day 5 part 2

Then lunch with the Dean, associate deans and a few other people including the president of the Chinese Nursing Association who sat next to Melanie. Did we mention that there are 2.5 million nurses in china. Can you imagine being the president of that big of an organization?

She clearly was a special person, but not above pulling up photos of her daughter studying piano in Boston. Most all of the conversation took place in Chinese much of it profession related and most of it generated by this woman and the dean. There was clearly a pecking order at the table and it was interesting to observe the conversations. From time to time Yu Ling would translate a synopsis if she thought relevant or when questions were being addressed to Melanie. One that caught my fancy was a quote from an ancient Chinese healer who said: there are three types of happiness. 1. Being able to see the sky, 2. Children, and 3. Being able to teach.

Everyone got a kick hearing i was a musician. We were told that our children must be very smart with us as parents. I one point late in the meal I learned that on the final toast one was expected to down their glass. Everyone kept shouting to me the equivalent of "bottoms up". I was happy to oblige once it was translated.

And we haven't even talked about the food! We ate this meal in a private room off the cafeteria for the hospital staff. We sat around a large round table with a huge lazy susan in the middle. It was the best food of the trip ( to date)

So much of what we learned about Chinese culture we forgot when we got here. When someone hands you their business card you take it with 2 hands and don't put it in your pocket. You treat it with respect. The first card I got went right in my pocket. But I've remembered since then. David remembered that you should leave food on your plate or it looks like you didn't have enough to eat. He forgot that whenever you finish a drink its automatically refilled. And he was drinking beer. He finally just stopped drinking.

I haven't posted about my lectures because i needed time to process. It is so different for me being here then home.

Yes people stare at us. But what's difficult is I'm treated as some kind of god. Think 3CPO in the episode with the Ewacks. I've had a hard time with it. I visited the Icu and a cardiac surgery ward plus the skills lab for nursing and medical students.

Everywhere I went someone followed me taking picutres. And not one or two but many many pictures. I wasn't doing anything. In the ICU the doctors asked my opinion. I've been out of the Icu now over 20 years. At the lectures students would clap and come up to me after and thank me and ask me to help with their research. I know I'm good but i also know I'm not that good. It was surreal and freaking. Finally I talked to David and he put it in perspective. Being from the US I bring them prestige.

So it was the fact I am American not the "american expert" which is how I'm introduced. It made the lectures and visit to the hopsital easier. I just ignored the paparazzi and went about my business.

The truth of this was when one of the head nurses kept grabbing me and actually pushing me to place me where she wanted so she could take a picture of me with the background she wanted.

Also for my third lecture my friend told me the students don't speak English as well as she thought and they had a translator. I felt better because American students don't understand when I talk about theory and research (its a different language) to the US students so how could I be that great a teacher that the Chinese could.

Btw, at the airport leaving Harbin, David asked if i had my boarding pass. I was totally confused that there wasn't a minion taking care of the mundane tasks for me.

More on Harbin later.....

 

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Day 5 part one. and some catch up stuff

Thursday started with Melanie being picked up at 8 am for the opening ceremonies. These were quite a big deal. The visiting professors were introduced and honored with the presentations of gifts including an engaved plaque and comparative plate. They made her work for it. First, up 4 flights of stairs (no elevator), then down outside for the pics, then back upstairs or the president's speach, but wait first where is the bathroom- oh downstairs then (did we mention that we've not seen a western toilet outside our hotel room since we arrived in Harbin) then back upstairs to sit in the front row. Oh yes, and the president recognized Melanie from the presentation and kept stopping to translate for her benefit. (Melanies 2 cents-he recognized me! There were 150 Chinese and me. Of course he recognized me)

In the meantime David decided to just get a new sim card for his phone and stop worrying about his data package so took off on a walk. he started off away from the main drag and wandered though some residential appartment area with small shops. While some were clearly little produce type shops most i couldnt guess at except for one little place with "corner coffee shop" written in the window. I really should see if i can learn a few basic characters. I wound my way back to the main street where I am guessing a seniors' exersice class was taking place on the sidewalk.

I will write more about the following adventures later:

Crosing the street in a chinese city .

Shopping inder the three

Buying a sim card with no english in 91 degree heat

 

Back in the room by 11 then off to lunch with Melanie et al. But wait, Melanie was still at speaking event so Loni took me on a walking tour of the campus.

