So I taught Thasha’s sophomore class Monday since she is back in America for a while. I thought I was doing well teaching them, I had some of them from last semester. Then I made these two girls stand up and talk in class. They were doing a telephone conversation and the first girl finished her lines. So the second girl started to speak, then she faltered a bit. I thought it was because I made her talk with her partner, but then she said, “I’m sorry….I’m…” and passed out on the floor. Naturally, class was over then and the entire class circled around her while the people next to her held her tongue and rubbed her chest to soothe her and maybe wake her up. They put water on her forehead because she started to sweat. Then she started making some groaning noises and I thought she was going to have a seizure. I sent some students to go get help and it arrived pretty quickly, not that they did anything. They brought in a stretcher and a couple of hard cases of stuff but they didn’t put her on it or check her out. They didn’t really do anything, then the nurses left. The students had done more than the nurses did. She came to eventually and her classmates stuck by her and I felt really dumb because I couldn’t have done anything else that they hadn’t already done. What else can you do? Turns out, she has blood sugar problems and occasionally passes out. Sounds like hypoglycemia to me. I’m glad that it wasn’t anything worse. I have no idea what I would have done if it was something more serious.
So the moral of the story is: when in China and something medical happens, you’re pretty much on your own. I’m really surprised the nurses didn’t have any smelling salts or glucose tablets or anything. Actually, no I'm not. I'm in China.
Luckily, the student is fine now, except perhaps a bit embarrassed at having passed out in class.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Incubus and Baseball
So I got back from Beijing on Sunday. I was there from March 12th through 16th. I saw the Incubus concert in Beijing. It was fantastic even though the bassist was sick and they had to play acoustic the entire time. Star Live Music Hall was like being in Val-Air. It had a small club atmosphere. Actually, it was a lot smaller than Val-Air. But it was great because not many people were there, maybe a few hundred (mostly) foreigners. I got a few videos on my new camera. It definitely felt like being in America because I had to fight to get in front of these tall assholes who were blocking both me and Claire and would not let us around them. So “elbows up, side to side,” became our anthem. However, we did not lean like a cholo.
I stayed through the weekend because I thought it would be pointless for me to go and come back in two days. My girls from the Shiz met up in Beijing. We all shopped and at night had a decent meal at TGIFridays and went to Sanlitun after that. I’m not sure why but shots are super cheap in Beijing, which is not how it is in Shijiazhuang. 10 to 20 kuai (1-3 dollars) was typical at the places we went and in Shijiazhuang, they are usually 20 kuai minimum. Anyway, it was fun hanging out.
On Sunday, the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres came to town and played on Saturday and Sunday at Wukesong Stadium. They tied on Saturday and the Padres won on Sunday. The Dodgers had a press conference afterwards and the Padres did not. Why? I’m not sure. How do I know? Because my friends and I snuck onto the field after the game and hung around, taking pictures and generally just enjoying Americana. My friends stole signs from the stadium. I refrained because I don’t really care much about baseball. Then we saw the coach for the Dodgers in the press box and then some of my friends were a little bit inebriated which may or may not have contributed to us being kicked out of the stadium. It could have been the stealing of signs. Haha, it was great. As we were all standing in the parking lot of the stadium, everyone was arguing about why we were kicked out and who wanted what sign and as this was going on, I waved good-bye to the baseball players as they drove away in their private buses. Some waved back, most did not. Oh well. It was a humorous moment. “Bye, thanks for playing even though we showed why the world hates Americans.”
