Happy Chinese New Year!

Zodiac The Rabbit by ~Dei--dara on deviantART
新年快乐！恭喜发财！身体健康！

So yeah, I hope everyone had a great day. More posts coming soon (I hope)!! :-P

Year of the Tiger

New Year's card 01 by ~LouieLorry on deviantART

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the tiger, a second 12-year cycle is completing itself for me; meaning I'll be 24 this year. -_-

I'm determined to (and hopeful that) this year will be my year. And I made the most of Valentine's Day/Single's Awareness Day considering I was all by my lonesome for most of the day.

I started my day by making some banana pancakes for 1. They were pretty good considering pancakes aren't my forte. :-) Then while washing the dishes, I sliced my right thumb while cleaning the cheese grater. Pretty much bled all over the kitchen - didn't leave a mess though, except the blood smear on one of the hand towels . . . that hurt. What a way to start off a year, eh? Red for Valentine's Day, kind of morbidly ironic. Just another reminder of why I'll never be a surgeon.

Anyway, I had lunch with 3 friends at a Chinese restaurant. It was okay, I've had much better Chinese food before. It's sad how this place is called "the most authentic" Chinese place in the area. Next time I really crave Chinese food I may have to drive the 2 hours or so to Chicago's Chinatown. Then I came back to my apartment, chilled for a bit, and then made some stew. It's surprisingly difficult to cook when one of your thumbs is out of commission.

I also made rum cake. What better way to celebrate Single's Awareness Day than with an alcohol cake? Lol. My roommate came back to help me finish the glaze on the cake (which is like, half butter and is soooo bad for one's health). The rum cake turned out very well, and my roommate and I fully enjoyed it. I swore I felt my heart skip a beat once from the fat and sugar in this cake, heh. I told a friend of ours on gchat about the rum cake and he was like, "Wow, for the effort you put into making that cake it had better be delicious. Otherwise it'd be like med school - putting in so much effort only to just pass."

I called some relatives to wish them a Happy New Year, the typical "新年快乐，恭喜发财，身体健康!" It was nice talking to my grandparents, their laugh always uplifts my mood. I think I've got it pinned down why though. My grandparents are just coasting on life now. Pretty much everything they needed/wanted to get done in life has already been accomplished. They can just relax and enjoy things slowly, because everything else has already been taken care of. I want that one day - to look back and have no regrets, to sit and laugh at the small joys of life, and to look forward and not really see something that has to be done.

Hmm, a thumb out of commission kind of precludes wanking, if only there was someone here to do it for me . . . TMI? ;-)

Anyway, happy Valentine's/Single's Awareness Day/Chinese New Year everyone! It's pretty rare for these days to all overlap. I hope everyone enjoyed their and didn't slice a body part accidentally.

At Your Service

This morning (Saturday) I was scheduled to volunteer at the free clinic for the uninsured run by the med students here. I was to do patient education on how to best manage chronic conditions (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, etc). Well, that wasn't what I ended up spending the vast majority of my morning doing.

Instead, I spent the vast majority of my morning translating Mandarin Chinese into English and back for this Chinese woman who spoke very little English. You know, I never fully appreciated how difficult it is to translate until now. Even though I feel I did a fairly good job translating, there were random words and phrases that eluded me - words and phrases that I know I know. Like "cancer," I know how to say "cancer" in Chinese, but it's still eluding me! Argh.

She came in with her husband who would've served as her translator, except he was called back to a different room than she was. So basically, without me it would've been near-impossible to do anything for this woman. So it felt great that I was able to help out in such a capacity. Things go really slowly when translations are necessary.

Afterwards, and after her very emphatic "thank yous" to the other med students, the doctor, and me, she asked me when I moved here from China. -_- They always ask me that, without fail. Imagine her surprise when I told her I was born in Chicago. "But your Chinese is so good! Where did you learn to speak it?" My parents speak it at home . . . so we speak it at home (is that so unusual?). Sigh, such is the curse of being an ABC.

Anywho, while I was actually doing my real role at the free clinic, I had the opportunity to talk to this diabetic woman waiting for labs to be done. She used to work at the hospital that our med school's affiliated with, until she was laid off and currently has no insurance. And here she is going to a free clinic run by med students from the med school affiliated with the hospital she was laid off from. That's some twisted irony there. But she was great about it, took it all in stride.

On a completely different note, I finally finished watching the anime Death Note today. It's sooo good!! I love the detective and scheming of it all. It's almost like a twisted kind of Sherlock Holmes (great movie, btw, if you haven't seen it yet). Now I can (hopefully) study for real . . . tomorrow that is.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 - zhong1 qiu1 jie3). It's also more colloquially known as the "moon festival" because one of the highlights in celebrating this holiday is eating so-called moon cakes. I love Chinese holidays because they all center around food (well, almost all). My two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Chinese New Years (I think I might've blogged about that before . . . a long time ago).

Because the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar, the dates of all the holidays change every year. This is annoying as I didn't know today was the Mid-Autumn Festival until a friend IM'd me yesterday reminding me of it. So this afternoon, a friend and I made a special trip to a nearby Vietnamese store to specifically buy a box of moon cakes. And it was totally worth it. Too bad it's cloudy today and I can't see the full moon. :-/ *curses the Midwest*

Also today several of us met with local Hmong leaders to discuss the Hmong Health Education Program that an out-going M4 secured a 4-year grant for. The Hmong are a minority group within the Asian population in the US; they're a minority within a minority. Many of the older generation being refugees from Vietnam that the US oh so carelessly didn't treat well once they were on US soil. Holy crap I never thought it'd be such a daunting task! I mean, I had learned about this special population in my medical anthropology course in undergrad, and I had assumed things had improved for them in the last 30-40 years. Apparently not - they're still just as marginalized, the barriers are still up. The difficulty extends beyond "just" translation obstacles, there are fundamental communication barriers in reaching this population that we as med students are just not equipped to handle.

