The "calm" before the storm

Today 張先生 had to bring me to the doctor’s office to finish up my registration as a new citizen or something. I’m not quite sure. My Chinese is still shaky and I wasn’t really listening to him when he was talking on account of my paying more attention to the road than he was as we barely avoided the broad side of a double decker bus. One thing I will say, there’s surprisingly little road rage for such reckless driving. I know quite a few Americans who might lose their minds trying to navigate through. Americans tend to be self-righteous and boisterous if to no one else but themselves when they know they are in the right. Chinese are much more forgiving in that sense.

We got to the Doctor’s office and 張先生 started doing his thing. So I began to wander. I began to realize something rather strange. The hospital seemed almost as if it were for show. There were posters yes, but the posters were from 2005 and outdated. There was a sign prohibiting smoking in the building, as you would expect to see in pretty much ANY and Every hospital but as soon as I turned around, I saw a man in a group of 4 simply smoking a cigarette. And not just ANY man, no, a DOCTOR huffin and puffin away. EVERYONE in this country smokes regardless of age (except women) (unless they’re “bad girls”). Kind of impossible to avoid. One would think a hospital a safe haven, NO such thing. Eventually I was led upstairs where they would draw my blood and other interesting yet useful (for them) tests.

One such test was and EKG… or maybe and EEG, I don’t know or remember which being that I have zero clue how to say that in Chinese. But they had me lie on a table, draw my jeans up to expose the ankles, sleeves up for wrists and shirt up for chest. Now one thing I should say first, I had this BRILLIANT Idea before I left because I wanted an excuse to bring fewer articles of clothing (that didn’t work) of not bringing any underwear. It was about time for some fresh new boxer briefs anyway. They feel so nice when new, hugging in all the right places. BUT as such, the single pair that I had kept with me, had since worn out their stay as far as freshness is concerned. SO, ME, COMMANDO + ME, NOT HAVING ATE YET + ME, LYING ON MY BACK, SHIRT UP = VERY awkward situation for Lars and the 3 younger female doctors. I was going to my happy place to deal with this as they talked to each other, the one operating the machine in prime viewing position. I heard giggling but didn’t pick up any words. Ironically, they don’t speak Chinese in my Happy Place.

After that was done, along with a few more tests I was brought home to prepare for the luncheon welcoming new teachers. Luckily, the restaurant was around the corner from my house so I got to watch the first 3 quarters of the Lakers Celtics game (L.A. won).

This restaurant was GORGEOUS, guys. Huge table, glass lazy susan, CLEAN, a GREAT pic. Of course being that everyone had been in the country much longer than I, I was the only one NOT working on CPT Type A time. I was shown to the room and had my choice of about 18 chairs. Of course that meant I had to try out as many as possible. Every time a server/waiter left the room, I would switch seats to see the room and table from a different angle. The waiter, who kept coming back to room for who knows what reason, kept staring at me, I would imagine either very confusedly or the face that says Silly foreigner… to be honest it was probably a bit of both. I eventually found the “juuuuust right” seat before others walked in at pretty much the same time (that CPT Type A time is funny like that, I must find out how it works).

We ate and had a grand time. The other new teacher: A black guy, named Lawrence, who went to Amherst… (I don’t even know how it happened…) was kind of a boring acting/looking fellow. But…. I honestly don’t know what redeeming quality to give him, so let’s just pretend I gave him one, K? There were noodle shows (skilled cooks, cutting different kinds of noodles rather impressively. Look for videos soon.) and new foods tried (RABBIT IS SOOOOOOOOO GOOD) everyone was happy.

After everyone but me and the ladies had a smoke, I walked with a fellow teacher Jesse, to the Supermarket nearby. JESSE, is very important to my story here. He’s been here about 4 years or so, from Colorado. Has been studyin Chinese since coming here and is DEFINITELY more fluent and fluid than I and can be VERY useful in my studies. He ended up marrying a Chinese woman and loves her and her family dearly. He’s planning on coming back to the U.S. in less than a year to further his wife’s education. He definitely knows the ins and outs of the system though so much better to have him on my side. More on him later, I’m sure.
I have my first class tonight (they move fast huh?) after which I will observe two other classes (makes a ton of sense, no?) If anything exciting happens, I’ll let you know.