Day 12

September 1, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Let me be right up front about this: Today was terrible. Last night, as soon as I laid down, my arm started hurting worse than before. Instead of just a pain in my tricep, now my whole shoulder hurt. If I tried to move it anywhere over my head, there was an intense, sharp pain. It was as if the nerve contracted all of the muscles in my arm at once. Maybe it did, who knows. In any case, there was no sleep for me last night. Just lying down was too much. I took half a sleeping pill hoping to doze off, but sleep came very, very late. I had to be up at around 7 this morning to take my placement exam. Let's just say that that didn't go very well. Really, it didn't go very well for anyone.

I took the exam and went out to the store to find milk. The internet seems to think this sort of thing can be caused by a calcium deficiency. Hmm. Yeah, that's what I thought, too. I mean, is it possible to be calcium deficient after two weeks? I guess so. The only dairy products I've actually had was a slice of some kind of cheese on a burger last week and whatever milk was in that black milk drink. At home, I drink milk often, eat yogurt regularly, and have butter and cheese every single day. Could it be that my body is just used to having more? Is this a (severe) sign of an adjustment?


Milk. It comes in a bag here. I dunno why.

Conversely, the internet seemed concerned about acidity. Everything I've eaten lately has been acidic. The food here is just naturally acidic. In any case, I'll probably go and try to find some vitamin supplements tomorrow. I'm getting a lot more vegetable here, I know that, but none of them are exactly fresh. And the only fruit I've had was inside a cake. Also, I might have meat two times a week. So, I'm thinking this dramatic shift in my diet might be the cause of my pain, even though my stomach has been fine.

I took a few Tylenol PM at around 10am when I got back, hoping they would knock me out. About two hours later, they did, and I was gone until around 7pm. Not a very exciting day for me.

So, that test. No one did very well. Just about everyone I know is in Class 1, which is the beginners level Chinese immersion class. Jordan ended up in Class 2, probably because his conversation skills are so good. I'm OK with this placement: They give us a week to try it out, and if I don't feel like I'm being challenged, I can move myself up to the next level. In any case, a bit of review doesn't hurt anything.

When we went this evening to see what class we were placed in, I found my name on the Class 1 List:


Huh? Hey! I know that guy!

Hmm. If their English is as bad as my Chinese, maybe we can all teach each other a thing or two.

Hagcla

Day 11

August 31, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

It's another beautiful day in Xi'an. Seriously, I think summer has seen its last day here already, not that I experience summer here. I think the high may have been near 80, but there is zero by way of humidity. It really is a nice change of pace.


A Beautiful Day in Xi'an. The weather here is lovely.

Unfortunately, this beautiful day didn't start off so well. I woke up around 6am, my arm hurting. I thought maybe I'd just fallen asleep on it, I was pretty tired last night. But, it just wouldn't stop. When I stood up, the pain moved from my arm to the middle of my shoulder blades and neck. I managed to get back to sleep for a little while before the pain woke me up again. I figured I pinched a nerve some time while I was sleeping, the feeling was somewhere between pain and numbness. I took a long, very hot shower to try to fix it, but it didn't. A hot compress didn't really work either: It was nice while the rag was hot, but useless when it reached room temperature after a minute. I talked to Ally and she said that ibuprofen should do the trick, it would help reduce the swelling. Now, if only I knew how to find ibuprofen.

The thing is, they don't just sell it in any old store here. I tried two of the small markets, then decided to have lunch. Lunch was unfortunate. I didn't take pictures of it, and if I describe its appearance as regurgitated chicken necks, I'm sure you'll thank me for excluding images. The dish came in a bowl and looked a bit like stuffing, but I knew it wouldn't be; C'mon, this is China. I think it probably was chicken neck as there were just a ton of small bones. Jordan said I was lucky: The Chinese believe you should eat the part of an animal that it causing you pain in order to relieve it. Also, I got the damn long bean sprouts again instead of my favorite rice noodles. They look IDENTICAL!

I walked to the big market on Chang An Nan Lu, but couldn't figure out where medicine might be kept. It wasn't with the beauty/bathroom supplies like in the US. As I was leaving, I noticed a separate shop inside the market: It was a medicine shop. I didn't know the Chinese word for "ibuprofen" and the woman at the counter didn't understand English. She had me write down the name, and then took a good long look at it to no avail. I finally mimed a headache and she knew what I meant. She took me over to find the headache medicines.


Medicine. All the pills here look like cartoon pills.


Ibuprofen. Yep, his story checks out.

Since lunch was a wash, I decided I could get a drink at that smoothie shop to make me feel better. I ordered one of the drinks that said "奶" knowing they would contain milk, and thinking (without bothering to read further) that they might be milkshake like. What I got was a milk tea (奶茶), instead, which would be fine. I was in for a surprise, however. Of course I was, it was that sort of day.


Milk Tea? Should be good...

The thing I failed to realize was that it wasn't just milk tea it was "布丁奶茶" (bùdīng nǎichá). 布丁 is the Chinese word for "pudding." Well, actually, its the Chinese word for gelatin. I took a sip of tea and sucked up something jiggly. Blah. The tea had jelly floating in it. Big pieces of flavorless jelly. Sigh.

I got back to the room and found Jordan's tea cup. It has a tea strainer attachment. I ran my theoretically delicious milk tea through the strainer to remove the demon jelly bits.


Jelly. The “布丁” in my “奶茶."

What's worse, is that out of the tea (but stained by it) the jelly bits look like raw chicken. Without the jelly, the tea was really good, however.

I played it safe for dinner: 1 chicken breast, some rice noodles (fer real this time), and two 牛肉包子 (beef steamed buns). I wasn't going to have a repeat of lunch...

Hayden