The M4 kept mentioning all these organizations that we might be partnering up with, but the task of communicating and coordinating all those groups might largely fall to us. And I don't think any of us - the M1s and M2s - expected to be given such a large responsibility. We had thought our main role was to develop culturally sensitive material to be used in radio broadcasting and in handouts/leaflets. Even this is easier said than done, as none of us on the committee (or probably in the entire med school) can translate into Hmong. We'd have to work really closely with specific Hmong community members at length to make sure the material is at an acceptable level of comprehension and accurately translated.

It's annoying that the M4 made many of the initial contacts, so they're familiar with him but not us. And since he's outgoing, that means he's not likely to have a direct participatory role in what happens. That bastard, lol. I think all of us M1s left the meeting feeling like we're in over our heads and the whole "What have we gotten ourselves into?" mentality. But, if we make this work (and we CAN make this work), it'll be an amazing achievement. Truly something worthwhile.

Under the Shadow of Leaves

It is a good day.

I sit on a stone bench under the shadow of leaves, the sun poking through as if light were leaking through the green canopy. Looking out, the sky is clear blue except for the presence of a few wispy clouds. The day is bright and full of colors forgotten in the seasons prior.

I close my eyes and hear the sounds of toddlers and children laughing, of students talking, of many feet walking by. I wonder, how many hundreds of thousands of people have passed this point? What were they thinking as they passed by? The birds above sing their chorus in a language I cannot decipher. Far off a group of people are playing some instruments - a guitar and some drums. Though unrefined and unpolished, the sounds mix organically into carefree music.

A breeze blows by, carrying with it the scent of approaching summer. It is the smell of leaves, of living wood, of flowers, of the stone buildings - sentinels that resist the wear of time. It is the smell of life itself, and nourishes my lungs in a way I had taken for granted. I hold out my hands and arms into the breeze, as if to slow it down or capture it. Instead, the invisible force flows up over and down under my arms. It flows between my fingers, eddying slightly and briefly into an almost tangible ball in the palm of my hands. It feels as though I was almost able to grasp the breath of the world.

Something speaks to me, faint just beyond the detection of my senses. I see nothing, hear no words, smell no source, touch no object - but it is there. It surrounds me like an emotion but is not an emotion. Suddenly it feels as if things will be okay. And all those times I have tried to believe, to rationally seek answers to the mysteries, to understand that which cannot be tested, all this does not matter. It is there, it is here, and somehow I know things will be okay.

I open my eyes and walk away from my stone bench, away out from under the shadow of leaves. I am cloaked in the day and the moment and the world and this mystery. I will be okay.

It is a good day.
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A small prose passage. A memory - a snapshot capturing what I feel on the best of days. It is curious how I never expect it but always welcomed, replenishing my inner strength.

You may have noticed my new blog title banner thing. I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to J of Southern Inebriation for designing it for me at my request (he's an art major, can you tell?). I will explain the 5 panels of this banner from the left to the right:

The first panel is of Chinese opera masks and the Great Wall. It represents my background: being Chinese, culture and language has been a huge influence in my life (sometimes good, sometimes bad). The second panel is of a stethoscope on a book. It represents my future, my goals and aspirations: for a long time I have worked my ass off towards getting into medical school and (hopefully) I will come out poised to be an excellent doctor. The third panel you should all recognize as the smiley face banner I had previously. It represents outlet and others: it is this blog and all of you who read, and all of you I talk to. The fourth panel is of a flower I took while visiting a clinic in China. It represents life: I was a biology major in undergrad not primarily because it's the "easiest" path to medical school, but because it can give one an appreciation for life - for all its complexities, and mysteries, and frailty, and endurance. The last panel is of a ghostly mask of sorts. It represents conflict and struggle: all the uncertainty and frustration that being bi/gay brings and a kind of loneliness that comes with an inability to find "the one."

Finally, to conclude this post, I would like to give a shout out to the following 3 blogs that I've had the pleasure to read fully on. They may need no introduction as many of you already read them, but if not, do go over and say hi! And they are:

Enjoying the Journey
Hellogenation
Overrated Integrity

Cancellation in Plans

First of all, to those who wished me a Happy Birthday, thank you!! Especially since I didn't make any announcement of it on my blog.

My birthday was actually pretty meh. I spent most of the time on the road to Chicago with my parents (my brothers stayed home). I celebrated Memorial Day weekend with my uncle's family and my grandparents (who were in town for a wedding). Consequently, I wasn't able to get on the internet long enough to post.

Anyway, as originally mentioned in this post, I was supposed to leave for Beijing on May 31st and come back to the US on June 27th. It was going to be awesome. Well, cancellation in plans. It looks like I'm not going. And here's how it went down.

3-4 weeks ago my grandparents called my great-uncle in Beijing to see if I could stay with him and his family. Also around this time, China was becoming a little worried about swine flu. So my grandpa also asked whether my great-uncle could find me somewhere else to live instead if I couldn't live with him. My great-uncle agreed.

Then suddenly cases of swine flu began popping up in Beijing and especially in Japan. As most US flights into Beijing must first stop by Japan, Beijing was getting nervous. About 2 weeks ago, my great-uncle called my uncle and grandparents to inform them that people were being quarantined as soon as they stepped off the plane if anyone on that plane was suspected to have swine flu. Several hundred people have been quarantined for a week in specific hospitals; granted, the vast majority of those people were fine. It was suggested that it would be better if I didn't go.

Well, my friends JW-M (currently in Beijing) and RZ-F (landing in Beijing soon) both felt it would be fine for me to go, that the Chinese were just overreacting and that I wouldn't really be personally affected. I held my ground against my parents and was still fairly set on going and taking my chances. I suggested that I could stay with JW-M for a week or so and then reside in RZ-F's Beijing apartment, because she'll be living with her relatives. And I could live in a hotel or hostel in the interim as I move between the two places.

