Apples to Apples

Over the past few weeks I have seen a lot more apples being sold by the street vendors. I never thought much about it until today when Pastor Liu explained it at church. The word for "apple" is "ping guo" which sounds similar to the word for "peace" which is "he ping" (add in the tones and it does anyway). So by giving out apples, they're giving out "peace" for the holiday season and the start of the new year.

Door

For those of you who sent me Christmas cards, this is where they ended up.

Metric

A big thing to get used to here is the metric system. Temperature is fairly simple, zero is freezing and 100 is boiling, but length, mass, speed and volume are a bit trickier to wrap your mind around. I found this comic over at xkcd that makes a handy guide for converting to metric. I present it here for you, just click to make it bigger.

and the Parent of the Year Award goes to...

A two-year-old Chinese boy is thought to be the world’s youngest smoker.

Tong Liangliang was taught how to light up by his father, who believed the habit would alleviate pain caused by a hernia.

The toddler now smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and throws a tantrum if he can’t get his fix.

‘The father wasn’t aware of how serious the toddler’s habit became until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes he smoked per day’, China Radio International reported.

Tong received his first cigarette at the age of 18 months in a bid to reduce the discomfort caused by his hernia. The boy’s tender age meant he was too young to have an operation.

In 2005 a 37-year-old man submitted an application to the Guinness Book of Records, claiming to have smoked since the age of three.

The man was bidding for an accolade as the world’s youngest smoker, but his application was denied on the grounds that it promoted a harmful habit.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1195513/Is-worlds-youngest-smoker-Chinese-year-old-pack-day.html#ixzz17yDwr1p7

SantaCon is held in Beijing....right.

Maybe Santa should rethink his primary color....

http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/SantaCon-in-Beijing/4306/3/

Foreigners dressed in Santa Claus costumes pose for a group photo on Tiananmen Square for SantaCon, an annual "Santa Claus convention celebrating cheer, goodwill and fun," in Beijing December111, 2010. Police on Tiananmen Square, surprised by the large gathering of people wearing red, ordered the group to disperse and leave the square while also harassing foreign journalists, detaining one. Tiananmen Square was under tight security as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in Norway.

Amber Goes to the Doctor

One of my best friends and former college buddy, Amber Hope, has followed me to China. We hang out a lot together and so thus, when something happens to one, the other gets concerned. She complained recently of a bad toothache that kept getting worse. She was resigned to the fact that she would wait until the next she got back to America, nearly four months away, to go to the dentist and get it checked out.

Today, I decided to go and see if I couldn't get the Chinese version of Orajel for her ("Improved Formula! 30% less anti-freeze!") None of the facilitators knew if it was possible to get or where to get it. So I went to the Chinese staff office.

Being the start of the new session, the Chinese staff, what limited few we haven't scared off yet, were up to their ears in preparation and most could care less at the moment. I asked one girl, Maggie, and she told me to try the clinic on campus. The clinic on campus is something of a mystery. It's on the far side, where not much else is, and surrounded by many many potted plants, cacti and other vegetation useful for homeopathic medicine. Apparently, the guy is really good as sometimes outside people will come to him for problems, but he speaks no English and I've only been in there one other time before, that was to see my boss get acupuncture. (Admit it, there are times that you'd like to see someone shove needles in your boss's face...)

Anyway, I go there and it's dark and locked. There is however a phone number on the door. Maggie calls the guy and it being around 5 o'clock, he promptly tells her he's having dinner with his family and his normal business hours are posted on the door, thank you very much.

That should have been the end of that, but a former student named Grace happened to be in the room at the time. Grace was Amber's student last session and really liked her.
"Amber is not feeling well? Sad! I love Amber! I will help you!" So she calls the guy another 3 or 4 times until the good doctor agrees to come in around 6:30. When he comes in, Grace and I go there and the doctor is "well, where's the patient?"

"I just wanted to pick up some medicine for her."

"You idiot, how do you expect me to give her medicine if I've never seen her! Go get her."

So I run back to the dorm where Amber (ignorant of all this going on) is in her pajamas and listening to some music and quite curious as to why I'm running around all evening.

"Quick, get your coat on and let's go!"

"What, huh? where? what?"

"Grace and I got the doctor on campus to come in to look at your toothache. Let's go. Now!"

"No, Dan....wait, I'll wait until I go to America."

"Oh no you won't. Not now. Let's go!"

"Ugh, I really wish you would have asked me beforehand so I could have told you no."

"That's precisely why I didn't. Now HURRY UP!"

We get to the clinic and the doctor looks at her jaw line and teeth and in about a minute and a half has determined that a former cavity has become infected and the infection is spreading out, hitting the nerves. He gives her some serious looking medication and prescribes how often to take it (3 times a day for this one, twice a day for this one, this one must be taken every six hours starting at 6am, etc) with Grace rapidly translating. After he's spent about 15 minutes describing all the medication and how much to take and when, he writes up the bill.

Nineteen yuan.

Two dollars and eighty-seven cents.
$2.87 covers an emergency call, examination, diagnosis, and prescription for three packages of medicine.

I love China.

new coworkers

We got in two new coworkers from America. Emily from Seattle and Michelle from LA. Both are recent college grads. It's always fun to see how new people react to our groups interactions when they first get here.