I got the flu for New Years and experienced socialized medicine

What a New Years week, I believe I have the flu.  Started feeling bad on New Years eve and ended up in the hospital four days later.  Have you been so sick that going to the hospital actually made you feel relieved?

I was glad Alice took me by cab to the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital.  We stood in a line outside the hospital building to get an entrance ID card.  It’s a cold little room with plastic flaps for doors, everyone bundled up and in compressed lines waiting on women in surgical masks to make your card.  I was handed a card with my name on it: 苏珊 Yes those 2 Chinese characters say Susan, no last name needed.   Cost 1 yuan.  Then we queued up to get an appointment with the doctor.  Must have been 10 lines of people in the hospital foyer.  When I walked in, could have sworn it was a train station, people in hats, scarfs, gloves and jackets lined up to pay on one side and the other side for appointments.  Not very warm in here, someone needs to turn the heat on.

We are sent to the third floor, a large lobby which Alice bypasses.  She walks directly  into one of the many rooms skirting the lobby.  The one she picks has three white coated doctors who are examining people at computer station desks.  We stood behind a sick elderly man with his concerned son and mom.  They were trying to get him admitted, but no rooms.  My turn I plopped on the official old wooden examining stool.  I was asked some questions by a lady doctor in a white trench coat and a pale blue surgical mask.  Alice translated.  Now I need to have my temperature taken.  We walked back to the third floor lobby, another train station waiting room, cold bench like seats and many sick people.  The nurse in her dingy white more of a dull grey nurse uniform and old fashioned white hat pinned to her head handed me a thermometer which I was to return to her in three minutes.  While Alice was tending to me and ran to get a book to record my medical information I realized these nurses had the same kind of nursing hats my mom wore in the 1960’s .  My mom always told me if the hats don’t have a black strip then they aren’t registered nurses.  No one had a black strip so what kind of nurses are these?

No temperature the unregistered nurse said, back to the lady doctor we go.  Waiting behind another sick person on the wooden stool, I notice how dingy this place is.  It looks like Cox Junior High School, where I went to middle school, some forty years ago, a building as old as Methuselah, back then.  I can still smell the old stairwells, dank with bathroom odor.   I sit down and this time she wants to listen to my heart, no need to take off two sweaters with twenty people in the room, just listen right through the woolen garments.  Next she wants to look down my throat but the light is bad, she walks  behind me and motions for me to swizzle around.  I do, to see a half a dozen sick Chinese people standing and looking at me.  I open my mouth, she compresses my tongue with a stick, she and the Chinese look down my throat!  Quite an experience, one burned into the recesses of my mind.

Now we need blood, off to another floor, another queue, another  form and pay three yuan for a blood test.  Take a number and then wait for one of ten lines to have blood removed.  My number is flashing atop of a window with a person underneath who draws blood.  My arm is placed on a pile of  disposable papers, tourniquet tightened, needle the size of a hose and I get a stick.  I forgot to tell someone, I pass out at the site of blood.  “Turn my head, turn my head!,” I say to myself.  All done, compress firmly with two Qtips and orange yellow substance on my arm. What happened to tiny needles and alcohol?   We sit in one of many cold metal chairs awaiting the results which will be retrieved  from the computerized ATM-like machine using my ID card in twenty minutes.  I am pondering the floor about now, and thinking when was the last time this was mopped?  Do they know what disinfectant is?  The patterns are nice on the tiles and other ridiculous mind roaming thoughts.   Suddenly Alice is up and getting the results, which are printed when she inserts my card.

Returning to the third floor and back to the not so private doctors room, and another line.  Alice is listening to the sick people in front of me, turning to translate their woes.  My turn, back to the old familiar stool, this time she writes all kinds of chicken scratch in my booklet that Alice got for me.  Chinese doctors write as bad as American doctors, one thing in common.   She has read my blood report and I have a bacterial infection, the flu or something.  I will need a round of  antibiotics, aspirin and cough syrup.  Diagnosed and down to the first floor where the pharmacy is located.  Hand my prescription to another white coated personal and with in minutes, I hear “su-san, su-san’  It’s my name, I can understand Chinese!  I get my prescriptions and out to pay.  Another queue and 130 RMB, cheap…. Lets go home and too bed.

Socialized medicine in China…. Obama come check it out!

