Acupuncture and America 4/17/08

17 April 2008
Today was my first “official” day of acupuncture. I really didn’t do much again. I watched a few cases, many of them repeats, and then spent most of the time talking to the doctors and students about America. However, I did learn that all of yesterday’s pain during my treatment was associated with activation of the Qi and was thus a good thing. I’m not so sure, but my knee does feel better now.
We talked about average doctors’ salaries and buying houses in the U.S. I showed photos of the house Andy and I are buying and one doctor, who has a son in Cincinnati, wanted copies of them as she wants to buy a house in the States. I’m not sure how having pictures of our house will help her, but I obliged. Through the boy student I tried to explain the variation in house costs depend on the state of repair, location and age of the house. We tried to look at realtor.com, but the internet delay made it impossible. Apparently, when you buy a house in China, you can only live in it for 70 years. It seems an odd prospect to me, but I suppose it helps somehow with a housing crunch. The Chinese were equally surprised that you could live in your house as long as you wanted in America.
We also talked about sports teams and Thanksgiving dinner. Here, a turkey apparently would cost 300 yuan or about $44. They seem to like Haagen Daas ice cream as we were asked about it a lot. It’s a special treat here that costs 50 yuan or about $7. Overall, I think they have a healthier approach to food. They say, yes they like McDonald’s, but eat it rarely as it’s not good for the body. There are many KFCs here and the students are surprised that it’s not as popular as McDonalds in the U.S.
Lunch was difficult as I tried to order on my own. They understood “miantiao” for noodles, but did not understand my zhurhou for pork. A little old lady ended up helping me order -- she’s 80 and has been retired for 20 years. She says her husband is here in the hospital and she’s a director or maybe a doctor in the past. Noodles are really hard to eat with chopsticks. Here it is completely acceptable to shove them in your mouth and slurp as much as you please. However, I find I end up with too little in my mouth or too much and thus end up exhausted from trying to eat. Today, I ended up buying cookies at the convenience store at the hospital entrance to fill in the gaps. The cookies were at least familiar, too – strawberry flavored wafers.
Tonight’s dinner was at our usual noodle house by the university. I had my usual chaofan. The fried rice is good, but I am getting tired of it. We are in the stage of discussing what foods we want when we get home – brownies, bacon, salad and chicken without bone in it are all on our list.
The girls have gone out to a internet bar and I have stayed in to work on writing. I used the internet today and had some success in making web posts. Now, I am eager for Andrew’s voice, though he has texted me that he hasn’t got past the receptionist this time.