Sick in Langfang

So the past three days hasn’t been the most pleasant of experiences.  Last Thursday night I began feeling very ill.  My throat was becoming very sore and I was starting to cough quite badly.  Now, I’ve had a cold before here in China.  Last year I visited the local clinic a couple of times and each time produced a different result:

The first time I went to the doctor was to a small private clinic run by a single doctor.  The old man sat in his multicolored sweater drinking his tea.  When he saw me he slowly got up from the table and proceeded to put on his lab coat.  He winked as he said to me, “I’ve got to look professional for the America.”  I was thankful that my teacher friend, Shelly, went with me to translate as the doctor didn’t speak any English.  The doctor gave me a quick examination then proceeded to write out a prescription.  I was expecting him to hand me the paper but instead he walked around the back side of a glass counter and began filling it himself.  This really was a one-man-show!  The first time around the doctor just gave me a couple of pills and it cleared me up within a couple of days.  The best part was that the medicine and doctor visit cost me only 27 Yuan ($4.42).  I visited this doctor twice with two minor colds.

The third cold was a little worse than the first two so a friend suggested I visit the local clinic.  I was told that here the doctors here used more western style medical practices.  I went here twice with two colds.  It just so happened that the second time I went to the clinic was the weekend before leaving China.  Thus I was sick with a cold while moving my apartment and getting ready for the return trip back to America… not fun.  I told the doctor I needed to be well before my flight.  He understood and he ordered I be given two very nice injections.  Whatever he gave me worked!  I was feeling better within a matter of days.  However, I was also starving for the better part of a week.  This time around it was 46 Yuan ($7.56) for the visit, medicine and two injections in the backside… Yes, a little Chinese woman stuck a needle in my but! 

This last visit to the clinic was a bit more serious than the first two.  The doctor took one look at me and was worried I might have strep.  He ordered I by given three IVs full of some kind of medicine.  (The worst part about going to the doctor in China is that I never know what I’m taking.  Sometimes I can take the Chinese drug names home and look it up online but sometimes I can’t always find the western medicine equivalents.  When it came to the IVs I had no idea what was being pumped into me.  It was about six different vials being poured into a clear solution.)  As I said earlier, I was starting to become sick on this past Thursday night.  I went to the doctor the next morning with a very sore throat and a terrible cough.  He checked me out and then ordered I be given a blood test.  This was a first!  I’m not sure what they were testing for.  I had one of my old Langfang Teachers University students helping me, (her name is Wei Fan), but her skill with English is limited and she was unable to give me a sufficient translation.  So I shrugged and went along with whatever, all the while being absolutely clueless.  After the test they put me in a bed and hooked me up to the IV.  It wasn’t too bad of an experience.  The worst part was that the tape to hold down the needle wouldn’t stick because of my thick arm hair.  So they had to tape around my arm to get it to stick.  Being stuck by the needle isn’t too painful… at least not as painful as when they removed the tape from my hairy arms.  I waited for the three IVs to empty and it took about 3 hours.  All-in-all, I was there for about five hours that morning.  They finally released me, they gave me some pills, and then they ordered me back the next morning for observations.

The pills that they gave me where:

1. Jin Lian Hua: Also named Trollflower.

2. Su Xiao Shang Feng Jiao Nang: Each capsule contains 250mg Acetaminophen; 3mg Chlorpheniramine Maleate; Caffeine 15mg

3. Cefixime: Treats bacterial infections. This medicine is a cephalosporin antibiotic.

I returned the following Saturday morning and I felt even worse than the day before.  My throat was incredibly sore, my nose was running, my ears ached, and I still had a terrible cough.  The doctor took one look at me and instantly ordered another test.  This time he ordered a skin test.  Wei Fan was kind enough to meet me again this morning and she translated the doctor’s orders.  The skin test was to tell whether or not I would be allergic to the new medicine they were going to give me.  My guess was that it was some kind of penicillin.  I passed the skin test so they hooked me up with another IV.  I returned to my original bed and said hello to my fellow bedmates.  I was beginning to get to know the others in the room by now!  Another four hours later and three bottles gone they released me again, this time with orders to come back for a third time.

…Which brings me to today.  This morning (Sunday morning) I went back to the clinic for a third time.  This time around I was feeling much better and the swelling in my throat had gone done considerably.  The doctor was happy for the progress.  He ordered up one more final dose and I was hooked up once again to another IV.  Three hours and three more bottles later I was ready to go home.  However, that would not happen this day.  I’m thankful that on both Friday and Saturday I was taken care of by my former student and friend, Wei Fan.  Today I was looked after by another LTU student and friend named Sunny.  I got a message from Apple that morning that she wanted to come see me, as well.  I told her they were releasing me at lunchtime so she invited Sunny and me to lunch with her and her friends.  We all went back to Apple’s apartment and shared a home cooked lunch.  Apple made egg and tomato soup with mushrooms and noodles.  It was very delicious.  Sunny was thrilled to meet the other LTU grads and students that made up Apple’s flat mates.  The five of them hit it off and were talking up a storm.  I’m no fool and I no better than to interrupt a female gab session.  (I was also happy that I didn’t have to talk with my sore throat.)  Later, my good friend Samuel and his girlfriend showed up to join us.  They all invited me to stay the afternoon and I did, although I slept most of the afternoon on the spare guest bed.  Dinner rolled around, I woke from my slumber, and the lot of us finished off the day with some delicious chicken soup hotpot!  