Here i am in front of the admin building which is surrounded by a nice tree park and flower garden.

more later

 

 

 

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Melanie musing

Interesting juxtaposition between government policy and culture. Family is very very important in China. Specifically children. At he drop of a hat they'll take out pictures of their kids and show you. Of course that means i get to show them my pictures of the grandkids. However, there is still the one child per family restriction. They are all amazed David and i have 6 kids and 6 grandchildren. I've decided not to go into blended family issues. However, even with the 1 child restriction they are up with the latest infertility measures. I asked and they said because children are so important.

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Day. 4 Travel to Harbin

Seem to have missed a day which i hope to catch up on soon. We made it fine to Harbin and Melanie's friend picked us up and drove to the hotel. On the way there they asked what i was planning to do while she had her meetings and i mentioned i thought i would just go exploring. Loni, the 25ish woman who was driving said oh, "i have a map you can have." i opened it up and Yu-ying (Melanie's friend) went to show me were certain buildings were, but they were so new that they were not on the map. The map was less than 4 years old and these roads had not existed. And the new roads don't yet have road names posted. there was some confusion. The rate of construction is truly mind blowing.

Public Wifi is uncommon in Harbin so postings may be slim till we get to another city.

We are staying at the Harbin Hyatt, which has no relation to any Hyatt we know of. The associate dean met us at the Hotel to welcome us and had fruit delivered to our room

It is obviously not a tourist hotel and none of the staff speaks English. Well, I did find an assistant manager on Thursday morning that spoke enough that I was able to communicate that the safe in our room was broken..Which was promptly fixed. Everyone we come across has been so pleasnt and friendly. Butbthen again we haven't a clue as to what they are saying.

Here is a view from our window. 10,000,000 people.

Dinner at the hotel was buffet style and while the food was labeled in both Chinese and English, we are still scratching our heads on these:

 

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Day 3 the great wall

Another great day with lots of travel. We started of with a visit to the tombs of the Ming Emperors.

Well actually we started off with breakfast.

 

Rice buns

 

Mystery buns

Chinese bean and sweet pancakes

 

On the first day this was her favorite. Rice Congee. Now she's starting to lust for a burger.

 

Then it was off to the Ming Tombs. Somewhat reminiscent of the Pharaohs there was quite the ritual for entombment including the favorite concubines. Can't seem to find those photos so maybe we'll be able to post those tomorrow.

and then of to the wall.

Anyone who has done any mountain climbing know the feeling of thinking you see the top only to find, when you get to the spot, there is another rise. you can see above and behind me sticking into the skyline a tower along the wall. By the time i got there some of those who had passed me were engaged in throwing up from the exertion. I sat for a while and figured i hadnt come this far to wimp out at this point.

 

 

So here i am at that tower i spoke of. Imagine my delight on finding two more towers behind now in sight.

 

 

I was pretty pleased with myself. At the end i was going up ten steps and then sitting for a bit but ended up being one of only three anglos from those we started with that made it that far. Was was recently out of the Canadian armed forces so he doesn't count. After a short rest it was time to decend. About 1/2 way down i passed a girl Eva's age heading up. Some of the steps came to her waste but she was still going strong.

Visited the Ming tombs. So beautiful and peaceful. Now at the Great Wall in 91 degrees. Davids climbing. I'm taking a raincheck. The wall isnt what i expected. You have to climb a mountain to get to the wall. Somehow I thought we could park at the top and start walking. Second its quite wide. I pictured The wall that Ollie walks on between his school and Dylans - very narrow. It is magnificent and amazing to think about when they started building it.

He did it! He walked 1 1/2 hoyrs just to get to what he felt was a good place to call the top. David you're amazing. I had a cold coke waiting for him. ( they didn't have gatorade).

Tonight is peking duck dinner. Aaron i'll save you a pancake. Deborah, i'm sure i'll order too much.

Beforea

After.

Sorry to keep focusing on bathrooms but maybe the secret to cultural diversity is toileting habits. When one enters a public bathroom theres a large roll of toilet paper. You take what you need before you enter the stall.

I have a friend who just returned from China with a group. There was a stomach bug outbreak. Seeing is she is a nurse she was sent to the pharmacy to get meds. The next day the guide informed them that she got them pregnancy drugs. I tell this story because my bunion is acting up - no big deal. We went to the drug store, where btw, the saleswomen wore nurses caps! I tried to take their picture but they declined. Any way i show them my foot and she hands me a box. I go to open it but (makes sense) i cant until i pay. It turns out it was bandaids. So we go to another sales nurse and she gives me a different box after David draws a picture of a bunion pad. I go to put it on today and its wart remover. Oh well. I'll live.

Now we're off to harbin where i give my talks and have 3 welcome dinners. The question is will they still welcome me after meeting me.

