CathyXZhao: she got poo in second day, when she wrote first e-mail.
...updates with my family members scattered around the world.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
scrubbing in
July 4, 2007
Happy 4th of July! I suppose everyone is off celebrating at a cook out or watching fireworks somewhere with their respective significant others. I could care less about the fireworks, but it’d be nice to see stinker. It’s Wednesday, which means I have 2 more days here and then out of Lhasa for a long time. This week turned out a lot better than I had imagined. I thought I would just be going to new departments in the hospital and getting an overview since I have this mentality that I’m leaving soon. But I have done and will be doing some of the stuff that I had envisioned doing before I came here. On Monday my two friends left for Everest base camp, which I regretfully am not going to have to time to go to. I went shopping on Tuesday and got seriously harassed on the street, which hasn’t happened to me ever in Asia. Not fun.
On Monday I went to optho in the morning and then in the afternoon I went to the train station with the chief of optho. I mentioned this before, but the train station is where the Lifeline Express train is, donated by corporations and the people of Hong Kong to give free cataract surgeries on the train. After Lhasa, the train will be going to XinJiong, which another minority tribe of China live. It’s also very rural I believe. The base is about 30 minutes outside of Lhasa, in the middle of nowhere. When you look around there are just mountains and small villages in the distance. The base looks like a 12 car garage that’s divided by walls with a door just like a garage door that slides up. Some of the garages are make shift doctors offices, regular offices, and the rest are living quarters plus one cooking area. The doctors office just has an eye chart and the machines they use at the optometrists’ office with the chin piece to rest your head on. People come from 400-500 km away, which is about 250 miles, I guess a little shorter than the distance between New York and DC. But there aren’t paved roads for a lot of it, and some don’t have cars, so they take horses, then tractors, then buses where they can. There are buses from certain bigger towns that bring them over to the base. Each day there are about 50 patients that need to be evaluated and they perform about 20 surgeries a day on the train. It’s pretty intense since these people came here to be able to see again. It’s very sad if they don’t have cataracts and are losing their vision because of something else because they are not eligible for the surgery. Everyone around them is getting their vision back and they have to be sent home.
The patients are all Tibetan farmers around the age of 64-75 so they are dirt poor. They pretty much wear all their clothes on their back all seasons and bring all the rest of their belongings. I saw a man pull out a dried leg of ham from his bag. Needless to say, they aren’t the most hygienic so on the train and in the garages where they stay, the smell is to say the least unpleasant, but you can use your imagination. They also eat a lot of yak butter, so that smell is also coming out of their pores. It’s not just me that thought it was smelly, the Tibetan doctors complained a lot. Plus it’s just not good for their eyes, they all have a little bit of conjunctivitis which isn’t good for eye surgery. Pictures to come.
Monday was pretty exhausting since we were there till about 8pm, so I didn’t do much on Tuesday. But today, Wednesday, I went back to ortho to just check on a patient I had already seen, and luckily got to go to surgery with the Chief and another doctor. It was an about 8 year old boy who broke his humerus 15 days ago. His family lived near the border of India as rice farmers since the altitude is lower and the weather less dry. So they had gone to a closer doctor, but he couldn’t set it without surgery and it became very swollen. They traveled to the next hospital, but there was no orthopedics department, so they ended up coming to Lhasa where they had family. This hospital is considered the best in Tibet and most advanced and the people value their expertise. But when you speak to the doctors in Lhasa, they feel like they are very behind compared to the main hospital in Beijing, Xie He.
The other doctor who was performing the surgery has worked in Rome, Italy and spoke pretty good English. She took an interest to me and said I could scrub in tomorrow!!! Literally help her. How nuts is that. She gave me two cases to do some research on and report back to her tomorrow morning. One is a 30 some year old man with a massive tumor on his right femur and a guy who had broke his humerus. She’s very much a professor and loves to teach, so I’m glad I got to meet her even if it’s the last few days. I also saw a young girl in her early 20s who suffered an accident where her hand got injured in a noodle making machine, leaving her with a claw hand because she damaged her radial nerve.