My parents were yielding, mainly because my grandparents were on my side all the way to the end. It was looking up. Until yesterday. My grandpa again called my great-uncle and great-aunt to see if they could secure me another place to live while I was in Beijing. My great-aunt had been looking into student exchange-type things, where I'd live with a local family and teach their kid(s) English and they'd teach me Chinese and give me tips on traveling in the area. However, no one wants Americans to live with them. Word by mouth had been passed down through several communities in Beijing to avoid foreigners if at all possible. If an American would to stay with a family, even if the American were a relative, that household would be temporarily "ostracized" until the swine flu hype was over. Social stigma by association - it's a bitch.

With that, my grandparents were convinced that it was best that I didn't go. My grandparents didn't want to "guilt" my great-uncle further into letting me stay with them. My grandparents and parents knew all too well how the Chinese think in this respect, and while they also believe it's an overreaction, it wouldn't be a good idea to go if the people were going to be unwelcoming. And because my grandparents effectively have the final say in the family, that was that. I'm not going. T.T

Time Limit's Almost Up

Okay, time limit's almost up.

Every time I come home, I seem to want to be home for a shorter and shorter duration. I mean, seriously, I've only been home since Tuesday and already I want to leave! Parental nagging gets more and more annoying. I would fire off my mouth like my youngest brother, but that would not lead to (good) results. No, best to let the wave hit and pass than fight the wave and be consumed by an even greater fury.

I must say, I am amused that my parents are nagging me about going to China for the month of June. As if I didn't know the proper etiquette and culture (which I DO know most of the "rules"). Seriously, I think perhaps my parents have issues letting go and recognizing that my brothers and I have/are grown up.

And my other brother is taking the MCAT and applying to med schools this summer. And so that round of all too familiar nagging begins - this time towards him and not me. It's interesting watching the exchange, the whole "good cop bad cop" routine. "You should do this!" says dad. "Well, we're not actually asking for that. Do only half that," says mom (and even half whatever is still an undertaking). And the bouncing of dialogue between one another, ganging up - I HATE that. Ugh.

Then they drag me in. "Why don't you help your brother? You've already gone through the process, you know what to do and what not to do. Tell him!" Why, I would love to tell him. But first he must ask me what he wants to know and also be receptive to hearing what I have to say. I also want him to try to wade through things a bit on his own so I'm not guiding his hand through the damned med school application process. It didn't exactly go peachy perfect for me when I went through that process . . .

Okay, enough ranting. Anyway, moral of all this ranting is: home is good for a short duration. But the time limit's almost up and soon I might go insane. Just a couple more weeks until China . . . speaking of which, I should REALLY get to planning what I'm going to do once I land (if for no other reason than to appease my parents and get them off my backs - but they have a good point, they usually do, it's just executed poorly).

---TANGENT---
A pretty new and still shiny blog! Check out Jeremy at Falling Through the Void. Great guy, great to chat with, even if he's a little shy on asking questions.
---END TANGENT---

Summer Starts Now

Summer starts now.

I'm home now for the summer. Not working this summer; I usually work in a lab for most of the summer, but not this year. I'm taking this summer right before med school easy. I still need to find an apartment and roommate for this next academic year in med school . . . but I think I'll wait until the orientation stuff is available online. Supposedly they'll have a means to contact other incoming med students as well as housing info.

My parents bought me tickets to China!! I'll be leaving May 31st and coming back June 27th. The tickets were "free" due to my dad's frequent flyer miles (I only have about half as many miles as he does, so I could've bought a "free" ticket one-way to China). I'll most likely be staying with a great-uncle and his side of the family while I'm there in Beijing. I don't know them at all, so this'll be interesting. Additionally, JW-M and RZ-F will both be in Beijing during my time there.

I plan to spend a few days with JW-M and a week or so with RZ-F. That leaves about 2 weeks for me to bond (or whatnot) with my family there. I'm so excited! And yet, apprehensive. Same reasons as last time I went - what if my Chinese isn't good enough? This time I'll have to really step up my game, as last time I went with a group of people from school and we had each other's backs. Plus, my Chinese last time was mostly limited to "translation duty," which is easier than maintaining a full conversation in Chinese at length. Also, this time I'll have to find and coordinate correspondences with my roommate-to-be in the fall at med school (so having the internet is a necessity - but this shouldn't be difficult to obtain).

Anyway, other than that, I've no solid idea of what I'll be doing in China. Any suggestions/ideas? I am, however, somewhat bound by who I'm with at any moment.

In other news, my last final grade has been released to my transcript. Stupid biostatistics course - I took your final 2 weeks ago and you JUST post the grades?! Sigh. Whatever, I got an A! This means I got straight A's this last semester in grad school. W00t! Totally 8.000'd that GPA (I think it's out of 9.000 . . . not sure). Pwn. :D

Alas, I somehow managed to gain 15 lbs in the last 3 weeks. Fuck. Time to start running, and eating not. Fail. :(

I Refuse This Dark Mojo

There seems to be some kind of "dark mojo" going around the blogosphere. Bloggers are breaking up left and right, getting depressed, becoming over-stressed, and just all-around down. While I too have plenty that can bring me down, I will have none of it! I refuse this dark mojo, I refused to be brought down. Instead, I shall report on some things that may (or may not) tickle your fancy.

So when I was young, I used to talk to myself. A lot. My mom told me to stop because it'd make me look like a madman later, so I did stop. Sometimes I still mumble out loud to no one in particular when I'm trying to figure out a difficult problem.

