Breaking The Shackles

I've finally decided to start the blog that I had planned to start prior to even coming here... Things simply got in the way which stopped me from starting this. Once I got here, I decided that I wanted to wait a couple weeks before starting it, because sometimes first impressions are... Skewed, and I wanted this to be an accurate representation of what's going on in my life abroad.

So this is where the adventure begins:

I arrived in China on September 3rd after a long, argues, and very stressful time dealing with airports, and uncomfortable chairs. The first thing that entered my mind upon arriving was, "I can't believe I'm here." I spent the rest of that night in pretty much a blur, thinking it was all some sort of dream, and that it really wasn't happening. While sitting on the couch, I remember having the feeling of landing in the airplane. My vision would jerk downwards and back up, like when you first hit the run-way after a flight. This feeling was very annoying, and I wanted it to stop. The first night I didn't even wait to see the night life. I simply ate some food that was left for us, observed the place that I'd call home for the next year, and attempted to watch some television, but failed miserably due to it not being in English. I then fought with the air conditioner (the remote is in Chinese too!) but was finally able to get it turned on, and simply called it a night.

I awoke the next day, and slowly pulled the curtains back, still thinking this was all a dream, I found myself looking out upon the Wuhan skyline, of which there wasn't much of due to all the pollution, and skyscrapers in my view. The sun was bright, the air didn't smell very good, but I was really there... Venturing out of my room, Doug was just getting up as well, and we made small talk about what we had done, and how we were glad the traveling was over.

The rest of the week went by. We walked some places, found out where the nearest grocery store was, met our co-workers at the school, and more importantly found out where the school was. We attempted to go out random places, but didn't venture far away. Some co-workers took us some places and sadly we began working... I say sadly, because well it's just work to me...

There was one thing that sticks in my memory though. That is when we had to get the health inspection. Keep in mind that to my knowledge, I've never really had a physical, so all this was new to me. We met some people at the school and they took us to the hospital. We were told to sit while they went to the front counter to discuss everything. After a short bit of time passed we were told to follow to the first room. The door to the room looked menacing to say the least... It was big, and appeared to be metal, kind of like a vault door to a bank - just not circular, or as thick. We were told to take our shoes off (boots) and go in one at a time. I had no idea what this was, but when entering there was a lady sitting in a different section of the room and was telling me to stand somewhere, but since she wasn't speaking English, it was all being done in hand signals. I was confused but managed to figure out what it was she was saying, and finally I was stood between the machine while it made an awful noise and moved around my chest. This appeared to be an x-ray. I ended up going 2nd, so by the time I got out, Doug was already ready to go to the next location. We started to put our shoes back on, but was told we would have to take them off again, so we didn't even bother lacing them up. We went up some tiny stairs, with a low ceiling (lol), and went into another room... This appeared to be a sonogram where they rubbed the jelly on us and looked at our innards. We went to various rooms to check different things, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Both our blood pressures were high, mine was extremely high, probably due to not doing anything like this before. Doug had problems with the vision tests, I went through it like a breeze of fresh air. Then... The blood drawing came... This is where it got scary for me... First off the lady couldn't find my vein, so she had me switch arms. She still couldn't find it on this arm, but attempted to try anyways - the pain didn't hurt, but she couldn't get enough blood. Next she tried on the hand and at this point, I was getting really hot (sweating), and peoples voices started to get more and more distant. I began to feel light headed... Doug came over and started rubbing my shoulders, not because he saw I was looking bad, but just as a friendly gesture, and things started to come back to reality. I asked him not to stop, and the lady was still unable to get enough blood. She told me to sit down and she'd try again later. Doug went up and was able to get it done on the first try, a Japanese guy went also on the first try and then I went up again... She used the first arm again, and this time was able to get it - she told me "Success!" through the window as the blood flew into the tube like a free flowing river. I didn't enjoy this, and hope that I don't have to go through this anytime again. As a matter of fact, the bruises just NOW cleared up, 2 weeks later...

Well, I think this post is long enough for a first one, so I'll post more at a later time... Anyone can post comments (or they sould be able too) so feel free to ask whatever it is you want.

~Thomas