Category: Uncategorized

Frustration and Fatigue

Couldn’t sleep a wink last night. And today was my Chinese lesson. I’m learning on an app called Anki. I have no idea how to use it, but apparently, that doesn’t matter to my teacher, because I suspect he likes to see me frustrated. It’s like taking flying lessons and the pilot takes you up to 30,000 feet and lets you take over the controls, but you have no idea what they do. Well, okay, it’s not THAT stressful, but still. If you are an instructor and you force your students to use an app, and you teach them nothing about it at the beginning, yet assign things to do on the app, I mean, WTF?

So yeah, wasn’t feeling super duper hunky dory today. It’s probably going to rain soon, I wish I weren’t sensitive to changes in the barometric pressure, but here I am. And today was appropriately gloomy, with enough clouds to make you want to stay in bed all day.

Soon, I’ll be able to dot that.

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Monday, Monday…

It was actually pretty good yesterday. Technology held up, got through stuff from the units, yada, yada, yada. Had pizza for dinner, ordered from Eleme. I finally broke down and ordered from Eleme (food delivery service) for the first time in YEARS last week, when I had a craving for pizza, but not enough to go out in cold weather for it. I felt like a lazy pig, but damn, that pizza was good.

And today’s pizza was good too.

Spent the evening grading papers. I’m almost done.

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Aw, Yeah!

Baopals is just like Taobao, but in English. I’ve had a hankering for American snacks, so I broke down and bought some caramel pretzels from MiniSo. Of course, they don’t come in the American size. We’re talking a bag containing three “snack-size” packages of pretzels.

They were good, but of course they weren’t enough.

Baopals to the rescue. I really wanted some decent cheese popcorn, so I bought some Cretors Chicago Mix. I’d rather have just the cheddar, but the caramel popcorn thrown in is a nice touch too. I got a notice from Baopals that it might take a while to come.

Or maybe I read the wrong thing. Because I got a text saying my orders came in. They included Campbell’s tomato soup, crackers, cocktail sauce, and (insert heavenly choir here) THE CHEDDAR CHEESE POPCORN!

I was very pleased and having two jumbo bags of cheddar cheese and caramel popcorn

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Hospital Visit！

Relax. Visiting a hospital in China doesn’t mean automatic bankruptcy. But of course, being an American, any time I have to visit a hospital, my heart rate jumps a bit.

In China, doctors don’t have the status U.S. physicians do. They also don’t have the same pay. But they do hang out at the hospital. None of these “Minute Clinics” or “RediMed” here.

The reason for the visit was because I swore I saw blood in my urine. I’d been feeling really tired for months now, but my blood sugar has been fine and I’ve been exercising on a daily basis. It could be just general depression, but whatever. I’ve been downing vitamins and B-12.

But I felt for a couple weeks, my urine looked… off. So I contacted a couple of colleagues who made a hospital appointment. Luckily it was my day off.

In China, you prepay when you visit a hospital. No, you really don’t know how much it’s going to cost. But you get a card; looks like an ordinary bank card, at the hospital. You stick it into what looks like an ATM, and put money on the card. I think they base it on what you are coming to the hospital for.

We started off at the gynecology department first. It’s not really related to urology, but I passed if they asked if I wanted an exam. My hysterectomy took everything out a while back, so I don’t have anything to worry about there. I felt I just needed a urinalysis to see if I had anything to worry about.

Turns out I didn’t. Everything was fine.

Stressful Evening

I’m making another effort at Chinese study. However, managing the tools my instructor wants me to use seems a huge effort. Electronic flashcards and recording my pronunciation (how do I know if I’m pronouncing it right?) seem too much to bear right now. It’s annoying when the study tools don’t make sense and involve technology.

So my Mexican dinner last night with a friend (also studying Chinese with the same instructor) was a pleasure. I was a bit hangry, so that made my burrito and chips and dips taste even better.

But I was tired and didn’t even think about posting last night. So I didn’t. At least I don’t think I did.

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Sittin’ at the Bank

I got paid a few days ago, so today, I spent close to four hours at the bank waiting for them to do a wire transfer home.

I had to go home and get my old passport, because I showed up at the bank without it, and of course, I ended up needing it. The last time I was there a month ago, I didn’t need the old passport.

But not today. I thought about taking it, but of course I didn’t. So I went back home and retrieved it, then went back to the bank and sat, and sat, and sat.

Then to top it off, after everything was done, I wanted to transfer some momey from the account where they put my paycheck, to the account hooked up to my WeChat account.