Recently I've begun talking to inanimate objects. For example, over Spring Break when I was on the China trip, DY-M noticed that I addressed inanimate objects fairly often and my voice raised ever so slightly when I did. For instance, I would say something like, "Hello dragonfruit, I'm going to eat you now" or "Hello bathroom, I'm going to use you now." He thought it was a little weird at first but just chalked it up to my personality, and then he just chuckled inside whenever I did it (I would personally give me the o_O face). When I talked to JW-M briefly, he found that habit to be new and strange, lol. Note to self: suppress self.

One of the blogs I follow, MSTP Bound, had the most hilarious post today. I thought he was embellishing the translation at first, but when I read the original Chinese, his translation was pretty spot on! And thus, hilarity ensues. Read that particular post here. ^_^

Other things of note, two blogs have returned!! I'd like to welcome back:

Happy to be in my skin
Life of one gay/bi boy

Go over and say hi! :D

China IV: There and Back Again

Finally, the fourth and final installment on China. I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere - getting caught up and working on a final project consumes inordinate amounts of time. Feel free to read parts I, II, and III to refresh yourselves.

Before I return to "normal blogging," I'd want to complete my series on China. This post is more introspective than the previous installments, and I apologize if that makes for more difficult reading. There are thoughts and emotions I'd like to scribble down before they become lost in the archives of my memory. Welcome to the journey in my thoughts as I travel "there and back again."

Where to begin but at the very beginning? I had applied to go on this specific trip. I was resolved to go, but I didn't know if they'd accept my application for this trip, being that I'm Chinese. Imagine my excitement when I was selected! But then I starting having doubts and second thoughts. How will they (the Chinese) think and respond to me? What if my spoken Mandarin fails me? What if, what if, what if . . . My mind races, like it always does, always in motion. I then began to wonder what I'd miss during that week in China. Would I suffer from internet withdrawal? How badly will my email build up? Will I be begging and bursting to wank? Will I miss certain foods and drinks? The one thing I knew for certain was that I would not miss the cold. Granted, it was cold in China when we arrived, but at least 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.

From the outset, I was comforted by the knowledge that another ABC (American-born Chinese) guy was going on this trip. We became roommates for this trip, and his presence - and perhaps our mutual interactions and anxieties - played a crucial role in what this China trip meant to me. We shared this common thread and I think we would agree that we reacted to it similarly. I'll call him DY-M for the rest of this post.
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Flight to China
The flight to China was relatively uninteresting (first to the Tokyo airport at Nerita). I had an entire row to myself! I mostly read The Spanish Bow, the book I had intended on finishing over Winter Break. It's a really good book! I didn't want to sleep on the way to China (or sleep very little) to help combat jetlag. I didn't sit near anyone going on this trip, but that was alright. As my friend said, "When else do you have 14 hours to do NOTHING? Use it to relax, read a book, enjoy it." And that I did.

I did remember getting up once to go to the bathroom and when I returned, a Chinese woman had taken the 2 seats next to me. She was sleeping. -_- I didn't even recognize where my seat was at first! So yeah, I was really annoyed by her.

The flight from Nerita to Beijing was packed! You can read about it a little more in the second installment here. Not much to say.

First Night in Beijing
The airport was surprisingly empty when we stepped off the plane. Then again, we got in around 9pm or so. We were all exhausted. There were still things up from the Beijing Olympics the summer previous and I had taken some pictures (but these were lost). I was highly amused by the exit signs, or what I affectionately called "the green exit man" because the sign was green instead of red, and it showed a stick figure guy running out a door.

We made our way by bus to the Friendship Hotel. This was an amazing hotel, I really wish I had pictures of it (instead of just the lobby below). The first thing I did was call my friend, JW-M, who was studying abroad in Beijing for the year. Then DY-M and I crashed. The bed was SO HARD. I think there was either no mattress or no box-spring. Whatever, my back ached when I got up.

Breakfast was amazing at the Friendship hotel. It was typical Chinese breakfast food - steamed buns, steamed vegetables, stuffed steamed buns, various meat dishes, a nice assortment of fruits. JW-M found the breakfast lacking in China; his opinion that breakfast food is much better here in the US. I suppose he has a point. But we don't have kiwi juice here in the US! Kiwi juice = amazing. It's so green (and tasty)!!

Whirlwind Tourist Day
The next day was our "whirlwind tourist day" where we visited the Great Wall, the Imperial Palace, Tiananmen Square, and Laoshi Teahouse. You can read more about it in the the first installment here. But here are some more pics anyway. :P

The Great Wall!

The Imperial Palace!

It's a dragon-turtle in the Forbidden City!

Across from Tiananmen Square!

By the time we got to the Laoshi Teahouse we were exhausted and on the verge of falling asleep. It was the first place I encountered the infamous squat toilets. I managed to refrain from using a squat toilet throughout the entire trip. Go me! Anyway, the food was amazing as usual. And we saw a kind of screen play (not exactly sure what it's called) before going upstairs for a cultural show (which we were all doing the head bobbing dance of sleepiness).

Omg, look at this food!!

Screen play thing.

Roommate Bonding
That night, and almost every night, DY-M and I bonded a bit (in the most non-sexual way, of course). We constantly talked about how exhausted the day made us, haha. We almost always went to bed between 9pm-11pm. We discussed about what it was like being ABCs in China. We were both impressed by how we seemed to blend in relatively unnoticed. This may be because we're usually juxtaposed by our non-Chinese friends on the trip, and we were always together to cover for the holes in each other's linguistic skills. This usually worked pretty well. Often times, the Chinese people we interacted would come to us first because they knew we knew Chinese and English, and could translate for them. It did feel good being "useful" as an ad hoc interpreter.

DY-M did get to practice his Chinese more than me, oh well. My spoken Mandarin is better than his, simply because he didn't learn Mandarin until undergrad (he speaks Cantonese at home) whereas Mandarin is more native to me. We watched a comedy sit-com on the CCTV. I was able to understand maybe 80% of what was spoken, and he understood about 60% (so he says) but was able to understand what went on due to the context. That's pretty impressive, in my opinion.

