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.
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.
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!
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.
I watched Jerry Maguire again the other night and the fact the movie centers around Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Renee Zellweger, I still don’t believe the Arizona Cardinals are real.
I’d never heard of them before the movie came out in what? 1996? Yeah, 1996. I thought the team had been made up for movie purposes. But no, it’s an actual real team.
How it it I’d never heard of them? Were/Are they really that bad? Our family has always rooted for Green Bay. Of course I knew the Chicago Bears, and Detroit Lions, because before I moved, I was literally just a few hours’ drive time from the former two cities. But Arizona???
I STILL think they’re fictional, but I guess they’ve been around since 1898.
But those are just one of my super stubborn, “I know I’m wrong about this” thoughts that I just can’t give up. I KNOW the Arizona Cardinals are an actual NFL team.
I woke up this morning with the worst headache I’ve had in a long time. I get headaches in China, usually right before it’s going to rain. But this was a right behind my right eye, stomach-churning pain that had me wondering if this was a pre-flu trailer.
I took some Walmart Acetominophen, and went back to sleep. I had a mid-afternoon class today, so thankfully I could do that. The pain lessened, so I went to class. But I decided to stay home tonight and get some extra rest. That really helps me if I think I’m coming down with something.
There’s a drama presentation I want to go to tomorrow, so I might spend the majority of the day just hanging around home. Sunday, there’s a day trip I agreed to go on. I really like going on these trips. They sponsored a weekend in Foshan when I was teaching in Guangzhou, and that was really nice. It’s a way to see other Chinese cities for free or next to nothing.
But to have a headache like the one I had this morning was kind of scary. I just looked out the window and the pavement is still dry. So no rain… yet.
It’s been very busy here, and I can’t even look forward to the weekend to relax.
But it isn’t normally like this. It’s just a convergence of stuff to do. Grading, prepping, starting a new Chinese class, English corner two times a week, a drama presentation Saturday night and a full day trip on Sunday.
The day trips sponsored by the school I look forward to, because they’ve been good. It’s a good way to see another Chinese city without the travel costs. As someone pointed out to me, traveling in China is very cheap. Yes, but it isn’t FREE. And if you’re trying to save money, and you make less than $9.50 an hour, maybe you can feel my pain. Apparently lots of people are just rolling in money and can travel all over China. Not me. I’m fucking poor. No matter what I do, nothing gets better.
The drama presentation last year was good, and related to one of the trips I took. I enjoyed the trip so much, I went back this summer to explore more, and I’m glad I did. There was just so much more to the place than I realized.
I don’t think I’ll ever get fluent in Chinese, but whatever.
I’m grateful to whoever is reading. My stats went up in a big way a couple weeks ago. As I’ve told a couple of people, I’d love to say I’m doing spectacularly well, but I’m not. As it is, I just seem to be a cautionary tale.
Lately my blog has been getting way more traffic than usual. I’m not sure why, but thanks! And if you really like my musings about life in China, spread the world!
So last night I had really bad insomnia, even though I took a Unisom, split in half. And when I woke up this morning, it was overcast. And after my last class today, there was just the lightest of sprinkles.
But I made it through both classes today.
For some reason though, my computer would not hook up to the wifi. It’s annoying, because I have everything here on my laptop that I want/need for class. I usually use Kahoot to review for quizzes. But I could only go online through the classroom computer, which of course, is entirely in Chinese. Also, I had to have students log in to the computer for me, because of course, my credentials didn’t work.
But Kahoot thankfully does NOT require a VPN. So I was able to sign in and do the review online.
And I put up another shelf. I saved for several months to get shelving. I rigged up something that is unusual, to say the least, but my initial purchase of used wardrobe doors and plastic waste basket/buckets meant I could create shelving at a dirt cheap price, even for Ikea. No drilling into the walls, none of that.
Of course, I need to be careful where I put stuff. I need three waste buckets per shelf, and to center most of the heavy stuff over the buckets, which seem pretty tough.
I couldn’t find boxes that worked. I thought I did a few weeks ago, but it turns out not. But Ikea is selling packing boxes, so rolling my eyes, I picked up a few. I’ll have to cut them down, but whatever. I have white drawing paper on a roll, so I can wrap the boxes up, and not have them be so brown and moving-ish. When you’re poor, you have to work with what you can afford, or already have.
Even so, the shelves look way better than having sagging, more than a year old moving boxes to keep the stuff I want handy nearby. When I went to Ikea last week, they had a lot more doors. I didn’t want to spend the money, but when next paycheck rolls around, I might snag a couple more for my spare room. There’s hardly any floor space in there, so walking is a hazard. And I can plunk the boxes of craft/clothes/handbags/office supplies on shelving and maybe turn the floor space into a yoga area.
It also makes me realize I have way too much stuff. But it never fails–whenever I throw something away, just weeks later, I need it.
Pics to follow soon about my transformed living room. I’m pretty sure I took a before shot of my saggy-ass moving boxes. Now to take pics of what it looks like, which is better.
No Way! Laowai! 
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