I apologize for not having gotten a new entry up sooner! The first half of this week was really rough. I was not feeling very well and ultimately went to see a doctor on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, I'm feeling almost 100% now, aside from being out in the sun for seven hours today. :)
So, let me begin by recapping some of last week, that I had intended to post earlier, but my brain decided it had done something that I actually hadn't.
Friday May 25, 2014
Today we went to the actual Yi People village. It's a much newer neighborhood. They said village and I was thinking a broken, old actually authentic Chinese village. Surprise! This one was built to look traditional, but definitely clean and more modern in the interiors.
The groups from Oklahoma and California are great! I really enjoyed talking with them and spending time with the other groups today.
A couple of hours into our trip around the neighborhood, one of the guys from Okahoma's group wasn't paying attention to where he was walking and accidentally slipped into a gutter that was about a foot wide and a foot and a half deep. I heard it, and saw him come out of it, but I didn't see it happen. He climbed up the stairs a little way after it happened and pulled up his pant leg to check it. He had scraped along his tibia about two inches or so. There isn't much there except for some skin before you get to the bone, so it looked pretty ugly. Thankfully it was in an area that didn't have a whole lot of blood vessels, so it didn't bleed much, but I decided to wrap it to protect it from everything else.
When we tried to get him to the bus, the guys assisting him got him up too quickly so he passed out briefly two times. Fortunately, his pulse and respirations were nearly normal and he was relatively calm, so I wasn't really worried about him going into shock. Some of the girls seemed really concerned. I thought it was really cool that their whole group was so tightly knit. It was apparent they were all concerned about his well-being. So while the situation was nowhere life threatening, we decided to head back to town to have it checked and cleaned. I think their group as a whole is doing much better.
I'm grateful I followed the prompting to carry my first aid kit with me today. Of all the times I've been prepared, I've never had to use it until today. And while it could be argued that it wasn't entirely necessary, I feel that it helped the remainder of their group feel better about the situation, and that he was surely going to be okay. So maybe a little bit of a placebo effect, if you will.
Today ended up being more exciting (as far as energy levels go) than I figured it would be. I am grateful for the skills and knowledge that I have been given, so that I can help and bless the lives of other people.
Moral of the Story: Always be prepared, whether physically, mentally or spiritually, because you never know when you or someone else around you will need the extra help.
Monday May 26 - Wednesday May 28, 2014
My respirations were higher than normal. My blood pressure is lower than normal by about 20 both in diastolic and systolic. However, it's not out a normal range, just abnormal for me. Anyway, I was also lightheaded and somewhat dizzy. All generic symptoms right? Everybody was kind of freaking out and saying I should see a doctor. Oh yay.
So on Tuesday when I was feeling lousy again, my professor took me to see the campus clinic doctor. He supposed that I was just adjusting to the climate. So I got some Chinese herbal medicine and took it for about two and a half days.
Wednesday, I felt worse. I was so apathetic at this point because I felt so tired I didn't argue everyone's suggestion to go to the hospital. The initial check I received yielded the same results. Surprise. So they had me get an electrogram on my heart. The nurse about died laughing as I took off about five layers of clothing off my torso. I was glad Victoria was there, because I was far too out of it to even pay attention to what she was saying to try and understand. And they found nothing wrong there, as I also figured. Next I got to lay down for four hours with oxygen and an IV.
Then they did a blood test, everything coming back normal. I still felt about the same that night and somewhat fatigued the next morning. However, Thursday evening I felt much more normal.
Speaking of Thursday-
Thursday May 29, 2014
I actually stayed for all of the classes for the first time this week. I took a nap afterward, but it was nice to actually be able to enjoy being in class. We were informed that afternoon that we had a very important performance to participate in the following night. As the Chinese seem to plan, or at least inform foreigners, they tell you with at the very most 24 hours in advance. We were all kind of grumpy due to this being the third, fifth or... I've lost count. Enough times to drive someone used to getting notice, a little crazy.
Friday May 30, 2014
Still not super happy about the whole performance thing that we weren't told about. We only had one of our classes. The second was canceled for practice/ preparation time for the performance tonight.