I'm really glad he was my roommate. We shared a certain connection by the singular fact that we are both ABCs. And he was a really sweet guy - always really nice, smiling, and helpful. But that's part of his personality as well as his life philosophy. It didn't hurt that he has an amazingly fit body. ;-) There was something about him, some kind of comforting aura, that almost made me come out to him (for no real reason).

Tianjin
We spent the vast majority of our remaining time in China in Tianjin, about 2 hours south of Beijing by bus (but only 30 minutes but their new amazingly fast high-speed train). The first day we were in Tianjin, we ate at the famous GoBuLi Restaurant. The food, again, was amazing. This place is known for their steamed buns and dumplings. I had pictures, but they were lost and were unrecoverable. :-( But a couple did survive:

We spent most of the week observing and working with the Tianjin CDC (TJCDC). You can read all about it in the third installment here.

While we were technically on "lock down" when we were at the hotel, some of us did sneak to the nearby Chinese Wal-mart to buy some things. DY-M bought a pair of unhemmed pants, so he had to get them tailored. There was tailor who did 15-minute pants alterations. She had the thickest Tianjin accent ever. DY-M asked me to come along for (linguistic) support, just in case. We both had problems understanding! This little old grandma person next to us in line just laughed at us.

On our way to Wal-mart.

Food!
I felt that this warranted its own category. Not much to say here really. Just that, the first few days I knew every dish in front of us (or at least I could identify what animal/plant it came from). As the days wore on, I became less and less familiar with the dishes as they became more and more local/regional.

I'm not actually sure what this is. o_O

Last Day in China
The last day in China we went to Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin. It was basically a long street with a lot of street vendors. I met up with JW-M for the second time during this trip (the first time was in the Friendship Hotel that first night). It was nice catching up, somewhat. There were so many things to buy/bargain for! I didn't know what to get and whom to get it for. I ended up getting a jade turtle bracelet for SR-F, two silk scarves - one for my researcher's wife and one for AG-F, a solar-powered apple thingy (it moves its leaves up and down) for my researcher, and a tea pot of some sort. I had gotten 2 scrolls earlier - one that went to RZ-F and one that I'm keeping for myself.

We stayed in a hotel near-ish to the Beijing airport the night before we left. Several of us went to a karaoke club/bar place. It was actually pretty cool! DY-M did much of the talking in Chinese, but I was there as backup should my "services" be required. I'm actually not sure I could've held my own as well as he did. After we went back to the hotel, DY-M wanted to get a pedicure/foot massage and convinced me to go (his older brother introduced him to pedicures/foot massages when they were in Thailand visiting an uncle, he also tried convincing others to go as well). When we got to the place, it was rather expensive and kind of sketchy, so we called it off.

Our flight was early in the morning (around 8am I think). I was actually woken by one of the hotel staff. He had very limited English but needed to communicate with some of the people in our group who had already started going down to breakfast. It took my auditory system a moment to calibrate to his accent before I could acquiesce to his request. Basically, he wanted me to let everyone know that they were supposed to check out before heading down to breakfast to make things quicker and smoother, as the staff needed to check the rooms before we left.

Flight Back Again
The Beijing airport was still pretty empty, though not as empty as when we first arrived. We lounged in the airport for a while. I talked to my roommate (well, I suppose now we weren't roommates) for a bit before boarding the plane.

On the flight from Beijing to Nerita, I sat next to a really cute French guy. I thought he was Australian at first from his accent, but no, he's from France. No idea where he picked up that Australian-like accent. The moment he said he was french, the Japanese guy next to him with a fro (what Asian has a fro?!) started talking to him in French. And they talked in French the whole flight!! Grrr, he was my French guy to talk to. You totally stole him Japanese fro-guy. Also, there were two babies bawling almost the entire flight. They sat all the way towards the front of the plane whereas most of us sat near the back, but we could still hear them all the way down the plane.

The flight from Nerita back to the US was rather uninteresting. There was a choir group of Korean girls on the flight. They took up a lot of space on the plane, and the plane was completely packed! I was mildly surprised that the Korean girls didn't know English, as I assumed they were from South Korea that was occupied by the US for a while (and was heavily influenced by both good and bad aspects of American culture). Our flight actually arrived back in the US about an hour early, which apparently is very unusual.
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That was some of the highlights of the trip not mentioned in the previous 3 installments. There's so much more I could say. But perhaps now's the time to answer the question posed at the beginning of this post: What did this trip mean to me? It meant discovery, adventure, and escape.

I discovered that I could hold my own if I absolutely had to. I also discovered that the Chinese liked talking about me to each other when they find out I'm an ABC. At lunch in both Dagang and Jixian, some of the CDC people were talking about they were surprised I could understand and speak Chinese. I'm not sure they realized I could hear and understand everything they said. They toasted to me for that, haha. Red wine - toast away. White wine - it'll mess you up.

The entire trip was a super-condensed adventure. The Great Wall, the Imperial Palace, the CDC, the mountainside, Ancient Culture Street, karaoke, every moment was alive. There was so much to do, and we were so tired at the end of each day (so much so that I didn't even feel the urge to wank once the whole trip). For the first time in a very long time, I felt like I was alive and in this world, in this moment. And this brings me to my last point.

This was my escape. It was an escape from my daily life. It was an escape from being chained to my laptop and the internet and all that entailed. I did not miss the internet at all while I was in China. It was an escape from the academic stresses. Here, among the few people who went and among the massive populace, I - in a sense - escaped from who I was. It was like suspending reality in once place in the world to experience life in another. It was . . . relief.

