passing time

i'm not in a huge hurry to get back to the traumatology clinic. to tell the truth, i'm a little bored with it right now. there's a lot of down time, waiting for patients preparing under the heat lamps. and dr. gen only massages them for about 5 min each. it's a bit difficult to learn anything when

a) i don't have a lot of experience in how it's supposed to be done
b) i don't know specifically what's wrong with the patient (back pain doesn't say much), and
c) it's all over so fast, i can't even formulate questions to ask about it.

it's all hands-on, literally, which i don't know how to do. practicing the techniques can amuse me for only so long. so i've spent the last few days reading. i've finished half of the basic TCM theory book. at least i'm being productive, but i wish i could make more of my time here. dr. gen also told me that my next rotation's going to be even less informative since it's internal medicine and all they do is write presciptions for chinese herbs. agh! i might actually learn a thing or two if i understood the doctor-patient encounters, but they're ALL conducted in shanghainese. =P oooo frustrated.

on the social side, i found out where i was last thurs night. it took a little consulting with my flatmates. me and chris went to Pho with a bunch of tpa people, then met up with them at park 97 in fu xin park. cute cozy bar. good times.

yesterday catherine and i took the initiative and went to the 88th floor of the jin mao tower at dusk to see shanghai from atop. it's been such a struggle organizing 15 people at a time, so we just WENT. SOOOO amazing. we watched the sunset and the city come to life. the street lights and building signs look wondrous against the huang pu river and canals. i'll upload pictures soon. the jin mao is the 3rd tallest building in the world. 2 down out of the top three! petronas towers in k.p. to go!

settling in...

theoretically my last post was published but thanks to the Chinese government, i can't actually access my blog here. my new flatmate michael had the same problem while at wagas cafe, so it's definitely not a matter of location.

it's been 10 days since i arrived and i'm finally adjusted to the time, the food (even street food!), the schedule, and even the weather. it's been "huang mei tian" here in shanghai - two weeks every year where it's humid as hell and each day is dotted with random torrents of rain and thunder loud as gunshots. but at least the sun isn't pounding down, so the walk to the bus stop in the morning is rather pleasant.

every day i come to work about 9 and leave around 4. both dr. ji (supervisor) and the drs. i work for keep telling me to take it easy and rest. they're either really nice or they just don't want me around. =P

today is my first day in "traumatology" which turned out to be massage/acupressure. dr. gen uses heat lamps to first increase circulation to the area to be treated. the patients lie under these lamps for 30-60 min, then dr. gen presses certain points in a certain way (still figuring this out) for about 5 min and they're done! sometimes they're strapped in this contraption that looks like a torture machine which helps align their body by pulling at their feet. it's quieter in this clinic, so thus far i've done more reading than work.

this past weekend's been pleasant. not as much sightseeing as i would've liked, but the tpa people got to hang out a lot. thursday night, michael arrived from seattle. he's also pre-med, but currently applying to med school. he's traveling to india afer this, then ghana, then bolivia, which totals a year of traveling. crazy! he was a bit tired from flying, so...me and chris went out somewhere for dinner that i can't remember at this moment. to be edited!

friday night me, mike, and chris headed to barbarossa because it was pippa's last night here. barbarossa is a lounge near ren min park. to get to the front door, you walk down a path through what's essentially a tropical rainforest. then there's a bridge across a giant lily pond moat and the building is situated on a mini island. there are four levels, including the rooftop, each with its own theme. drinks are pretty expensive for shanghai standards, but standing on the rooftop, looking across the water, trees, and greenery to the shanghai skyline makes it worthwhile.

saturday a bunch of us went to old town to try to see some temples. unfortunately, due to a late start and the yuyuan bazaar, we never actually got to any temples. we did go through the yu yuan, which is this huge, gorgeous, 16th century set of gardens. it was like a beautiful maze full of secret walkways, ponds, and ancient buildings. each doorway was a different shape to frame the next garden. each bridge was a heavenly creation. every window was intricately carved. every garden was like heaven on earth...so lovely and peaceful. such a contrast to modern shanghai. =D as soon as we finished at the garden, it started raining. four of our group caught the first taxi back. me mike and arpen were left. we spent the next 20 min trying to catch a cab, but in shanghai, as soon as it starts raining, it's an impossible feat. so we hid out an old 1930s style teahouse for a while, chatted, and watched the street turn into a river. when it finally let up a little, we spent another 15 min in the rain before an empty cab showed up. soaked to the bone, we went back to our flat and i ordered in papa john's (in chinese, also quite a feat) for us, which we happily scarfed down to an episode of house. then we went out for a lovely night at i love shanghai where ron had the brilliant idea of trying all the shots on the menu since it was all you can drink. they were pretty good, not very strong. i haven't been drunk in shanghai yet. perhaps that's a good thing. while we were leaving, chris wanted to get sketched by a street artist, but the picture turned out horrible and we left the bar in a hurry. oh, chris is so especially awesome when he's drunk. =D