Serious musings from Melanie. China has been described in some ways as third world (whats the new politically correct term, i forget) . Anyway, in Peking they are so modern and the women here are dressed as they would in NYC. theres clearly money here. I do get not for everyone. Yet i dont get how in this entire country one cant drink the water. For me potable water has always been the defining issue for third world countries. I know Singapore (a much much smaller country) has made water a priority to the point where they are changing the natural course of rivers and they have a giant filter to filter sea water. This does not seem to be a pressing issue for the government here and i wonder why.(at least we heard nothing about it)

At the airport. Sent to a special line. Searched. All understood. Except apparently Chinese women dont wear underwire bras. Ok fine but that was no reason for the woman searching me thoroughly to giggle as she's looking

 

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Day 2

Quite the day. Included Tienemen Square, Forbidden city, summer palace, silk factory, Special dinner, and Chinese opera. I started writing this at 5 pm still have the dinner and the opera to go. By the way, i am liking blogsy for blogs however spell check is not working so be forwarned.

We're experiencing rain from the typhoon which meant spending most of the day in damp clothes and less than stellar conditions for photos. it is fortunate we have a car and a driver to get between venues. But we did a ton of walking and an umbrella only helps so much. Kept the camera dry anyway.

Its Monday and Beijing looks a lot more like we expected it to today: lots more people, bikes and traffic. We started with Tienaman Square.

 

Strange to walk across it considering all the history that has taken place here. the space and the buildings surrounding it are impressive and despite the rain the place was crowded with tourists from China as well as the rest of the world.

This connected to the Forbidden City, called such as the common folk were not allowed there for much of its 600 year history. Each building is eye popping in its own right but the way the structures relate makes for another sort of visual delight.

 

 

I wish the weather had allowed me to capture some of the colors and views better. We definitly plan on watching "the last emporer" when we return. Much of it having taken place here.

 

Lots of thrones, not a lot of warm fuzzy space. Not an easy place to live or survive even if you were the Emperor. The place has 9,999 rooms and the Emporer had 73 bedrooms. One for each concubine and one with his wife. That was to make it harder for porential assasins to find him. We also heard an interesting game played by the Emporer and his concubines.

This is now melanie. Before you get the wrong idea. The game was hide and seek.

I'm not as linear as David so let me babble. Four is an unlucky number in China. There are no 4th floors in buildings here, like in the US no 13th floor. The emperor owned the number 9 and the color yellow. No one else could use it. Seems a bit capricious. I know youre the emperor but thats a bit over the top. There was someone in history called the dragon lady. Her husband died and her baby son became emperor. She ruled for him and he died of small pox at 4 so she appointed a baby newphew and ended up ruling for over 50 years. She's an evil charachter in chinese history but lets review this story from a feminist perspective. Women had no rights or say in anything. Shes my heroine I say hurray for the dragon lady.

I have been falling asleep at 4p on the nose the last two days. Luckily the guide took us back to the hotel at 4 so I could grab an hours nap. I still fell asleep at the opera. That was interesting but I'll let david discuss it. Apparently it is common for young boys (3 to 6) to pee in the street when the mood strikes them. I'll not comment on my assessment of that cultural habit.

Lets talk important stuff. My hair looks like Marlo Thomas in That Girl. Where did this flip come from? At worst my hair is totally frizzed. Oy.

Other nonsense. I have no problem with the shower but in order for David to get wet above the knees he has to lift the shower head up and it floods the bathroom.

Managed to forget a phone so no pictures from Chinese Opera but i did buy a program (first time for everything). Really glad we went but it is not an artform that grabs me. The martial arts component (a common part of the plot) was a surprise and impressive and i really enjoyed the live musicians and how they worked with the actors.

Oh yes we also went to a silk factory and decided not to spend $1000 for a silk comforter. We did, however get to stretch the silk from a double cacoon making a new layer for a quilt of some future purchaser.

It is Sarah's birthday her already! Happy Birthday!

 

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More thoughts on the Hutong

More thoughts on Hutong. At least there it appears babies don't wear diapers - or anything on their bottom half. So we're on the bicycle powered rickshaw and turned a corner and there is a rather well dressed woman holding an infant that's peeing straight out. It missed us thank goodness or there may have been an international incident. Later on we were walking in Beijing among the modern stores and there is another mom with a 5 year old. She pulls down his pants and he pees against the tree. Maybe they don't like the eastern toilets either.

Fell asleep at 4p and slept until 4a. Melanie managed to stay in bed until 6. David was out the door by then looking for coffee. We have a 12 hour tour today. Good luck to us.
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