really ancient about LiJiang is the fact that the ancient city was built on the site of the ancient city. Most of the other buildings were built within the last 50 years. Though, some parts of the city were very saddening. Despite the modern status of the city, many citizens still did not have running water and had to use the canal system that ran through the city to obtain water.
LiJiang was also the first city that we traveled to in which we were exposed to a very strong Chinese ethnic minority population, the Naxi. Historians are actually debating now if the Nazi population history outdates that of the Xia civilization in the east of China.
Despite having this exposure, I feel like my conception of the Naxi was skewed. China apparently has a system of official tourist sites that people can visit and LiJiang is one of them. At the same time, it seems like the ethnic minorities are tokenized as part of these tourist attractions, very similar to the first nations peoples in the US. Though, I am in no place to judge. Tourist commerce seemed to really help the local people.
Dali was similar to LiJiang –except the beer was cheaper and apparently its one of the drug capitals of China. There were also a lot of foreigners in Dali. There are so many of them that they made them a “foreigner’s street.” It was strange for me to see “western food” advertised as exotic. Hamburgers were exotic. Cheese was exotic. Pizza was exotic. I guess it made me feel that much more special to know that my home was in America.
A couple days later, we drove into Kunming and flew back to Beijing. Class started and my brain has started to get tired from the daily work again. Because I haven’t studied Chinese in so long, I’ve been struggling to relearn the characters that I should have known in high school. But its doable. Yet by the end of the week, I am trashed. With 8-9 hours of Chinese in school, followed by 3-4 hours of homework, I’m totally destroyed.
Back to work.
Miss you all
-George
p.s.
theres a lake on my campus. The reflecting pool on the SU campus is cool. but a LAKE? man. a lake.
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