Enough medical stuff, I’m so excited to get back to Beijing, 3 weeks in Lhasa is more than enough. I’m sick of bargaining for stuff, which doesn’t really end in Beijing, but at least I won’t be alone. Shopping alone can be quite lonely. Considering that’s all I do in my free time. Today I was actually so exhausted I took a 3 hour nap. I don’t know why I was so tired. I gotta do some more research and sleep some more cause I got an early morning.
Happy 4th of July! I suppose everyone is off celebrating at a cook out or watching fireworks somewhere with their respective significant others. I could care less about the fireworks, but it’d be nice to see stinker. It’s Wednesday, which means I have 2 more days here and then out of Lhasa for a long time. This week turned out a lot better than I had imagined. I thought I would just be going to new departments in the hospital and getting an overview since I have this mentality that I’m leaving soon. But I have done and will be doing some of the stuff that I had envisioned doing before I came here. On Monday my two friends left for Everest base camp, which I regretfully am not going to have to time to go to. I went shopping on Tuesday and got seriously harassed on the street, which hasn’t happened to me ever in Asia. Not fun.
On Monday I went to optho in the morning and then in the afternoon I went to the train station with the chief of optho. I mentioned this before, but the train station is where the Lifeline Express train is, donated by corporations and the people of Hong Kong to give free cataract surgeries on the train. After Lhasa, the train will be going to XinJiong, which another minority tribe of China live. It’s also very rural I believe. The base is about 30 minutes outside of Lhasa, in the middle of nowhere. When you look around there are just mountains and small villages in the distance. The base looks like a 12 car garage that’s divided by walls with a door just like a garage door that slides up. Some of the garages are make shift doctors offices, regular offices, and the rest are living quarters plus one cooking area. The doctors office just has an eye chart and the machines they use at the optometrists’ office with the chin piece to rest your head on. People come from 400-500 km away, which is about 250 miles, I guess a little shorter than the distance between New York and DC. But there aren’t paved roads for a lot of it, and some don’t have cars, so they take horses, then tractors, then buses where they can. There are buses from certain bigger towns that bring them over to the base. Each day there are about 50 patients that need to be evaluated and they perform about 20 surgeries a day on the train. It’s pretty intense since these people came here to be able to see again. It’s very sad if they don’t have cataracts and are losing their vision because of something else because they are not eligible for the surgery. Everyone around them is getting their vision back and they have to be sent home.
The patients are all Tibetan farmers around the age of 64-75 so they are dirt poor. They pretty much wear all their clothes on their back all seasons and bring all the rest of their belongings. I saw a man pull out a dried leg of ham from his bag. Needless to say, they aren’t the most hygienic so on the train and in the garages where they stay, the smell is to say the least unpleasant, but you can use your imagination. They also eat a lot of yak butter, so that smell is also coming out of their pores. It’s not just me that thought it was smelly, the Tibetan doctors complained a lot. Plus it’s just not good for their eyes, they all have a little bit of conjunctivitis which isn’t good for eye surgery. Pictures to come.
Monday was pretty exhausting since we were there till about 8pm, so I didn’t do much on Tuesday. But today, Wednesday, I went back to ortho to just check on a patient I had already seen, and luckily got to go to surgery with the Chief and another doctor. It was an about 8 year old boy who broke his humerus 15 days ago. His family lived near the border of India as rice farmers since the altitude is lower and the weather less dry. So they had gone to a closer doctor, but he couldn’t set it without surgery and it became very swollen. They traveled to the next hospital, but there was no orthopedics department, so they ended up coming to Lhasa where they had family. This hospital is considered the best in Tibet and most advanced and the people value their expertise. But when you speak to the doctors in Lhasa, they feel like they are very behind compared to the main hospital in Beijing, Xie He.