yesterday was anne's 24th birthday, so we had a small party at agniewska's flat consisting of chips, cheese, and jam-filled angel food cake topped with whipped cream. anne's french, so ron and arpen went to xiang yang market and bought a ton of french label fake stuff including an LV purse, cartier watch, chanel sunglasses, and a french football jersey. we also got her a bottle of evian, which is quite expensive here. we tried again to go to the temples, but they close relatively early, so we ended up at the china sex museum at the pudong end of the bund sightseeing tunnel. that was a very graphic 45 min, but it was also educational. the exhibit discusses issues like oppression of females (foot binding, prostitution, etc.), sex education, fertility icons, and of course, there were genital symbols galore. the best was a monstrified human sculpture about 3 feet tall wrapped in chains everywhere except for his schlong which was as long as he was. the title was "the only part of man that cannot be restrained." quite powerful. =) afterwards we went to pho for dinner in anne's birthday honor.

i'm taking it pretty easy over here. my aims are to learn as much TCM as possible, but at the same time, enjoy shanghai and people i meet. i feel a little guilty i'm not spending more time at the hospital, but there's only so much i can learn without having learned TCM before this and i'll be working my ass off come august. so far i've been happy with what i've done with my time here.

i've picked up a little more chinese. it's a bit of a change to go to work and communicate to the community in chinese, then go home and talk to my friends in english (plus accents!). pulls back a little on the full chinese speaking experience, but it preserves my sanity. i guess this is what my parents went through when they went to the US...forced to speak an imperfectly mastered language most of the day and using the native tongue at home. i guess it's the experience of most American immigrants. it's not very easy. many times so far, i've had to rely on describing objects i can't remember names to or places whose names i can't read in chinese. sometimes it works, but there's still so much i wish i could ask or say at the hospital than i just can't communicate. and i think i only understand ~70% of what the doctors explain to me. agh...such frustration.

final thought: why doesn't shanghai harness all the heat produced from air conditioning, factories, and the damn weather to produce useable energy? the heat from cooling these gigantic buildings must go somewhere. obviously it's heating up the environment along with the pollution. it seems to make sense to channel it into something productive. maybe i'm just weak sauce about the heat. =)

writings in shanghai

so much for writing often. it's been almost a week and it's my first entry. it does take a little time to orient oneself to the shopping, people, food, and partying. =)

today i was sent home from work due to a cough...and lack of work to do. two of the doctors have the day off today, including the one i usually work with, so i'm spending some quality time my friend internet.

it's loads of fun here in shanghai! i'm living in PuDong, on the eastern side of the huang pu river, in a 5th floor flat with two roommates gemma and chris - both from south england. i have my own room, surprisingly...a/c AND a full-sized bed, which is bigger than my bed at home. =) the flat's quite nice and spacious with hardwood floors, a kitchen, big screen tv, dvd player, and a western style bathroom. only contention is the family of cockroaches that live under the bathroom sink. my friend rose and i had a time of it trying to figure how to kill papa roach after coming home from a bar one night. spraying roach raid for 20 sec seems to work very well.

i haven't actually done much sightseeing (eg the bund, french concession, xuyuan gardens, funny towers), but the city's pretty cool. the metro's relatively convenient...just have to watch out for people cramming in and out - no one waits their turn here. the cab drivers barely say anything when you get in and out of their car. bargaining at the shops has been SUCH a learning experience...i fall for the pity card or just get tired of it and end up paying 50% of the asking price, rather than the 30% you're supposed to get. the people here are rather rude...they won't be the ones to move out of your way when you're on a collision course on the sidewalk. it's more liberal in shanghai than the rest of shanghai - women wear tanktops and short shorts, very necessary in the humid heat. the caucasian folk complain they get stared at constantly though. PuXi, the west side, is where most of old shanghai is - all the temples, colonial relics, parks, etc. pu dong was farmland 20 yrs ago. now it's skyscrapers galore. a lot of new tpa (teaching & projects abroad) kids are coming in over the next week, so i'll probably do some sightseeing with one of them. i also plan on going to suzhou and hangzhou, both cities a few hours outside of shanghai known for their landscapes.

highlights/impressions since i've been here:

PEOPLE
- there are a lot of british folk here and i can just feel their accent rubbing off on me. YES! =D there are a couple americans, a canadian, and a french girl with more people joining us soom. all the english journalists are leaving to be replaced by american medics.

