One Girl, Two Coasts: Day Twenty-Four: What's Up, Doc??

Day Twenty Four

The majority of today was spent...at the hospital! Since we were in China for this hospital visit, it was, as usual, an adventure.

During our time at the water park, Jason got water stuck in one of his ears, and it turned into an ear infection. It had really bothered him when we were in our hotel room that night, and by the way he explained it, I knew we had to go to the hospital once we got back. I'd had the exact same problem four years ago, because we'd gone to a water park, I'd gotten water stuck in my annoyingly small ear canals, and we'd spent a super long time at a packed hospital waiting to get it flushed out. It's a terrible feeling, because you can't hear very well in one ear and it constantly bugs you because your hearing is off and funny. Plus, your relatives tell you repeatedly to just "jump up and down, and it'll all come out" but that is not at all the case. The ear canals can be so small that once water goes in, it's very hard for any to come back out. So, it's just stuck there, and you can't hear, and you're a miserable little ball of sadness. Yep. That was me for a while, too, so I totally understood how frustrated Jason felt.

My aunt woke us both up earlier than I wanted that morning (hellooo?? I got up for more than 3 hours to watch the World Cup!!), because we were going to the hospital that morning! Awesome! Now can I go back to bed?

Nope...my aunt said that since Chinese hospitals were absolutely insane and crowded to the max (this I could believe from experience), we needed to leave as early as possible so that we could get a number, and then she could take us out to walk around and sightsee and play while we waited, since it would most likely be a few hours until our number was actually called. Ugh. Good-bye, my rock hard bed. May we soon meet again.

We took a bus and then the subway to get to the hospital, which was the same hospital I'd gone to for my ear infection. Whoa! We bumped into my mom's old math teacher (Mr. Wang) on the walk there, which was a major coincidence....how in the world did that happen? My aunt still recognized him and we talked for a while before he continued biking to bring his grandson to piano lessons.

After my aunt asked multiple people for directions to the hospital (she also isn't familiar with this area), we finally made it. The next problem was making our way through the enormous crowds of people. This hospital was absolutely overloaded with people. There were folks standing and sitting everywhere in the multiple waiting rooms, and when we finally got our number of 991, we went up to our respective waiting area and found out that they were currently on the 200s. Which meant that we wouldn't be seeing anyone until at least 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Which meant that we had a lot of time to kill since it was only 9 am. Geez...I'm not awake enough for these kinds of troubles.

We milled around outside for a while trying to figure out what we'd do with our time, and then my aunt decided to bring us to the nearby People's Square to shop around at the huge malls that we hadn't already been to. We casually looked through a bunch of stores on the many, many floors of the malls, and then ate a quick lunch in the underground level of one mall that had been turned into a food court. Jason and I both had some noodles for our meal, and then we headed back up to walk around.

Can I just say that I really hate the nosy, no-privacy, rushed manner in which all store attendants/managers act in China? You'll walk into a store and immediately, everyone working will say "Huan Ying Guan Ling", which basically means "Welcome". Then, let's say you find something that seems pretty nice, or you just browse the racks casually. No matter what you do or touch, an attendant will come up to you and linger, asking you what you're looking for, if you like what you just laid your eyes on, if you want to try something, if you want something in a larger size, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Please just leave me alone.

That's what I keep wanting to scream at these people. You literally have no space to yourself, and I didn't really appreciate that while shopping until now. I don't even feel comfortable in Chinese stores anymore, because I hate having to counter all of the questions I get asked simply when I'm very casually browsing a store (or even just doing it to take a walk). These people just start asking about a certain shirt that I looked at for over 3 seconds, or if I'm looking for skin whitening products because my skin is really a bit dark, or if I need anti-acne masks because I have some acne on my forehead. So exhausting to hear and respond to.

Woman pestering me right now? If I need something in particular, I'll ask. If I like a shirt and want to try it on, I will tell you. I'm sorry I'm not a vampire and want to make myself as pale as possible. I really don't care about making my skin whiter. I am painfully aware that I have much more acne than many Chinese girls, thank you very much for telling me the obvious. I really don't need you to tell me about what's on my face. I already know. I use a mirror. Just like every other human being.

Okay, I'm done ranting. Back to the recap. My aunt refused to leave the mall without buying us each something, so I ended up choosing this royal blue tank top with white paper planes on it. I was really happy with it, because it's really cute and was on sale, but it also ended the suffering I felt when my aunt pulled me into clothing store after clothing store. Like I need to hear any more attendants tell me that I'm enormous for Chinese standards and need the largest sizes. Huge boost to my confidence. Jason chose a Kevin Durant t-shirt from Nike, and then it was about time for us to get on another bus to go back to the hospital. We first stopped at Coco, a chain that made amazing and cheap drinks (their bubble tea game was on point.), and got something for each of us. I got this heavenly chocolate-flavored bubble tea with pudding as well as bubbles, for a little more than 2 bucks. We seriously need some Coco stores in America. They're so good, I want to cry.