The other doctor who was performing the surgery has worked in Rome, Italy and spoke pretty good English. She took an interest to me and said I could scrub in tomorrow!!! Literally help her. How nuts is that. She gave me two cases to do some research on and report back to her tomorrow morning. One is a 30 some year old man with a massive tumor on his right femur and a guy who had broke his humerus. She’s very much a professor and loves to teach, so I’m glad I got to meet her even if it’s the last few days. I also saw a young girl in her early 20s who suffered an accident where her hand got injured in a noodle making machine, leaving her with a claw hand because she damaged her radial nerve.
Enough medical stuff, I’m so excited to get back to Beijing, 3 weeks in Lhasa is more than enough. I’m sick of bargaining for stuff, which doesn’t really end in Beijing, but at least I won’t be alone. Shopping alone can be quite lonely. Considering that’s all I do in my free time. Today I was actually so exhausted I took a 3 hour nap. I don’t know why I was so tired. I gotta do some more research and sleep some more cause I got an early morning.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
long chest hairs
July 1, 2007
On Friday I went to Optho again and helped with the yearly checkups. I saw a few interesting cases, but nothing with gore or anything that was an emergency. One guy in his late 20s had a small sand particle lodged in his cornea, which needed to be removed with local anesthesia. Saw several older men with bleeding in the conjunctiva. One older man, about 72, was an alcoholic but hasn’t had a drink in a year. His right eye was extremely red, but luckily no bleeding in the eyeball itself. His blood vessels were extremely enlarged in the conjunctiva which is indicative of high blood pressure. The doctor told him cold towel compresses for 5 minutes 3 times a day, and then sent him to internal to get his blood pressure checked. I wrote up some history taking questions for the nurse in English because she wanted to learn, which made me feel useful. They see a lot of foreigners because of altitude sickness so it’s good for them to know some English. Although two British tourists came in and I asked if they needed a translator, but they were fine. Sad to say I didn’t get to help. Most Tibetans speak some English, whether they are selling goods in the street market or they work in the hospital. It’s actually quite good because the pronunciations in Tibetan are closer to English than Chinese, so it’s much easier for them than Chinese people to get the pronunciations correct.
Friday night I met this Canadian kid from North Vancouver who was traveling alone and has been backpacking Asia for the past 6 months. He had got some great stories from his travels in Cambodia and Laos, like crossing the Chinese border by accident and being chased down by military men with AK47s. We went out to a bar a few blocks down from the hostel and coincidentally bumped into my tour guide from last week, who’s a super nice guy. So I figured it must be where the locals hang out. We chatted about traveling and China and the cultural differences. There is quite a difference between China and Tibet, that even I have to adjust to. People are slower, lazier, extremely money hungry. At the bar, we had a few beers but they gave us shot glasses for them because they didn’t have an bigger ones. So we were basically having a power hour, which can be a little dangerous, especially at high altitudes. After the bar, we took a taxi to the local disco, aka club, where we bumped into my tour guide again. He was on his way out because he said there is a lot of fighting at this club, but we would be fine cause we were foreign. Vince, the Canadian, and I were a bit skeptical, which was only emphasized by a guy wearing a bullet proof vest. Luckily we had no problems and saw a bunch of European kids there. The funniest part were the guys who would dance with each other. In China, I think guys dance with guys and girls with girls, but that doesn’t mean they are gay. However, every few minutes a guy would come up to Vince, grab his hand, and whisper sweet nothings in his ear. It was hilarious that for once the girls didn’t need help, but the guys did! I felt pretty good no one was harassing me, and laughing at my squirming friend. At one point, this little man wearing a mesh tank was dancing using his friend like a pole, it was so weird. Then there was this guy on stage doing a striptease performance the whole time, down to his underwear, which were like colored tighty whities hahaha. And on top of it all, they played backstreet boys and other house mixes. Unforgettable. Only the pictures I took can describe it accurately.