It’s a wonderful privilege to be given good friends.  For the past three days I’ve really been looked after by friends and students alike.  I had visitors to my clinic bedside as students brought me lots of fruit, Wei Fan and Sunny were both my translators, as well as, waiting on me hand and foot while I was in the clinic, Apple and her friends kept me well feed, and Gideon followed me home to make sure I would get their safely.  Once the school found out I was sick they too were calling to see if I needed anything.  I told them I had the situation under control.  In reality, it was my friends who had the situation under control.  I would be lost without them.  My three day partial stay in the clinic, IV insertion, 9 bottles, medicines, pills, examinations, blood test and skin test all cost a total of 186 Yuan ($30.46).  I’m feeling pretty good tonight so I’d say it was worth the cost. 

The nurse was funny.

Hook me up, Doc!

Last day in the clinic and I'm not looking too bad.

My personal nurses: Sunny and Wei Fan

Apple, Sunny, and Carrisa

Apple stole my hat!

Tomato, egg, mushroom, and noddle soup with dumplings on the side.

My sister's home-brew-tea-mixes and a little bit of honey made me feel so much better!

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 “zhōngqiū jié”)

Moon Cakes!

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 “zhōngqiū jié”) is the second biggest festival in China, after the Spring Festival. The holiday is also known as the Moon Festival.This year the Moon Festival fell on September 19^th.  It’s strange sometimes how things work out.  Last year, during the Moon Festival, I was a guest at a friend’s village. My friend, Apple, was kind enough to invite another American teacher and me to her family home outside the city of Langfang.  (It was an amazing experience and you can read about it in a previous blog).  However, during the course of the school year, Apple became preoccupied with finishing her senior semester and the two of us barely spoke.  I saw her once at Christmas time, where she sung at a talent show, and once more near the end of the school year when we ran into each other at the main gate.  Like many Chinese senior students, Apple vanished into her studies and preparations for her final examination.  Most Chinese students will spend every waking moment for the better part of their senior year completely devoted to scoring well on the exit examination.  So it comes as no surprise that we saw little of each other.  Nevertheless, as violent storms do pass, so too does final examinations with hopefully little to know mental scaring.  All of the seniors emerged from their hideaways at the end of the school year and return once again as full functioning members of society… with only a few minor twitches.  Apple was among the masses who returned to the world of the surface dwellers.  She contacted me over the internet and we kept up a good correspondence during my summer vacation in America.

Since my return to China, Apple and her friends have been giving me a grand “welcome back.” As the old saying goes, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  There is no truer statement ever uttered and the girls have found their way to my heart with some really tasty dishes!  It seems that everything comes around as once again as I found an invitation from Apple to join her and her friends for this year’s mid-autumn festival, which jest goes to show that you never lose good friends… they just get misplaced during finals.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself in the story.  My mid-autumn festival actually started with another reunion.

The prodigal student has returned!  I started out the mid-autumn festival morning by returning to my Tai Chi master for an early morning lesson.  This was the first time I had been back since I left for America.  He was delighted to see me and he showed his joy by beating me up… again.  It was a cool morning in one of Langfang’s beautiful smaller parks.  I woke at 5:30 am and mounted my bike for the long trek.  Now that I live on the east side of the city it takes me 30 minutes to go play Tai Chi.  But I don’t mind the ride.  The city is quite and the ride is peaceful at that hour.  The sun is just coming up, the street lights turn off, and the morning dew collects on my handlebars as I ride.  Unfortunately, I arrived a half-hour early.  The Tai Chi class didn’t start till 6:30 am.  This was a problem I rectified the following day.  Around 6:30 the other members arrived and they were all happy to see me.  We all lined up on the stone pathway among the purple flowers, the calming Tai Chi music played on the portable radio, and the twelve of us moved in synchronize rhythm.  I hadn’t forgotten anything… however; I had grown stiff in my lack of practice over the summer.  The soon broke me of that…

Afterwards, I biked back home, very sore, and clean myself up.  Sabrina, my 11-year-old private tutoring pupil, arrived at 9:30 am with her mother.  We had another tutoring session.  Normally we wouldn’t meet on the holiday but Sabrina is practicing for an English competition in New York City and I am trying to get her ready as soon as possible.  Sabrina is a really smart girl and her skill with the English language is remarkable.  Sometimes I forget I’m talking to an 11-year-old as she sounds more like a 33-year-old woman!  We worked for about an hour on preparing for the contest.  But after that first hour, well… that’s when the real fun begins.  Sabrina’s and my favorite part of our session is “story time.”  Sabrina is working on writing a novel and I’m helping her with all the parts.  She just finished her first short story about ghost, wizards, and vampires.  Who knows what she will do next!  11:30 rolled around and it was time for Sabrina and her mother to go.  But no sooner had they left then I was visited by another old friend.