Back at the hospital, they were on...(drumroll)...the 600s! Only over 300 more patients to go! Yeah! I stood against the wall to let other people sit on the chairs they had there, while my aunt glared at me and told me again and again to sit down every time someone got up. She was really worried that day that I was too tired, but it's always been my personality to like standing up whenever I can, on subways, buses, and more. It's more fun, and I just feel weird sitting, when so many other people are standing. I'm still in my youth, I don't need no chairs!

This little boy in the waiting room saw the hourglass on the back of my phone case and was super entertained by it. We burned a lot of time together just turning the thing over and over and watching the sand fall. He was also super entertained by this game that my cousin in Guangzhou had shown me, called Popflux. It's a really great app because you play the game by physically moving around to avoid bombs and popping bubbles with your actual hands. Even though it didn't work too well (too many people were walking around and sitting near us that all the bombs hit them), the kid loved it and played it many, many times, coming very close to smacking many people that got in the way of the bubbles. Must...pop...bubbles!!!

Finally, 991 was called and we walked into one of the rooms on the sides of the waiting area. Inside, a doctor with a mask over her mouth examined Jason's ear and told us we couldn't flush it out today, because we needed to give him this medicine for three days before anything could be flushed out. Are you kidding me?! We argued with her, telling her that the doctor my brother saw in the emergency room yesterday told us it'd be fine to flush out the next day, and I'd gotten the same procedure done a few years ago without any problems. She fired back that if we did it today, his ear would bleed and he would be in even more pain. Hmmm....

We decided that we couldn't have waited this entire time to go back empty-handed and come back later, especially since the doctor yesterday said it would be fine! My aunt decided to just go with it, after getting me and Jason's approval too, and went back downstairs to pay for the procedure. Then, we went into another waiting area, where a kind doctor flushed his ear out in less than a minute, and our problem was solved. No pain, no blood, no nothing! That other doctor either was seriously rude and trying to trick us, or had no idea what she was talking about. Both options are rather concerning.

Triumphantly, we left the hospital and headed back towards our stomping grounds near the apartment. Another bout with the Chinese health system, and I was seriously very worried about the situation. First of all, the amount of people needing doctors seriously overwhelmed the hospitals that the country had established. It's very common to have to wait entire days just to get seen for a few minutes. So many people left the hospital complaining and laughing bitterly about being treated for five minutes after waiting for over 7 hours. It's crazy.

On top of that, you have to pay so much extra money if you wanted to assure that you'd be treated in a relatively timely fashion and treated well. The country has so many corrupt surgeons and doctors, that people are terrified to be treated unless they give the doctor a very wholesome amount of cash through a middle man (who also got a small percent of the money). This process of using someone in between to deliver the money raised less suspicion, and was also used because hospitals usually used security cameras, so money had to be passed very covertly. It gave me so much anxiety just thinking about the ordeals families had to go through if they wanted to ensure their loved ones' health. Just imagine the nightmare of going through it in real life! When my grandmother had to get a big surgery this year, my relatives here in Shanghai went through the entire thing. Unimaginable. We need to think of solutions for these problems, but again, I digress.

Anyways, we went back to the familiar area we know, and had dinner at a Sichuan-style restaurant called Happy Chili. My aunt ordered us fish, veggies, these fried corn cakes that were really good, little taro balls topped with honey, etc. I got an amazing red bean smoothie, and Jason had some passionfruit tea...finally, a cold drink! We'd been drinking so much hot tea...I don't mind it, but us Americans need our ice in our drinks. The food itself was good, but the environment seriously lacked in quality. There were these little fruit flies everywhere, and we'd have to pause from eating or talking every few seconds to wave away a little fly dangerously close to one of our dishes. Also, I started laughing when I walked into the bathroom, because it was seriously revolting. There were soggy cardboard squares on the ground, filthy mops were hanging from some of the stall doors, there was no soap as usual on the counter, and the whole place was just disgusting. Walked right back out. Did not feel like dealing with another gross bathroom at the time.

We strolled around a mall after dinner, and Jason found this amazing hipster shirt with which I fell in love. I've always wanted a shirt with a tiger on it, and I turned one down in HK because it was too pricey. This one had a tiger with wings on it, in the center with other cool designs around it. We bargained hard for it, and I walked away feeling very satisfied with my purchase. My aunt also took us to a grocery store in the mall, where she bought us more snacks to eat here and also bring home. Once we were finished, we went back home, tired from our day but happy our main goal had been successfully achieved. Time to sleeeeeep!