With the altitude and extreme dryness here, I was pretty hungover on Saturday morning where I had to get up early and go on an outing with the hospital. July 1st is the communist parties birthday, and every year the hospital pays for an outing for the employees which they invited me to. It was at a local resort in the suburbs about a 30 minute drive away. When I got there around 11am, I sat in the back on this big comfortable couch, which immediately made me pass out. In the morning, there were performances by different departments singing songs in celebration of the communist party. For instance, they sang country pride songs, songs about my communist party my country, and other stuff I didn’t quite understand. Can you imagine, I have no connections with this aspect of China, and I’m exhausted, add these up and you get me passed out through the entire performance until 12:30. Since it wasn’t professional performers, the singing was pretty difficult to listen to. Lunch was served buffet style, but even though it was all people from the same work place, everyone was still soooo pushy. I was on the verge of giving up and not standing in this massive line for lunch. People here only want to get ahead for themselves, I feel like there’s no sense of camaraderie at all. Since there was no bus from the resort back to the hospital until 6pm, a few of us hiked through the suburbs until we got to a main road and hopped on a bus. Most of the employees stayed in the afternoon to play cards and mahjong. The suburbs aren’t what you imagine to be, green with houses spread apart. It’s farmland, extremely dusty, random cows wandering around, small cinder block huts with single rooms and single beds, garbage on the side of the street, extreme poverty, and the smell is different every 10 feet. It probably took us about 1.5 hours to get back to the city of Lhasa. An experience, how many people can say they went to a communist party party? I was a little nervous going into it since my coordinator at the office told me not to take pictures and not to tell anyone I’m from the States. That pretty much slipped out of my mouth the 2nd question they asked me…oops. There’s really no hiding where I’m from.
Saturday night I went to get handmade noodles in the Islamic part of town. You walk down this narrow alley with little stores selling meat and vegetables for the locals, and all of a sudden you come to the end and every man is wearing a little white hat to symbolize their religion and most women have their heads covered. Quite a change from the Tibetan side of town. Vince and I found a noodle place and ate for 14rmb for the two of us, which converts to about $1.80. Amazing!
Today, I went shopping for a little and had an early dinner with my friends Vince and Matt. Matt is a 35 year old British guy who’s on his second month of a year tour of the world, except I think he’s skipping Europe, which he’s been to already. After his year long backpacking trip, he’s going home and marrying his girlfriend who’s sorting out a divorce. He’s a super cool guy who’s always done crazy partying on the weekends and during the week he’s a helicopter engineer which definitely requires him to be drug free, which is not always the case. Very chill dude. Unfortunately, the meal wasn’t as pleasant as my day. Vince found a piece of hair in his noodles, which was absolutely appalling, so we asked for a different dish instead. Of course they brought a new plate of noodles, claiming it was new, but it was completely cold, obviously they had done nothing for us except throw the hair out. So we told them we weren’t paying for his plate, which inevitably turned into a huge argument. Another girl brought back the noodles and tells me it’s not cold and puts her hand on it telling me to feel it. So I said, what the hell am I going to do with this plate now that you’ve touched it, even if it was warm, I don’t want this crap anymore. Ugh, this would never happen anywhere else in the world. We left, leaving money for the other two dishes, guess I’m never going back there again. They were pissed we didn’t pay for the hairy dish and told me she’d never met anyone like me before. Oh well! We joked that it was a long chest hair from one of the girls….gross!
I picked up a few pretty awesome things for great deals. I drive a hard bargain, there’s no other way here or else you just get screwed. The end.
On Friday I went to Optho again and helped with the yearly checkups. I saw a few interesting cases, but nothing with gore or anything that was an emergency. One guy in his late 20s had a small sand particle lodged in his cornea, which needed to be removed with local anesthesia. Saw several older men with bleeding in the conjunctiva. One older man, about 72, was an alcoholic but hasn’t had a drink in a year. His right eye was extremely red, but luckily no bleeding in the eyeball itself. His blood vessels were extremely enlarged in the conjunctiva which is indicative of high blood pressure. The doctor told him cold towel compresses for 5 minutes 3 times a day, and then sent him to internal to get his blood pressure checked. I wrote up some history taking questions for the nurse in English because she wanted to learn, which made me feel useful. They see a lot of foreigners because of altitude sickness so it’s good for them to know some English. Although two British tourists came in and I asked if they needed a translator, but they were fine. Sad to say I didn’t get to help. Most Tibetans speak some English, whether they are selling goods in the street market or they work in the hospital. It’s actually quite good because the pronunciations in Tibetan are closer to English than Chinese, so it’s much easier for them than Chinese people to get the pronunciations correct.
