It's 11:20 PM and I have to get up at 6, but I thought I better write an update before I forgot everything that's happened...not that too much has actually happened, haha. I went to the pool for the first time yesterday with Jackie and her cousin. It is HUGE- 50 meters. I didn't realize swimming was so hard, but I probably haven't really done it since I started lying out by the pool at age 13 or whatever. There are no chairs or anything here so there's not much to do but swim. It turns out the pool is right behind our building- I have no idea how we've missed it all summer! Janell and I went today...Janell is a really, really good swimmer. I am not. At all. A guy congratulated me on my butterfly stroke and I had to correct him because that was definitely not me! He and his Nepalese friend really wanted to talk to us because "it was the first time EVER that white girls had been in the poor...it's like big stars coming in or something". LOL, I'm pretty sure no one has ever told me that in the States! Anyway, we were there a few hours and everyone was very eager to give me swimming lessons. Apparently my freestyle is decent, but I need to learn how to breathe. I kind of learned how to do a breast stroke, though. Hopefully if I get decent enough at it then 50 meters won't feel like 974329873 miles!
I went out shopping today without Janell. The goal was to find a fleece in preparation of our upcoming trip to Songpan. I realized that it is not good for me to go shopping without her for 2 reasons:
1) I spent twice the time that I spent shopping being lost (it's a big city! found my way in the end, though), and
2) the people working in the store are so nice and they followed me around to help me the whole time. Maybe this isn't actually "so nice", haha, and more like a ploy to get you to buy something because you feel bad-- or at least it worked that way for me!
Anyway, the end result was that I never found a fleece but I did end up with 2 mediocre shirts. So there. Going out with Janell is harder because I notice the stares WAY more-and I think each of us gets them more when we're alone because it seems odd to see a foreigner walking alone. I did have many people offer me a watch, though, lol.
We visited 2 hospitals yesterday. The first one was the hospital for occupational injuries. I thought it was really interesting that there was an entire hospital dedicated just to that. It looked pretty much like an older hospital in America, but more open-air than it would be in the US. In parts of the hospital they didn't have enough room so people were sleeping on beds in the hall. The saddest part was when we went to the hospice floor...the doctor there saw us looking around and wanted to tell us about the ward. It was a pioneer project in China and the money was donated by a Chinese billionaire. He had good English and it was really nice of him to give us so much information, but it was really difficult seeing the patients (he took us in some of the rooms). Firstly, I felt bad that we were in there staring at them like they were zoo animals...I hope they didn't think of it that way, but I probably wouldn't be so pleased if I was their family member. We saw a 4-year-old little boy who had been abandoned by his parents at birth, was raised in an orphanage and now had terminal eye cancer, along with an 18-year-old boy who was dying from a stomach tumor. His dad was with him, and that was so hard to see. I admire people that want to be doctors, because it must be a very emotional experience.
The second hospital we went to was HUGE and very nice and modern. It is at least the biggest hospital in this part of Asia and perhaps in all of Asia- I can't remember for sure. You could never, ever imagine the amount of people that were there, but it resembled a VERY crowded airport. There aren't really any physician practices in Chengdu- almost all of them are based out of the hospital, so that's where everyone who gets sick goes. One of Jackie's roommates took us around the laboratory where she works and we saw all the machines they have (I sound stupid there since I have no idea what all the machines were!). Their lab tests things like glucose, electrolytes, etc., while there are other labs dedicated to diagnosing disease and other things. I wanted to go to one of the other buildings after that- specifically to the floor of "Western and Chinese traditional medicine". It was REALLY interesting. They Chinese natural remedies in conjunction with western medicine. The doctor we spoke to (everyone was very helpful and eager to talk with us) told us that she's seen the results and she thinks they're good- that was/is her major. However, she said there have been no studies done to compare success rates among wards in the hospital that use only western medicine, wards that use only traditional medicine (I THINK there was one of those) and their ward, which combines both. If I was going to be in China for a while that is totally what I would want to study.
On Tuesday, I gave a presentation to the bar waitresses about communication! Professor Zhang wanted me to do this because of my counseling/psychological background, but also wanted me to incorporate a lot of discussion and games into my talk. In China, they typically are only lectured so this is unusual. I was a little nervous, but it went fine and they were all so sweet! It may have been a bit too simple, but going into it I had no idea what to expect about their knowledge of communication skills, etc. It actually was fun and I'm glad I was able to do it.
Hmm, it's getting close to midnight and I can't think of much else that stands out about the last few days right now. We had a meeting with Professor Zhang on Monday and with Connie on Tuesday. Connie wants to organize nightly meetings with all the grad students for the last week that we're here. Tomorrow we are leaving early to go to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha, then we are going to Mt. Emei until Sunday. "We" means Janell, Jackie, Jackie's cousin and I. We were supposed to go to Leshan with Professor Zhang but he had something come up so he wasn't able to make it. Next week we are going to Songpan for 5 days to ride horses- just Janell and I. More info on that later. Hope everyone is doing well!