Now, some final parting pics:

China III: On Assignment

I sincerely apologize for not having posted in so long. It's been a hectic month. It's about time that I finish my China posts, only 2 more to go! This post is about the reason why I was in China in the first place, and is of great personal interest to me, though some/many(?) readers might find it boring.

As I've already mentioned, I went with 11 other students as a part of a trip sponsored by the school of public health. Our principal goal was to observe and experience another health care system and immerse ourselves in another culture. I was a part of the measles vaccination group.

On the second day (Sunday) in China we met with officials at the National China CDC (Centers for Disease Control). The building was cold and pretty old, and the hallways were unheated. Interestingly, though there was a "No smoking" sign immediately upon entering the lobby, a couple employees were smoking under the sign! That kind of stunned us. We were then guided to a meeting room (actually heated!) where we were served hot tea. Constantly. It was really nice, actually, as the tea kept you constantly at the edge of wakefulness.

We learned a little about the history of the China CDC. Though it had existed for decades, it had received very little funding. Then SARS hit. Suddenly, the government put a lot of money into the public health infrastructure and the CDC was basically built over the span of 2 years. In these 2 years, China was able to do things that our US CDC has failed. China has also been preparing for the avian flu for quite some time now.

The pinnacle of their achievement was a real-time surveillance system of all diseases occurring within their borders. Doctors and hospitals would report any communicable diseases to the nearest level branch of the CDC, that then relayed the report to higher CDC levels until it reached the national-level CDC. Thus, as soon as a communicable disease was diagnosed, it would be reported to the National CDC within hours. By the next morning, there would be a report of the previous day's disease occurrence on the desk of the health minister. The ability to know where and when diseases occur is an amazing achievement, especially for a population as large as China's. Our CDC had contemplated creating such a system, but after the bio-terrorism funds were pulled from the CDC some time after 9-11, all progress in this technology has stopped. As such, we have rather poor disease-tracking ability here in the US compared to China.

Later that day we went to the Tianjin CDC about 2 hours' drive away. It was much newer and in better condition than the National CDC (though, they're going to be completing the new National CDC facilities in the next 1-3 months now).

We were shown around the Tianjin CDC, which was really nice on the inside as well. Too bad many of my pics of the inside were deleted. I did, however, manage to get this pic from the lobby of the Tianjin CDC:

Chinese New Year ftw! Year of the ox!! :P

Monday through Friday was spent learning about how the Tianjin CDC (TJCDC) measles campaign worked. In December 2008, the TJCDC undertook a massive measles vaccination campaign. There were billboards, songs, poems/rhymes, advertisements, and text messages notifying people to get free measles vaccinations. Note: In China, people get 4 measles shots, 2 that're bundled into the MMR shots like here in the US, and 2 stand-alone shots. The result? They were able to decrease the incidence of measles of 500+ cases in the first 7 weeks of 2008 to less than 20 cases in the first 7 weeks of 2009 in Tianjin. All in the timespan of a month! I doubt we could achieve this level of efficiency (or public reach) in the US.

It was intersting to note that most vaccines are free to the Chinese citizens. In fact, they were very surprised that the US didn't offer free vaccines to anyone (only at a reduced rate for low-income, and/or paid for by insurance or out-of-pocket for everyone else). They were a little taken aback when we told them that the HPV vaccine (for genital warts/cervical cancer in women) wasn't free. I believe it's not even covered by most insurances in the US.

On Tuesday, we designed questionnaires to ask parents of infants on whether or not their child received the measles vaccine. On Wednesday, we went to the local CDC in Dagang (大港) District. From there we went to a vaccine clinic. After doctors administer the vaccine, infants and children go to an observation room for 30 minutes to make sure there are no adverse reactions to the vaccine. (We don't do this here in the US - you get vaccinated and then sent along your way, if you have a reaction, go to the ER.)

Baby in the observation room.

Then we went to a nearby hospital. Interestingly, there was someone smoking near the "No smoking" sign in the lobby. Seriously, what's wrong with people?! Here we looked at hospital charts and records to see if infants were being vaccinated in the hospitals. There are 3 places to receive vaccinations: hospitals, clinics, and health/wellness centers.

Hospital charts.

Before we left the hospital, we saw the "floating baby" room. Basically, parents would bring their young infants (a couple weeks to 2 months old) here and their babies would float in a tub of water at a specific temperature. The nurse would attach a flotation device to the baby's neck so the baby could move around in the water. After "playing" around in the water for a while, the nurse would give the infant a massage. The whole point of this was to get young infants moving to promote movement and general health. It makes some sense, and allowing babies to float in water allows for movement with no impact.

In the afternoon, we located an infant with measles. Measles is so rare now in the US that doctors being trained today are likely to misdiagnose it as something else. Crazy, huh? Since we only had 2 measles shots as opposed to 4 (2 should've sufficed for us anyway), the CDC people who accompanied us didn't want to take chances; so they had us wear face masks.

It's hard to see (the red rashes), but this smiling kid had measles.

After we had examined the child, we went into a nearby neighborhood with our questionnaire to sample parents with infants at random. Every child has a record of his/her vaccine record in a little red book that is usually kept by the parents (relatively few parents in the US have a record of their children's vaccine records). Thus all parents and doctors have a copy of which vaccines had been given, as well as the dates of when future vaccines are due. Doctors will then call to remind parents to bring in their child when a vaccine shot is due.

On assignment, looking for babies to interview.

The little red book of vaccines opened up.

On Thursday we did the same thing in Jixian (蓟县 - Ji County). Again, we went to a local clinic.

However, we didn't end up doing much more than that, because we had a LONG lunch where we also had white wine. Okay, seriously, that stuff will mess you up. It's not actually wine. It's more like, vodka with 32-50% alcohol content. I had like, 2 double-shots of that stuff and I had to stop (I could've handled more, but I ate WAY too much). We were NOT in good shape after lunch to interview people. And it was getting late. Friday was basically a debriefing.