However, the afternoon was the best! We went to a school for kids from rural areas. My instructor was telling us, in China, there isn't racism per se but there is discrimination between classes, like farmers, city folk, etc. So these were kids who are underprivileged in comparison to the average child from a more populated area. The kids were SO cute! I loved all of them. They were so much fun to interact with.
Children's Day is being celebrated nationwide tomorrow as a holiday, so they were celebrating with carnival games the day we visited. One little boy schooled me in a game of picking marbles out of a bowl of water with chopsticks. The headmaster's daughter was the cutest! She was super shy, but I really liked talking to her. Her name is Ya Ya Ting, and she introduced me eventually to some of her friends. When we were taking a group picture, one of her friends--a particularly small girl--was behind everyone else, so I picked her up to be at my height for the picture.
She, Ya Ya Ting, and a couple of their other friends kept waving at me and giving me thumbs up later when we were having a question/ answer session.
After we answered some of their questions, groups of the kids came up and performed three musical numbers for us. Ahhh, I couldn't get over how cute they were.
(The girl in the front is Ya Ya Ting. The small girl in the back left is the same girl in the center of the previous picture who I picked up earlier.)
Afterward, the headmaster took us to a cram school of sorts for kids who didn't manage to pass the college entrance exam. I wasn't sure, but I think he was kind of over that school too.
The kids we met (approx. age 20) had seven days left of their year at the prep school until they would take the exam again, either passing or failing. We were all kinda unsure what to talk about or how to start conversing with each other, because they were a little shy. Eventually we started talking and taking a whole bunch of pictures together, and then, they had us play a 10 minute game of basketball against them.
I played with our team, even though I was in a skirt and flats with no laces. Hahaha.... So my shoes fell off a few times at the beginning, but I eventually got the hang of it. I made a basket too. Ultimately, they won by a basket, but it was a pretty spazzy pickup game. Everyone was taking pretty wild shots.
After the game, we had dinner in their cafeteria that was set up dining style. All of the food in the center on a lazysusan.
It was really yummy. Eventually, all of the students came in and ate the same deal in celebration of the end of the year.
Eventually we got back to the performance. It lasted a good three hours. But there were really good performances. The Thai kids were especially good. Their girls did two dances, and then a group of their guys did a choreographed Muag Thai stage fight.
It was long, but thoroughly entertaining through the whole thing. There were also some particularly engaging performances by some of the Chinese students in the School of Arts. I would say, all in all, we felt our performances were far from adequate in comparison to the others who had much more time to practice. But I still think we did well, considering the circumstances.
It was a very long day, but very fun. Starting the afternoon/evening off with visiting the children made it that much better.
Saturday May 31, 2014
Today was nice. We were able to sleep in a little for once. I wake up naturally at 6:00 anyway though, but it was nice not to have to get up right away. We went to a museum about the Yi People (note: my E People statement in the previous entry is incorrect. It is pronounced “ee”), dinosaurs and the early peoples of this area. The dinosaurs were my favorite,
but one was pieced together very oddly. I'd venture a guess that it's supposed anatomy is incorrect.
But it was entertaining anyway.
I really liked the art they made to depict important aspects of the Yi People's culture too.
Not much else done today. I got some other things done I've been meaning to take care of, so it was nice to have a not so scheduled day, for once.
Sunday June 1, 2014
Today we got up before anything was open for breakfast. Shops don't open very early on the weekends. So I don't really understand how our teachers overlook that when they plan days out for us. Anyway, we were outside for a good seven and a half hours today, kind of outside of the city, picking berries I don't think exist in the U.S., but they're all over this region.
So we picked bags and bags of them and then payed the lady running the joint per kilogram of that which we collected. After, we made our own dumplings. Meat, and veg. Haha.... The food handling practices here are SO lax. The meat sat outside in the shade for a couple of hours before we cooked with it.
I was just praying we'd cook it enough nobody would get sick. Seriously. Haha...
After, some of our group taught our Chinese friends how to play “Signs”. Then we played “Werewolf”. I'm still pretty tired from being out in the heat all day, but it was fun. :) Tomorrow we should be going to some kind of play. Not quite sure what it'll be about, but at least it's in the afternoon.
2nd Moral of the Story: Chinese planning is sporadic and unpredictable in my opinion, and makes about as much sense as their traffic laws. However, it makes sense to them somehow. So I guess when in (Rome) China, do as the Chinese do.