A lesson in math for Texas 5th graders!

Nan Shu Foo Zong is the name of the school I teach at.  This is the IB area.  The hallways are open air and we are up 100 stairs!  No elevator.

My colleagues at their desks working, or napping.  Lunch is one and half hours, so a “siesta” is accepted at lunch time.  My Tex-Mex language seems to pop up when I am trying to speak in Chinese.  the other day I asked for water and said “Agua Por favor!”  and someone commented was that a dialect of English, yeah if you are in Texas!  No it is Spanish and I am speaking it here and no one understands Spanish, nor my choppy Chinese.

My desk is right behind Peter, my Aussie colleague.  Looking out the window from our office you can see a wonderful highrise, that is my apartment complex.  I will be moving soon, this makes me very excited.  It will be a short walk to and from  school, no more taxi’s and city buses to school.  It will cut down on expense, the bus is 2 RMB and taxi is 14RMB.  How much is that in dollars?   A lesson on money:

The yuan (sign: 元; code: CNY) is, in the Chinese language, the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The distinction between yuan and renminbi (RMB) is analogous to that between the pound and sterling; the pound (yuan) is the unit of account while sterling (renminbi) is the actual currency.

yuán (元) is also known colloquially as a kuài (块 – “piece”). One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo (角) or colloquially máo (毛 – “feather”). One jiǎois divided into 10 fēn (分).

This is what I had in my purse.  If 6.7 yuan = 1 US dollars.  Can some one tell me how much yuan I have?  The large coins are 1 yuan each, the gold is .5 yuan and the tiny coin is .10 yuan.  IF you can add it up correctly I will send you a Chinese post card!  Why am I giving you a math lesson, because my friend Linda in Friendswood told me she has given my blog site to her friend who teaches 5th grade.  These students are reading my blog and learning about the culture for their English class.  I thought to keep them interested I would do some teaching from across the world to them!

Yesterday I taught the Chinese IB faculty about my life through a power point presentation.  I gave a show about my family, Thanksgiving and how we pray and eat, Christmas, a craw fish boil in Austin, going on vacation to Taos and the Native American Pueblo, Tahoe, Galveston, Wimberly, San Fransisco, and Durango.  I had pictures of pets, snow, my backyard and art studio.  Many of this was very foreign to my new colleagues.  The comments that I received in my email from the TOK teacher are this:

Susan,

Thanks a lot for the presentation, nice. What I found most amazing is :

1.  the muddy houses    very very simlar to the ones where people in Shan Xi province used to live. The only difference is ours are cave-like houses. But mud.

2. the claw fish   that’s almost the answer why you like Nanjing without knowing it. People in Nanjing are crazy about claw fish and it’s almost a scence in summer.
One table with a big bowl of claw fish, some people sitting around the table…

3. Budda

I can’t believe it.

One thing I am learning is we are all the same, but different.  The next thing I am learning is a good teacher is always a student.  This student (art teacher) is learning more than her little Rolodex brain can hold.  I feel like it is spinning and information cards are flying out.  Anyone still have a Rolodex?  Does this tell how old I am or just that I have an antique vocabulary.

Speaking of antiques, I made mention to Jonathan (British colleague that has lived here six years) I can’t find very many old architectural buildings or antiques shops.  He told me the Chinese government had the people destroy all the old artifacts years ago and much of the old architecture is destroyed for newer buildings.  I’ve seen more Asian jade art in the Crow Museum in Dallas than I have found here.  I will keep looking, it has to be here.  Religion is non existent.  I have seen the Buddhist temple, no Buddhist tho and one Catholic church.  In Texas there is a Baptist church on every corner like McDonald’s!  My new Chinese friends don’t practice religion, that I can tell.  School will meet this and next Sunday for regular classes. (Remember we have a funky holiday next week and we work weekends for the weekdays off)  I will have to Google my church in Dallas to read what is going on, and listen to the podcast to get my religion fix or go to the Buddhist temple and light incense and say a prayer.  That is a nice way to pray.  I will let the wind carry my prayers in the smoke from my incense to God.  Like I said all the same, but different.

