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!