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. =)