Tiger Paw and Dragon Breath

September 7, 2101

In foundation class today we did the “upside down man” drawing.  My past art students and teacher friends know this assignment where you take a Picasso drawing flip it upside down and draw it.  It opens the right side of your brain.  Chinese students think this is difficult, but they are much like American students when they draw.  I had four students flip it over when I went to my desk and draw it right side up and one traced it.  I told them “no, no this is not acceptable!”  When the 20 minutes was up,some where not finished.   They did not get the concept to stop as I was teaching a project in a time frame.  Two wanted to take it home and finish it.  They are serious students, too serious.  I think they need to loosen up!

Alice and I talk about our trip to Mi Jing Temple and what a good time the three of us had.  She makes a comment that I am laughing at everything I see, I do, I hear.   It makes her happy to see me happy.  Her husband has smile wrinkles when he laughs.  I told him that the more wrinkles he has, the happier he must be.  He liked that.  I am happy.  Alice even said that when many bad things have happened to you,  it turns around, and happiness fills you equally.  So the year of sadness, loss and unhappiness is over, I am in the year of happiness, smiles and many new things to laugh at.  I like her philosophy.  I smile, I laugh and I adore Alice.

Lunch with Peter at the corner mom and pop cafe, for a family size bowl of fresh tomato and egg drop soup, with two different  rice dishes on the side.  Our lunch was 17 yuan about $2.25.  The reason is was so high Peter had a Coke!  After school I walked to the bank and transferred my American bills into Yuan.  Now that was an interesting process, they Xeroxed my passport twice and ran all my bills though a machine to see it they were real.  25$ keep spitting back out! (Much like Dragon Breath, will explain later)  The teller called two other tellers over and they examined the bills, ran them though many times, held them to the light and chattered in Chinese for at least 10 minutes.  Are they going to haul me off for counterfeit American dollars?  Wasn’t this the money I had got at my bank in Texas?  At last after I signed three official documents I was given my RMB!  On to the coffee shop for a latte and 2 baguettes, one cheese and the other a cream filled and powered sugar on top.  This will be dinner!  Stopped in a little shop that had cute comfy tops, they are made of Bamboo fiber, this will be nice for my Yoga class, get one  and off to a taxi and home to the hotel.

Yoga class with Yan, my IB coordinator colleague and the Norwegian Massage/Acupuncturist.  I moved to the front of the class to see the instructor, I like her but can’t understand what she says, so I must watch her closely.  She teaches us Tiger Paw where you make a claw with your fist and slap it on the mat, that was noisy and silly.  Then we did a pose on our knees where you breath in, lunge forward, open your mouth, exert a loud breathy noise and stick your tongue out, I called this “Dragon Breath.”  We repeated this many times and I would look up and see my Chinese yoga classmates with their tongues out at me, I started laughing.  Looked over at the Norwegian and she was laughing so hard she had tumbled out of her pose and fell to the floor.  Another good Yoga class. Hitched a ride with Yan.  Her husband came to pick her up, nice to ride in a beautiful car with wood grain trim, like my Eos convertible.  Alias the Eos has moved on to someone else and I some where else.

Now it is time to dress and go to school, need to brush my teeth and remove the Dragon Breath!

China is heaven!

September 4, 2010

Just got in from a night on the town, ok it is 10:15 pm and that is late for me, but I did have dinner and hit two bars with my colleagues.  We met up at McDonalds, the Aussie Peter, Brit Michael and youngster Brit John (he has lived here six years and is the one married to a Chinese woman) plus my American friends Daniel, Paula and their little sweet daughter.  We had a lovely Chinese dinner across the street from the University for 141 RMB, not quite $20 for seven of us!  Dinner was served family style in a private room, red walls and gold chairs and a gold table cloth.  Only chopsticks are allowed!  Got a proper lesson on how to hold them from John, the bottom stick doesn’t move only the top one!  Since John is Vegan, life if good for me, as he orders in Chinese and most all we have to eat is Vegetarian.  Michael says that the Chinese will eat everything that has four legs except the table!  E-gads…. Gad I am vegetarian.  I see chicken feet, turkey necks and all sorts of meat products we would toss in American, that are scrumptious morsels here in China.