Friday night I met this Canadian kid from North Vancouver who was traveling alone and has been backpacking Asia for the past 6 months. He had got some great stories from his travels in Cambodia and Laos, like crossing the Chinese border by accident and being chased down by military men with AK47s. We went out to a bar a few blocks down from the hostel and coincidentally bumped into my tour guide from last week, who’s a super nice guy. So I figured it must be where the locals hang out. We chatted about traveling and China and the cultural differences. There is quite a difference between China and Tibet, that even I have to adjust to. People are slower, lazier, extremely money hungry. At the bar, we had a few beers but they gave us shot glasses for them because they didn’t have an bigger ones. So we were basically having a power hour, which can be a little dangerous, especially at high altitudes. After the bar, we took a taxi to the local disco, aka club, where we bumped into my tour guide again. He was on his way out because he said there is a lot of fighting at this club, but we would be fine cause we were foreign. Vince, the Canadian, and I were a bit skeptical, which was only emphasized by a guy wearing a bullet proof vest. Luckily we had no problems and saw a bunch of European kids there. The funniest part were the guys who would dance with each other. In China, I think guys dance with guys and girls with girls, but that doesn’t mean they are gay. However, every few minutes a guy would come up to Vince, grab his hand, and whisper sweet nothings in his ear. It was hilarious that for once the girls didn’t need help, but the guys did! I felt pretty good no one was harassing me, and laughing at my squirming friend. At one point, this little man wearing a mesh tank was dancing using his friend like a pole, it was so weird. Then there was this guy on stage doing a striptease performance the whole time, down to his underwear, which were like colored tighty whities hahaha. And on top of it all, they played backstreet boys and other house mixes. Unforgettable. Only the pictures I took can describe it accurately.
With the altitude and extreme dryness here, I was pretty hungover on Saturday morning where I had to get up early and go on an outing with the hospital. July 1st is the communist parties birthday, and every year the hospital pays for an outing for the employees which they invited me to. It was at a local resort in the suburbs about a 30 minute drive away. When I got there around 11am, I sat in the back on this big comfortable couch, which immediately made me pass out. In the morning, there were performances by different departments singing songs in celebration of the communist party. For instance, they sang country pride songs, songs about my communist party my country, and other stuff I didn’t quite understand. Can you imagine, I have no connections with this aspect of China, and I’m exhausted, add these up and you get me passed out through the entire performance until 12:30. Since it wasn’t professional performers, the singing was pretty difficult to listen to. Lunch was served buffet style, but even though it was all people from the same work place, everyone was still soooo pushy. I was on the verge of giving up and not standing in this massive line for lunch. People here only want to get ahead for themselves, I feel like there’s no sense of camaraderie at all. Since there was no bus from the resort back to the hospital until 6pm, a few of us hiked through the suburbs until we got to a main road and hopped on a bus. Most of the employees stayed in the afternoon to play cards and mahjong. The suburbs aren’t what you imagine to be, green with houses spread apart. It’s farmland, extremely dusty, random cows wandering around, small cinder block huts with single rooms and single beds, garbage on the side of the street, extreme poverty, and the smell is different every 10 feet. It probably took us about 1.5 hours to get back to the city of Lhasa. An experience, how many people can say they went to a communist party party? I was a little nervous going into it since my coordinator at the office told me not to take pictures and not to tell anyone I’m from the States. That pretty much slipped out of my mouth the 2nd question they asked me…oops. There’s really no hiding where I’m from.