- most...no, wait, ALL of the other volunteers don't speak mandarin. it boggles my mind how they've gotten around so far as most of the people i've met don't speak english. ron gets pissed cuz he's cantonese and they assume he understands them. lol. i'm a modest celebrity with my survival mandarin/chinglish so now they just make me do all the talking. more practice for me! unfortunately, i'm no good with the shanghainese, which every other chinese person and their mother in shanghai uses.

CITY
- for the first couple days, i wondered why my contacts were so cloudy. was i not cleaning them? were they defective? but they don't hurt...and it's only when i'm outside... hmmmmmmmm. damn shanghai smog.

- crossing the street here is always an adventure. they're 10 lanes wide and no one (drivers, bikes, and pedestrians) follows the lights. i got caught between a bus and a taxi on my first day here. =P best idea is to walk fast between people so just in case a vehicle does hit someone, it won't be ME.

- getting used to taking taxis. they're just as crazy as the ones in taipei, worse than the ones in new york. hm should've tried the ones in tokyo. at least they provide a seatbelt for the passenger seat.

- been to xiangyang (fakes) market TWICE since i've been here. i actually haven't gotten that much (not suitcases full like some people), but if anyone wants any purses, wallets, belts, watches, DVDs, i'm definitely going back before it relocates on june 30. the gov't cracking down...they want china to be more respectable. =D

PARTYING
- pool party on the 5th floor rooftop of the purple mountain hotel. lots of expats dancing to hard house in bikinis and less. free manicures and massages. drinks were not so shanghai priced. watched the sun set over the shanghai skyline and danced into the night. that was my second night here...SO awesome.

- staying out until 5 am at karaoke on sunday night when i had to be at work by 9 am. how can i say no to ron and agniewska's pantomines of spice girls and celine dion? and the room was only 168 yuan (~$20) for 14 of us from midnight to 5 am. AND they let you have alcohol in the room.

- went out to a bar called i love shanghai. it's just an awesome name. oh yeah, and it's 10 bucks for all you can drink until 2 am.

- tues night was rose's last night (she's the first one i met here) and catherine's birthday. after an italian dinner, we went out to bonbon, the home of godskitchen in shanghai!!! the 47th dJ in the world (yes, 47th) was spinning and well drinks were free with 50 yuan (~$7) admission. aMazing night. arpen was saying i have to go to fabric in london where you wait 3 hrs to get in, but dance till 8 in the morning. sighhh. i thought i was old.

ME
- going out so much has aggravated my jet lag AND a cold. went out sun and tues night, slept 10 hrs both mon and last night. one of the doctors i work for took me to see someone at the hospital, who prescribed me some cough syrup and cefaclor (anti-infection) medication. hope it helps.

- my placement's really great. i'm at the Shanghai TCM-integrated Hospital in PuXi. this week i've been in acupuncture, where the first day, Dr. Hu taught me how to pluck needles after treatment. after learning how and where to attach the electric wires, i'm a regular medical assistant again. i've also tried cupping, but he doesn't do that so often. in between patients he answers any questions i have and teaches me some TCM theory or about medicine in China. now we're working on inserting the needle, which, like injections, is a lot harder than it looks at first. skin is tough! plus it hurts if you don't do it quick. =| i'm practicing on paper for now. but yes, i'm scheduled for internal medicine, external medicine, and massage over the next few weeks. my chinese is horribly inadequate at the hospital, but i'm picking some up every day. they're very accommodating and try to understand my chinglish. each doctor sees about 60 walk-in patients alone in the morning (3.5 hrs)!! there are people everywhere - sitting and laying on beds. they walk in, they get treatment, they leave. it's a very quick modality. amazing results.

what's even cooler about this placement is that they actually practice integrative medicine. they'll combine acupuncture and western medicine to treat an illness. or they'll use TCM first to take down the pathogen, then use western drugs to complete the cure. they even use acupuncture in place of anesthesia for throat surgeries. dr. hu has a few stroke patients that have rehabilitated quite well with acupuncture. i hope to learn a lot of useful applications here that can be translated into western hospitals.

i have so much more to say about the cost of living, street vendors, shopping, etc. but it will have to wait. even though i'm not at the clinic, i should work on my needling and read about basic TCM theory. until next time!