See in China, they won’t accomodate YOU, you have to accomodate the bank/employer. So if your employer does their banking at ICBC, you have to get an account there. They won’t deposit your check into China Construction Bank. Or any other bank account you may have. Thankfully, I have five bank accounts and never did get around to closing my ICBC account.

But ICBC is where I keep my “emergency” fund. So my paycheck gets deposited into the “emergency fund” then, I transfer some money out from that account (leaving at least 1,,000 RMB in there each payday to build my emergency fund. Then I transfer it to the account that I use for regular everyday spending. It’s a bad idea to have your emergency fund connected to your regular spending account.

However, the folks at ICBC are suspicious that I transfer a good chunk of money into my China Merchants Bank account that is hooked up to my WeChat.

And today, it took even longer than last time to wire money home, which is a good thing I did this on a day that I didn’t have to work. However, doing this cut a huge chunk into my day, and I was tired when I finally got home. I have plenty of papers to grade but I concentrated on getting prepped for tomorrow. The grading can wait.

But it did kind of piss me off. I feel like I am under suspicion every time I wire money home. It even makes me madder that I’m wiring less than $1000 home, because that’s all I can afford. It’s not like I’m doing something illegal. I’m just transferring part of the VERY small paycheck I get back home to cover the bills I have there.

But now you know I spent my Tuesday afternoon.

And to make matters worse, the ATM ate my card. I had to bang on the door to let staff know my card got swallowed. UGH!

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Cultural Tour!

A wedding carriage. Young girls stayed in the room until about age 13, when they were married off. This is what they rode in. I was told these girls basically stayed in these rooms until they got married.

Temple at Huang Zuobin’s house. The furniture you see is from a tree that was 300 years old at the time the furniture was made. The wood is 500 years old.

Pottery room.

One of several little courtyards at Huang Zuobin’s house.

I joined the teacher’s union, and they sponsor trips every so often. They gave me a 1545 yuan grocery card, which is about $266. I stocked up on beef, chicken, personal care products and cleaning supplies.

Yesterday, I went on a trip. And that’s part of the reason why I didn’t post anything yesterday. I was beyond tired when we returned. I think I slept for a few minutes on the bus ride back, but when I got home, even though I had lots of papers to grade, I decided to put them off and sleep. And jeez, I certainly did. I think I made it home by 3:20 p.m. or so, and I continued sleeping until the next morning. Yes, I woke up a few times to pee, but it was right back to sleep for me.

I was shocked at how much I slept. But I’m not a morning person. And going to bed late and waking up early is not a good idea, especially for me. But I like these occasional trips. It was a relatively free way (aside from my union dues) to see a different town and to have a good lunch.

Yesterday’s trip took us to a house that was owned by some guy in pharmaceuticals. Huang Zuobin was his name. The house is huge, and big enough to get lost in. Took him 28 YEARS to build. The house is in Minquing County. The house was hit by Typhoon Nepartak and flooded. It took three years, but they restored it.

A bit of history about Huang Zuobin’s house.

A scale model of what the complex looks like.

These thresholds were kind of high. I’ve seen them before, in temples. I’m not sure if they are to ward off vermin, flooding, or what.

A nice little pond in one of the courtyards.

I love going on these trips. After this, we were treated to a delicious lunch in town, which had the food already on the table for us. I tried bamboo shoots (they looked like thin slices of beef) and also yam beans, also known as jicama. I’d heard of this vegetable, but hadn’t had it until now. It sort of has the texture of a pear, but none of the sweetness. It has a very fresh taste, sort of like alfalfa sprouts, but a lot milder.

Then we got to walk around for a while, and one street were really interesting. It was a combination of commerce and living quarters. The windows were decorated with flowers. It was a pedestrian street, and I imagine it would be very pleasant to live above the shops.

I thought this looked both peaceful as well as trendy. The pedestrian street had a variety of shops as well.

After we walked through the street, we made our way back to the bus and went home. The pedestrian street also had a small museum as well.

A raincoat!

The pedestrian street also had a little museum highlighting stuff made in the area, like pottery. There is also a man from the area who became a kick-ass doctor. Wu Mengchao was his name, and he is the founder of liver and gallbladder surgery in China. He also was a trailblazer in international liver cancer research.

Wu Mengchao!

So it was a nice trip, and also nice to ride in a bus and let someone else do the driving. I love traveling by bus and by train here in China. Because I can take a nap any time I want, and also check out the scenery. Lots of mountains here, which is a novelty for this Indiana girl!

Continued thanks to those who read my blog. Check me out on Medium.com. My handle is Gloriajanelldiaz7.

Gaaaah! Late again! VPN isn’t cooperating. Sorry.