If there's one thing that impressed me about China's health care system, it is the close relationship between the health fields. All the health fields - medicine, nursing, public health, etc - are united under a common banner. Members of the different health fields spend part of their time training together and getting used to working with each other. In the US, each field is separate and independent of each other. No wonder why doctors, nurses, and public health officials sometimes don't get along very well. There's certainly an air of efficiency in China. Sure, our hospitals are generally in much better condition; sure, our medical technologies blow China's out of the water; but at least they know how to work together to get a job done.

China II: Through Foreign Eyes

The plane transfer from the Tokyo airport at Nerita to Beijing was the first instance during the China trip that our group probably felt a culture shift. The flight attendants spoke in English, Chinese, and Japanese. I was amused (and perhaps relieved?) when the flight attendants defaulted to Mandarin Chinese when speaking with me. Perhaps I wasn't so out of place after all. Then imagine stepping off the plane into the Beijing airport - the signs all in Chinese with English below, and the people overwhelmingly Chinese.

For most in our group of 14, I'm sure they immediately felt the reality of being in a foreign country where English was not the primary language. For me, less so. It's difficult to describe - I could still feel myself in a different country on a different continent, and yet it didn't feel totally unknown to me. In a way (terrible analogy coming up) it was like a ridiculously massive Chinatown. More than culture-shock, I was filled with a sense of adventure. I attempted to read every sign I could. I didn't do too badly, as I could usually get the gist of what many signs were about even if I could not read them outright. It's strange to be able to understand a word (character) but not know/remember how to pronounce it.

Still, there were notable departures from the US. A country steeped in thousands of years of history is about to accumulate a rich cultural tapestry that continues to evolve and progress. You could feel the ancient as it resonates to the current day. In comparison, the US almost feels raw, too young, and without a unifying thread. Of course I know this isn't really true, but everything's relative.

Some things of note - cultural differences - with accompanying pictures. These pictures are but imperfect glimpses of China through foreign eyes.

1. Everywhere you went, the ancient contrasts with the modern. Iconic old-style gates adorn many street corners as high-rises and skyscrapers tower in the background.

A typical Chinese gate in Beijing.

High-rises in Tianjin.

2. There is an interesting atmosphere within China. People are constantly striving towards progress, to become a developed first-world nation and leave the third-world behind. Yet, traditions are strong and the culture is proud.

An assortment of Chinese instruments. And a cello in the back. :D

Okay, this is just epic. The 2 standing women have a platform candle-holder thing in their mouth that holds up 3 candles, and they're supposed to sing through their teeth without letting go of the candle-holder while playing a drum with one hand and a snap thing in the other. And then they do all this while being in sync with each other. I wasn't technically allowed to take a pic of this.

3. There is a kind of bluntness in China that I found quite amusing. There are things people aren't afraid to write or say to your face.

Yes, it said that in the hotel room. LOL!!

4. I'm convinced that babies and young kids are cuter in China than they are in the US. It might have something to do with what they wear. I also found it particularly interesting that babies don't wear diapers in China. Instead, there's a flap over their butt (if there's a flap there at all). I see babies with their bare butts. Not too sure why it's this way . . . and I didn't take a pic of that. But, cute babies!

I kind of "stalked" this kid for a minute to get a pic. Too bad she fell asleep on her dad.

He wanted to hold our tour guide's pink flower. :)

The child is wearing a ladybug coat!!

A cute kid in Ji County (蓟县 - Jixian) in Tianjin.

5. Perhaps the most culturally different thing is the dichotomy between how homes look on the outside compared to how they look on the inside. Outside many apartments look run-down with trash everywhere. If you were to view these places through the "lens of the US" you would think people of low SES (socio-economic status) lived in these dwellings. But the moment you walk into these homes, you'll be in for a shock. Inside these homes are immaculately clean, the furniture nice if not always new, and all in all better condition than my apartment back near campus. Does. Not. Compute.

Yes, it looks that trashy everywhere in some places.

Apartments in Dagang District (大港) in Tianjian.

6. The CDC people were very open when talking with us. We were surprised that they were willing to talk about so many topics. For example, they suggested that we visit Tibet because it's so beautiful there, and many people make Buddhist pilgrimages to Tibet. The national government may censor a lot of things, but most people don't seem to care unless it interferes with their daily life. It seems the Chinese are very apolitical and could care less about politics, again, as long as it doesn't interfere with their daily lives.

7. The Chinese have a different definition of ethnicity than we do here in the US. There are dozens of minority groups in China other than the Han Chinese, that consists of well over 90% of the populace. To a foreigner, everyone looks Chinese. But there are subtle differences in culture, clothing, traditions, and dialects.

8. The bikers in China are fearless. They will ride their bicycles right up next to cars and buses without any kind of body protection. Traffic in China defies the rules observed in the US. You go if you have the green and you see a chance. As my friend JW-M says (he's studying abroad in China for a year right now), "It's all about the intent. The moment you're nice and try to let people go, confusion and chaos arises. That's when accidents happen. As long as you move with intent, everything will work itself out."

9. KFC, yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken, is everywhere. So is McDonald's. Apparently, people in China treat KFC like we do with Starbucks. People will buy a chicken sandwich and sit in the KFC for hours while on their computers, reading a newspaper, or studying. Supposedly the food served in the Chinese KFC is better than the food served in KFC here. Same goes for Pizza Hut, which is actually a big deal there - it's sit-down with table service, and actually really nice. We didn't go while we were there, but the thought amused us.

Another gate somewhere in Ji County.

Weird ass statue. I don't understand this.

Yes, there is a KFC in some remote area in Ji County.