Then we had to go back to the Shiz since most of us taught on Monday. The train ride back was mixed. This lady was being a huge bitch about letting us stay in the dining car instead of standing the whole time because we didn’t have seats. We had standing tickets. So lately whenever we have standers, we go to the dining car and sit there until we reach our destination. We could tell she was going to be a bitch as soon as she came up to us. She kept yelling at us and saying, “No, no pijiu (no beer) and no, no mifan (no rice).” We know that you have to pay 20 kuai to stay in the dining car but we were willing to do it. She wouldn’t let us order what we wanted and then we watched as other Chinese people pulled out their own food and just sat in the dining car. Some had beer if I remember correctly. It was soo dumb. Then we finally ordered some crappy food that we all ate very slowly because we didn’t want them to kick us out if they thought we were done. Then they kept trying to take our food and we kept yelling at them not to. But it was an alright ride because it was only 2 ½ hours and we were all together. Most of the time, we slept or read.
It was good to be back, especially for me because Beijing is not my favorite city in China even though there are a lot of fun things to do and see. Beijing is associated with travel hassles for me and a lot of other people. The weekend before when I was in Beijing, we tried to get a bus back to Shijiazhuang and they simply said there was no bus. We know this isn’t true, but we ended up scrambling back to the train station to get a train ticket and we stayed in the dining car. To quote Jeremy, “It just isn’t a trip to Beijing if something doesn’t go wrong.” Other friends have missed trains back to their cities because trains have left early or because they didn’t make it on time.
I stayed through the weekend because I thought it would be pointless for me to go and come back in two days. My girls from the Shiz met up in Beijing. We all shopped and at night had a decent meal at TGIFridays and went to Sanlitun after that. I’m not sure why but shots are super cheap in Beijing, which is not how it is in Shijiazhuang. 10 to 20 kuai (1-3 dollars) was typical at the places we went and in Shijiazhuang, they are usually 20 kuai minimum. Anyway, it was fun hanging out.
On Sunday, the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres came to town and played on Saturday and Sunday at Wukesong Stadium. They tied on Saturday and the Padres won on Sunday. The Dodgers had a press conference afterwards and the Padres did not. Why? I’m not sure. How do I know? Because my friends and I snuck onto the field after the game and hung around, taking pictures and generally just enjoying Americana. My friends stole signs from the stadium. I refrained because I don’t really care much about baseball. Then we saw the coach for the Dodgers in the press box and then some of my friends were a little bit inebriated which may or may not have contributed to us being kicked out of the stadium. It could have been the stealing of signs. Haha, it was great. As we were all standing in the parking lot of the stadium, everyone was arguing about why we were kicked out and who wanted what sign and as this was going on, I waved good-bye to the baseball players as they drove away in their private buses. Some waved back, most did not. Oh well. It was a humorous moment. “Bye, thanks for playing even though we showed why the world hates Americans.”
Then we had to go back to the Shiz since most of us taught on Monday. The train ride back was mixed. This lady was being a huge bitch about letting us stay in the dining car instead of standing the whole time because we didn’t have seats. We had standing tickets. So lately whenever we have standers, we go to the dining car and sit there until we reach our destination. We could tell she was going to be a bitch as soon as she came up to us. She kept yelling at us and saying, “No, no pijiu (no beer) and no, no mifan (no rice).” We know that you have to pay 20 kuai to stay in the dining car but we were willing to do it. She wouldn’t let us order what we wanted and then we watched as other Chinese people pulled out their own food and just sat in the dining car. Some had beer if I remember correctly. It was soo dumb. Then we finally ordered some crappy food that we all ate very slowly because we didn’t want them to kick us out if they thought we were done. Then they kept trying to take our food and we kept yelling at them not to. But it was an alright ride because it was only 2 ½ hours and we were all together. Most of the time, we slept or read.
It was good to be back, especially for me because Beijing is not my favorite city in China even though there are a lot of fun things to do and see. Beijing is associated with travel hassles for me and a lot of other people. The weekend before when I was in Beijing, we tried to get a bus back to Shijiazhuang and they simply said there was no bus. We know this isn’t true, but we ended up scrambling back to the train station to get a train ticket and we stayed in the dining car. To quote Jeremy, “It just isn’t a trip to Beijing if something doesn’t go wrong.” Other friends have missed trains back to their cities because trains have left early or because they didn’t make it on time.
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