Unfortunately right before our weekend excursion to Shanghai, I somehow got a bacterial blood infection which caused me a fever so I was mostly restricted to the hotel room and the surrounding block. There were a few occasions when I felt good enough to go out and see things so I’ll talk about those but also about my experience at a Chinese hospital.
In the morning I felt just alright; not comfortable, but functional nonetheless. I think it was more me hoping I wouldn’t have to go to the hospital that kept me in 209 popping Advil liquid gels trying to pretend like it wasn’t that bad. About halfway through the day the fever got the best of me and I found myself laying on a metal medical bed in the school infirmary. After a nap my host mother graciously came and picked my sorry butt up to bring me to the hospital. A certain English teacher there by the name of Derek came with my host mom and I to the hospital and acted as my translator. The only thing I really remember from the car ride was a bite sized snickers bar tasting really good. Derek and I got out of the Volkswagen Polo and he brought me inside where there were lines of people going to cashiers and registers. After doing the wait and paying a shocking 4 Yuen, Derek and I were directed to a separate building where the Fever Clinic was. At first glance the Fever Clinic seemed a little dinky and ragtag but you really don’t need much for a fever clinic. After my vitals were taken the doctor saw me and we got into a very awkward situation where I had to explain my medical history but I only knew the medical terms in English and everything else I used Chinese. I used some sort of weird mix of Chinese with English medical terms interjected and neither Derek nor the doctor understood so I ended up searching terms on yahoo and showing it to the doctor. In the end some simple antibiotics and fever suppressants were prescribed to me. The school graciously took up the cost of the prescription for me so a big thank you to them. After that I went home and rested up. By next morning I was functional enough to board the train to Shanghai with the rest of the Barnyard Bunch.
When the antibiotics were working and I wasn’t sweating with pain, I did go out with the others and have dinner with Cindy and her boyfriend. There were some soup dumplings which were steamed dumplings with soup in them; pretty self explanatory. Then there were an assortment of different noodles from spicy lamb noodles to veggie noodles. Honestly I didn’t each much at all because I felt sick. After that I think I went back to the room and slept some more. That was Friday I think. Saturday morning I got up for breakfast and then immediately regretted eating anything so I went back to the room again and continued being sick. Some time later the group gathered me for lunch which I don’t remember and then Kay brought us to this amazing little street where there is a wide variety of stores from small gift shops to candy stores to cat cafes. After making our way around the little street and seeing these hip little stores we saw this great candy shop where these men were taking this giant log of sugar and rolling it into tiny noodle thick strands and cutting the strands into little pieces. These pieces of candy had amazingly detailed pictures on the inside like cows and watermelons and lychees. After spending way more than I should have, we discovered a “cat café” which basically is a normal café but there are cats you can play with at every table so we had some tea and pizza and mostly played with the cats. After the cat café Cindy’s boyfriend invited us to go to karaoke. It was free so we couldn’t really refuse. This dimly lit room with comfortable sofas and a large TV screen was the place where we sang innumerable songs badly. Surprisingly there were many many American songs in the selection so we mostly stuck to those while Cindy’s friend Bunny sang all the K-pop and Chinese songs. The loudness kept bringing my headache back. Then next morning was a 45 min train ride back to Hangzhou and that was basically it.
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