Tuesday, December 20, 2005
HOSPITALS, HEATING & HOLIDAYS
Saturday evening, an hour or two after eating a burger at a Western restaurant here, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had food poisoning. After being up all night and throwing up more time than I can count I went to the hospital Sunday morning. I called my homestay family to find out what hospital I should go to and they came and picked me up and took me there. They then proceded to spend the day there with me. We went to the hospital where my homestay mother is a doctor which is apparently a teaching hospital. I know this because I had 4 different people try to give me IVs and was stuck 9 times unsuccessfully before I finally did it myself. How do I know how to give an IV? I don't. But I got it right somehow. Call me Dr. Ben. That's ben with a 3rd tone. Not Dr. Stupid. 12 hours later I went home. Went back the next day for some tests ad have spent the week basiclly recovering.
It's been 30 degrees here most of the week. I thought Kunming was supposed to be the "Spring City." A while back, someone in the government had a brilliant idea, "let's just draw a line across the country. Everyone above it gets free heating, everyone below it doesn't." This is regardless of altitude. If you like at 12,000' on a mountain below the line, well, you're out of luck. I bought a heater for my house but it does little. Hopefully Kunming will start living up to its promotional title and will warm up.
Today is December 22nd. According to the Chinese calendar it is also the coldest day of the year (hmm, that's funny because it was 20 degrees yesterday.) To celebrate, dongzhi, people go to the cemetaries to clean the tombs of their ancestors and memorialize the dead. They then go hom and elebrate the coldest day of the year by eating dog, since it is a hot meat and it helps their qi (chi) in this weather.
I'm still teaching. Last class we learned going to. That having been said, tomorrow I am going to go to my language school's Christmas party. Tomorrow night I'll write about Christmas in China.
Saturday evening, an hour or two after eating a burger at a Western restaurant here, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had food poisoning. After being up all night and throwing up more time than I can count I went to the hospital Sunday morning. I called my homestay family to find out what hospital I should go to and they came and picked me up and took me there. They then proceded to spend the day there with me. We went to the hospital where my homestay mother is a doctor which is apparently a teaching hospital. I know this because I had 4 different people try to give me IVs and was stuck 9 times unsuccessfully before I finally did it myself. How do I know how to give an IV? I don't. But I got it right somehow. Call me Dr. Ben. That's ben with a 3rd tone. Not Dr. Stupid. 12 hours later I went home. Went back the next day for some tests ad have spent the week basiclly recovering.
It's been 30 degrees here most of the week. I thought Kunming was supposed to be the "Spring City." A while back, someone in the government had a brilliant idea, "let's just draw a line across the country. Everyone above it gets free heating, everyone below it doesn't." This is regardless of altitude. If you like at 12,000' on a mountain below the line, well, you're out of luck. I bought a heater for my house but it does little. Hopefully Kunming will start living up to its promotional title and will warm up.
Today is December 22nd. According to the Chinese calendar it is also the coldest day of the year (hmm, that's funny because it was 20 degrees yesterday.) To celebrate, dongzhi, people go to the cemetaries to clean the tombs of their ancestors and memorialize the dead. They then go hom and elebrate the coldest day of the year by eating dog, since it is a hot meat and it helps their qi (chi) in this weather.
I'm still teaching. Last class we learned going to. That having been said, tomorrow I am going to go to my language school's Christmas party. Tomorrow night I'll write about Christmas in China.
