Day Two in China:

Today was one of the scariest days. Today we were going to go the doctor. I was going to get a really, really icky medicine to eat, but one that was healthy and didn’t have tons of chemicals. I wasn’t going to start eating today, luckily. But for the first half of the day, I stayed home and completed my chores. My aunt had to go to work in the morning, but she said she would be back before lunch. She’s a teacher at one of the middle schools, and I guess they were taking tests, so she didn’t have to be there the whole day. Finally, she came home.

I was both excited and nervous for the visit. I was excited to see what kind of doctors they had, but nervous just like when you go to the doctor’s for a checkup. We got there at 1, and my aunt told me we had to wait an hour, at least. The hospital had many people in it. It wasn’t dirty, although it wasn’t clean either. My aunt and I waited a while. Suddenly we saw a doctor coming in, the main one, not the assistants. All of a sudden, tons of patients flooded her with questions about their health, or demands to see her next. Poor her, as soon as she got to work, she was nearly drowned by (maybe sick) patients! She walked into an office and kindly asked the people to give her some time, then closed the door. I sighed; there were so many people, I wasn’t sure how long I was going to wait!

Luckily, I brought my Nook (awesome). So I was reading and reading, and reading some more. Finally, when I look up at the clock, it was past 2! I couldn’t possibly have read that long! But I was wrong. I asked my aunt how long we would have to wait, and she said she would go check. After a couple minutes, she came back and told me probably another hour. So I took a break from reading, observed the other people, drank some water, and went back to reading. Soon, another hour had slipped by. This time when I asked again, the reply was: I really don’t know now. I realized I just had to wait.

In the end, I waited until around 5, maybe a little before. But seriously, 4 hours to see a doctor?! And the whole checkup process was minutes! She asked me questions, checked my pulse, and that was it. No thermometer or any other gadgets. That took me by surprise, even though I was told that usually it was like this in China. I got my medicine prescribed (two types) and we went home exhausted.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t eat the medicine today. But I just want to share the details: The first medicine is swallowed with waters. There are about sixty tiny balls (about { } <=that big) that I had to swallow down with water. It isn’t bad, because after you’re finished there’s no taste left in your mouth

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The second is much, much worse. Well, especially with comments from my cousin’s grandma. She said she had to take it for 6 years! She also told me that I had to be careful, because I would feel like throwing up afterwards. So I got really scared that I would. I held my breath, and gulped down as much as possible (pretty much all of it). Even when I held my breath, I could taste the disgusting bitterness!! But really, it wasn’t that bad (still doesn’t stop me from whining). Right after, I rinsed my mouth with water, and stuff a huge sugar cube into my mouth. It was sweet and sugary. At least I knew it wasn’t too bad, and I might be able to live through it [twice] every day.

Day One in China:

We got out of the airport around 10 and we were home by 2. The flight was especially boring. It was 14hours and 10 minutes long. Well, except for the 2 hour delay.There was a half hour delay in the airport, and when we got on the airplane, we had to wait two hours! I fell asleep for an hour so I didn’t even realize it was that long, thankfully. It was one of the worst days, because it was raining. Finally after a three hour drive, we got “home”. Jasmine and I ate some food, and went to bed. We really weren’t that tired, but we did manage to sleep.

The next day, we had many tasks to get done. First, to get our hair cut (our hair is long… I felt sad to see it get cut, but I was beginning to get bored of it, and I wanted it to change… in a good way, of course). So Jasmine, my aunt, and I went to a friend of my aunt’s who cut hair. The hilarious thing? The salon was called “Beaver Professionals”!! Seriously!! But they were really good. I got layers, where the front is short, but the back is longer. It isn’t too short; when I put it into a ponytail, it looks cute. At the end, there was a huge pile of hair on the ground! It was probably as much as the hair on my head! I like my new hair, definitely, and so did Jasmine!!

 

Later that day, we went to check out the “piano houses”. They were pretty much piano houses where you rented a piano for a period of time. The first one was alright I guess. But the parking was really bad, and there was no AC. How does someone live without AC in China?! I didn’t mean that literally, because plenty of people do, although I can’t. SO that one was immediately crossed off my list. The next one was much better. There was a better parking spot, and air-conditioning. The pianos were…eh, okay. There weren’t any “good” ones. There were two Strauss, a Goldstein, and a Forrest (did I spell that right? It might be Forest). The best were probably the Strauss pianos.

But before all the fussing around, we stayed home. We actually went shopping. The place where my aunt lives is an apartment like building. We live on the second floor. It seemed small at first glance, but actually after a while it didn’t seem small at all. It is a gated neighborhood with only apartments. Actually, never mind, not only apartments. Because that day, we went to buy watermelon! Yes, buying watermelon was one of our tasks, the one I created myself (I love watermelon). And the day was done!!

At night in China, it is warm. Really warm, especially with a blanket. But I guess it’s the same in the day. Still, I had no trouble sleeping (did I mention that I come from a family of pigs? Or maybe it’s just me?). And I definitely needed that sleep to get through my next day!!