Vinnie, and his girlfriend, showed up at my door next bearing food.  They had asked me if they could come over and cook for me.  I was happy to accept.  They came over and we all cooked garlic fried cauliflower, stir-fried squash, and my signature stir-fried egg and tomato dish.  Lunch was very delicious.  After lunch we played UNO for a while and then we parted ways.  I was tired so the afternoon was dedicated to a nice long nap.  The evening finally rolled around and I was off on my bike for Apple’s party.

I arrived at the apartment just in time to help with the cooking.  They had asked me if I would prepare a fruit salad and I used my Mom’s Thanksgiving Day recipe.  It’s simple but delicious!  Then we all sat down to a nice meal of broccoli and beef, spicy peanut chicken, egg and tomato, and other great dishes.  Lastly we ended our meal with China’s signature mid-autumn day moon cakes!  I couldn’t be happier with receiving a moon cake with strawberry filling… my favorite flavor!  Afterwards dinner, we all headed out to the park to find the moon.  It was a cloudy night but we manage to find is after a little bit of waiting. 

My 2013 mid-autumn festival was completely unforgettable.  I didn’t really go anywhere special this year but I spent it with good friends.  Good friends and family make any day a special occasion.

As always,
Thanks for reading.

Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner

Apple and her friends.

Moon Cakes!

Apple made this for her father.

The New Langfang Park

Apple and Friends

Apple's friends and I.

Vinnie and his girlfriend.

Mid-Autumn Festival Lunch

It's monday morning, do you know where your teacher is?

The Hua Hang Lake

This morning marked the start of my third week teaching in China.  It's amazing how quickly time flies by.  The freshmen just arrived on the campus this last Friday and all the welcome festivities have died down.  Now it's straight to three weeks of intensive military training for these young guys and girls.  I don't envy them.  As my friend Sunny said, "It's three weeks of torture."  I can sympathize. These young students have to stand at attention and march around from 6:00 AM until 6:00 PM with only two hours off in-between for lunch.  The weather has been fairly nice but still it hasn't been cool enough to want to stand in the sun all day.  Some of the fortunate few get to drill in the shade but not all.  They all just look so young in their brand new blue camouflage uniforms and their bold colored running shoes.  Today I saw one girl marching in pumps... now that's dedication to fashion!  Training will end soon enough and freshmen classes will begin.  This term I was not chosen to teach any freshmen courses.  Rather, my schedule was filled with sophomores and juniors.  So I have the students who have just enough knowledge to no longer be bright-eyed anymore and too much knowledge to stay awake in class.  Ah, but I kid.  I've got great students.  I'm teaching four sections of Contemporary English and two sections of Business English.  Most all of my students are pretty attentive and well behaved in class. They all are still very shy but I'll break them of that soon enough. My teaching methods include using the textbooks and a partial lecture (20 minutes tops).   But lectures are boring (even mine) so I shift my main focus to discussion, songs, and games.  I'm a firm advocate of hands on teaching, which can be a real challenge with 44 students in a given classroom. Group games are a must.  So far we have played “Shark Tank” and “Would I Lie to You” in the classrooms.  Both are inspired by the similarly named television shows with a twist for classroom application:

Shark Tank
For this game I randomly choose four students to serve as the show judges.  The rest of the students are gathered into four-person teams.  The teams then must pick an object from the classroom to sell as their product.  This involves come up with a cleaver sells pitch for the judges.  I've seen students do everything from everything from commercials, to runway style product demonstrations, and even skits acting out the products uses. The judges then get to ask questions of the groups and they get to decide if they want to invest in the product or not.  It's a lot of fun and the students really get into the competitive nature of the game.

Would I Lie to You
For this game I divide the class into teams of four.  Each team selects a storyteller who will come to the front of the classroom.  The storyteller then gets the option to tell either a true or false story.  The rest of the class gets to ask questions of the storyteller.  After the questions round, the classroom then gets to guess if the storyteller is telling the truth of a lie.  Each team is given a point for correctly guessing the nature of the story.  However, the storyteller gets an extra point for their team if they can fool all the other teams. 

Songs
I try to choose fairly easy songs to sing and I find myself being drawn this semester to the Decemberists and the Avett Brothers.  Tomorrow I will teach them, “Down by the Water,” which has a rather folksy feel to the music.  It reminds me a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival (another great band).  Last week I played an acoustic guitar version of The Backstreet Boys’ song, “I Want It That Way.”  I also played this song for my sister over Skype and she said it was the manliest version of The Backstreet Boys she had ever heard!  My students told me yesterday that they all downloaded the song after I taught it to them and they’ve been going around singing all over campus!

Building 8

Building 8 and Me

Student dorms and shops along the main road.

River Hang i.e. "Hua Hang"

Graffiti of the school's acronym N.C.I.A.E.

Which way to my classroom?

Bikes everywhere!

All Marilyn Monroe needed was a good book.

The School Cafeteria

Some stone cold reading.

Me and Confucius

"Welcome to school.  Now, march you maggots!"

The freshmen are out marching.

Into the Shark Tank

"I want it that way!"