10. What else? There aren't many fat people in China. I think it's because people walk EVERYWHERE. Traffic sucks because there are tons of cars, taxis, trucks, and buses. But the safety signs on the highway are highly entertaining. Too bad we were moving too fast for me to take pics of them. And yes, air pollution is a huge issue in China. We definitely experienced some of it (though not at its worst). Interestingly, there were signs for green energy and green technology everywhere. There were many trees planted outside Beijing, like almost an entire forest full. I think this is presumably to help against the sandstorms that blow into Beijing in the summer and to prevent the desertification due to the encroachment of the deserts to the north and west. "Arbor day" in China actually means something.

I do not have enough pictures to do justice to all the "differences" and interesting things we saw in China. There's so much that I haven't even begun to touch on. This is only a sample of China through foreign eyes. Though my eyes may not be as foreign as many of you readers looking at these pics.

I'll finish this post with a couple of pics: Wang Leehom on a water bottle. XD Stay tuned for the next post of Aek in China!! :P

---TANGENT---
Really quick, I caught up on a "new" blog: southern inebriation. Go over and say hi if you haven't already!! :D
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China I: A Stranger in Ancestral Lands

This is the first in the long overdue installment on China.

First a quick synopsis of why I was in China. Over Spring Break, I went with 11 other students and 3 faculty from my school to visit the China CDC and the Tianjin CDC. We were to immerse ourselves in the culture and learn a different perspective on health care. We were divided into two teams: a measles vaccination group (that I was in) and a maternal-infant health group.
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"How would people view someone like me - obviously Chinese on the outside but perhaps less so on the inside?"

A quote from a journal entry we had to keep while in China. Both my roommate for the trip and I are Chinese-Americans, more specifically ABCs (American-born Chinese) who've never stepped foot on to mainland China. We were "in the same boat," we were constantly curious about how the real Chinese would view the two of us. What would it be like to be a stranger in one's "ancestral lands?"

I was filled with nervous anticipation long before I endured the 14 hours on a plane before landing on another continent. What would it be like to walk in the land that my ancestors had lived and died in? Would I feel some connection? Would this trip mean something more to me than an academic inquiry into a foreign health care system?

Riding in a bus, passing the wintry brown countryside, we headed towards the mountains surrounding Beijing to visit the Great Wall - a monumental testament to human will that can be seen from space. There is a saying, 不到长城非好汉 (bu4 dao4 chang2 cheng2 fei1 hao3 han4). It means, "Until you reach the Great Wall, you're not a proper person." The Great Wall represents a major hurdle in life, and until you've scaled it, you cannot move on and grow as a person.

It was wonderful walking along the Great Wall, even when it was barely above freezing outside. The weather was surprisingly clear and sunny. There was a sense of adventure, of awe at this testament against time. It was incredible how long it stretched and snaked its way along the mountains into the horizon. Breathtaking.

We only had 2 hours at the Great Wall, not enough time to walk along its ramparts very far. On our way down, we were accosted by many vendors. I decided to bargain for a silk scroll. It was pricey, but I bargained it down to 1/4 of its original price. Later I learned that even at this price I was ripped off. -_-

After lunch, we then headed to the Forbidden City, also know as the Imperial Palace. But first, a gratuitous picture of lunch. Yes, it was like that for almost every meal while we were there. Again, as my friend said: "The food is so good, it shouldn't be this good."

Then we were off to the Forbidden City. We entered through the back into the Imperial Gardens first and exiting the front into Tiananmen Square.

Some of the trees there were hundreds to thousands of years old. There were two "lover trees" in the gardens. One pair of trees grew naturally and appeared to branch in two, and another pair were engineered to give the opposite appearance - to grow into each other.

A pair of trees that naturally grew to be joined in the lower trunk.

A pair of trees engineered to grow into each other.

Upon passing from the gardens into the Forbidden City proper, we encountered doors with the "double happiness" character (喜喜, xi3). Our tour guide (who was walking at Hong Kong speed, I swear) told us that if we rubbed our hands on the characters in a heart-shape, said some words to ourselves, and then put our hands in our pockets, we would find love within 2-3 months. Well, according to that I have until my birthday for love to fall into my lap, haha.

The Imperial Palace was full of symbolisms. From the roofs to the animal guardian statues. From the colors to the layout. There was meaning in ever aspect of creation.

Roof guardian animals grant protection. The more animals, the more protection.

A guardian lioness holds a cub in her left paw.

My favorite picture.

After we finished with the Imperial Palace, we exited into Tiananmen Square. To have learned about Tiananmen Square from a US perspective and then to see it as it currently is, was quite an experience. It wasn't what I expected it to be, though I really had no tangible expectations to begin with. Oh, by the way, there were people in military uniforms everywhere. It was a bit daunting. I think they were performing some of the police duties.

This was all day one. Yes, Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square in one day. We also went to the Pearl Market in Beijing for an hour or so. Everything was bargain-able there. EVERYTHING. In the last 5 minutes I found a vendor who was selling underwear. You could bargain underwear!! I would've bargained and bought underwear, just to say that I did, but alas I ran out of time. I'm not a particularly good bargainer. :-/
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In that first day in Beijing, China, I knew what this trip meant to me. It was a means to escape the current humdrum of my life, to explore and feel alive again. Grad school immediately following undergrad with hardly a breath between summers had worn down my mind, body, and soul. I needed to escape, if only for a little while. In China, I immersed myself in an aspect within me that had always existed but suffered from disuse. I sought to connect myself to the world around me, to bridge where I was from and where I am.

Were these people "my" people? Was this land "my" land? I don't know. I've never really felt that anywhere, in the US or in China. But I felt connected. I felt like I was standing on a bridge between two worlds, alternatingly looking East and West. As to how the Chinese thought of me and my roommate? Well, that's for another post. But suffice to say here, the non-Chinese people with us were sometimes referred to as our "American friends."