My eventful day

I had my physical today at the hospital. After waiting in various lines for a little more than hour, we were on our way to being poked and prodded. We were in these various lines behind perhaps 5 people at the most. Some of the lines didn't move at all. I jumped in the one that was moving and was on my way. It was an experience I don't want to repeat for unspeakable reasons.

I went to eat at the campus cafeteria. It was craziness and I met a student who wants me to go to a church. I believe organized religion is frowned upon in China, so I probably won't be going to any church services. And I definitely won't be going to any house services, since they're really cracking down on that. I remember an article a day or two before I left for China where they arrested 14 Christians for having unauthorized services in their houses rather than in sanctioned churches. I'm trying not to get kicked out of China before I even begin really teaching classes.

Two students took Richard and I there and there was so much food and so many Chinese. I definitely took too much. Eyes bigger than my stomach for sure. Their system is kind of cool. They have ID cards that they hold close to the debit machine and the server types in the amount to deduct from the card and that's it. It's like the pay-and-go system that started becoming popular in the US. I think we're supposed to be getting ours soon.

After dinner, we played badminton. It was good times. I can't tell you how many times we both nearly whacked a Chinese person. They have no regard for people playing in the street whatsoever. One would think that maybe you would walk around the general area of play to avoid being hit by a flying birdie but no. One guy on a bike definitely swerved after driving right through our game. That's exactly what you get buddy.

On our way back to our apartments, we walked past our gate and heard "Woah" really loudly. Richard felt some splashback and decided the students on the third floor might have been trying to screw with us. Perhaps it was a water balloon.