After dinner we head to the Youth Hostel for a beer.  Just the guys and I go; Paula has to put the wee one to bed.  A Snow beer 2.5 alcohol content, and tastes like a girl beer from Texas with bubbles!  So this is really nice for me, the guys hate it.  Then after one beer, John wants to move on to another bar.  Off we go, this time to a college hang out, have a lager, and listen to the cute Chinese girl sing hits from the Carpenters!  That was eerie!   Played pool with the guys, felt like I was 19 and in college.  Had a few lucky shots, but let the Aussie and Brit win!  Yes I am good at pool, but guys need to win!  Then about 10 pm decided it was my bed time and they all walked me back to the hotel.   Someone tell me where I went wrong in America?  These guys actually care about my warfare.  How delightful is this??   I so love China, John told me I would never leave, I fit in so nicely.  It is a really unusual feeling, like I belong here.  Someone told me I must have lived a past life here, duh….. I think many past lives.  I am so comfortable here, everything makes sense.

During the afternoon I looked at an apartment near the school where I teach.  It was perfect… 27th floor about 2 blocks from campus and will be available in a couple weeks.  It is more than the school allotment provides but it will be wonderful for me.  All the appliances are so not typical American, very “old school” Chinese, but hell with a pent house view

who cares.  It is something like 100 meters square, God what size is that?  It has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room and a bath and a half.  Total cost 38000 RMB for one year… about $519 a month…. And the school will pay 2/3rds of that. I am so ok with a penthouse view. (It is really not a penthouse, I am just calling it that and it is split level) Too cool for this American Art girl.

What is a”Carrefour” store?  Went to one of those today and found green olives, hot damn!  I am in heaven, plus a jar of Pesto!  (Patti, it is really good, almost as good as I make!) OK don’t laugh too hard, but I had McDonalds French fries too!  Tasted just like the states!   And they had ketchup, yew haw!  Motor bicycles are 1299 up too 1899RMB which is about $200+.  Someone tell me how cheap that is!!!!  Peter is going to buy one and I will ride on the back.  I don’t think I have the nerve to drive one with all the traffic!

Stopped in a tea shop and sat down at a tree truck table, with a Buddha carved in it.  Ok that was the best Karma ever.  The guy boiled up some Oolong tea, oh my god, best I ever drank.  I sat there looking at his little Buddha clay trinkets for sale and found one with a frog on it.  Yes I have this frog thing going now.  He sold it to me for 30 RMB ($4) then he took it and soaked it in water and it somehow filled up!  Next he poured boiling water on it and the frog magically spit water out its mouth.  Omg, I started laughing so hard, I could hardly stand it.  Then he had a water buffalo figurine and he poured boiling water on him and low and behold he turned red!  I thought I was in magic heaven!  I am so going back to this place and having tea during school lunch break.

China is heaven!

1st day of school

September 1,2010

Today I taught in China!  It was wonderful, but hot and sweaty.  Air conditioning is not something the Chinese use much! We have units in some rooms and our office.  The westerners come in and flip it on, the minute we walk out, off it goes by the Chinese teachers!  So my hair is in a pony tail today.  I am drinking water and carrying lots of toilet paper with me.  (No TP anywhere, carry your own!)

My classes start at 10:30 for an hour and a half then a nice long lunch for an hour and a half.  I come back to class at 1:30 and finish at 2:55.  It is wonderful.  One class today had 25  pre IB students all 10th graders the other was 3 fantastic HL students.  It is a great way to teach.  One of my HL’s asked me to sponsor the Ice Skating Club, and I accepted!  Can you see me on ice skates?  Zip, zip –boom!

I have a Chinese phone now, so if you need the number just email me.   I wanted a number I could remember, therefore I picked an easy one and was told it was a lucky number!  Yeah a lucky number, but it took longer to process because it was this lucky number, yes an extra hour.  Can you believe that was my luck?

School started with an IB faculty breakfast.  We had fried bread, hot soy milk, meatball bread dumpling, a loaf of sliced western bread all of which was yucky!  They did have instant Starbucks with real milk and a pastry with sesame seeds on top.  That was ok!   Found a little mom and pop cafe outside of the school campus that serves vegetarian food and the menu is in English.  Had sautéed broccoli then beans and mushrooms with fried egg rice and white rice.  Really great.  Learning to use those chopsticks, but picking up a mushroom is not so easy.  Very cheap, three of us ate for 44 RMB or $6.  Plus we had green tea.  I will be eating there again.

Off to yoga class……  It is fixing my back.  The bed I am sleeping on is just about to eat my lunch.  I have my down comforter on top of the mattress then a sheet on top of it.  Some better.

Namaste!