Saturday night I went to get handmade noodles in the Islamic part of town. You walk down this narrow alley with little stores selling meat and vegetables for the locals, and all of a sudden you come to the end and every man is wearing a little white hat to symbolize their religion and most women have their heads covered. Quite a change from the Tibetan side of town. Vince and I found a noodle place and ate for 14rmb for the two of us, which converts to about $1.80. Amazing!
Today, I went shopping for a little and had an early dinner with my friends Vince and Matt. Matt is a 35 year old British guy who’s on his second month of a year tour of the world, except I think he’s skipping Europe, which he’s been to already. After his year long backpacking trip, he’s going home and marrying his girlfriend who’s sorting out a divorce. He’s a super cool guy who’s always done crazy partying on the weekends and during the week he’s a helicopter engineer which definitely requires him to be drug free, which is not always the case. Very chill dude. Unfortunately, the meal wasn’t as pleasant as my day. Vince found a piece of hair in his noodles, which was absolutely appalling, so we asked for a different dish instead. Of course they brought a new plate of noodles, claiming it was new, but it was completely cold, obviously they had done nothing for us except throw the hair out. So we told them we weren’t paying for his plate, which inevitably turned into a huge argument. Another girl brought back the noodles and tells me it’s not cold and puts her hand on it telling me to feel it. So I said, what the hell am I going to do with this plate now that you’ve touched it, even if it was warm, I don’t want this crap anymore. Ugh, this would never happen anywhere else in the world. We left, leaving money for the other two dishes, guess I’m never going back there again. They were pissed we didn’t pay for the hairy dish and told me she’d never met anyone like me before. Oh well! We joked that it was a long chest hair from one of the girls….gross!
I picked up a few pretty awesome things for great deals. I drive a hard bargain, there’s no other way here or else you just get screwed. The end.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Pandora's Box
June 28, 2007
Today I went to ortho again and checked out a quick surgical procedure. It was a 3 year old girl with developmental dysplasia of the hip, meaning her hip joints were too loose and that needs to be fixed or it can cause severe problems in the future. It’s a simple procedure where they make a small incision in the groin to cut the adductor longus muscle, make the joint looser so they can place the ball and socket joint where they want it. It took me forever to figure out what muscle the Chief was telling me he was going to cut. Then, they simply put a cast on the kid from waist to ankle for 3 months in a “shooting arrow” position. So the normal leg is straight and the loose joint leg has the knee up and out. After the 3 months, there are two more phases of 3 months with different positions so the joint can grow closer together with all the stretching and molding. They gave me scrubs to wear, and my goodness, they were the ugliest things ever. First the top was too big and was a wrap around so every once in awhile I’d discover how low cut it had become. Then the pants looked like Aladdin pants, I wish I had a picture of myself, cause that would be the one I would send around for future interviews. “See how I sacrificed my summer working in a developing country hospital, yea that’s right, wearing ugly scrubs!!”
I went shopping again in the afternoon and I walked into a nice big store where they take foreign tourists for “authentic” goods. One sales guy started following me around and immediately asked me if I was Taiwanese, Korean? Singaporean? And finally Chinese, but asked if I went to school in the States. Following, he tried to charge me 900rmb for a bracelet that I just saw in another store for 300rmb. I laughed and said yea right and left.
My new goal is to try one of everything at the bakery I walk by everyday. I actually walk by it at least 4 times a day coming to and from the hospital. It is certainly my Pandora’s box. Every night I tell myself, no tomorrow is going to be a break day from the bakery, but every day I get something new. So thus the new goal, probably easier to accomplish! I just can’t seem to resist such perfect looking little cakes.
Song of the season: Do you remember by Jack Johnson…go ahead and indulge.
Today I went to ortho again and checked out a quick surgical procedure. It was a 3 year old girl with developmental dysplasia of the hip, meaning her hip joints were too loose and that needs to be fixed or it can cause severe problems in the future. It’s a simple procedure where they make a small incision in the groin to cut the adductor longus muscle, make the joint looser so they can place the ball and socket joint where they want it. It took me forever to figure out what muscle the Chief was telling me he was going to cut. Then, they simply put a cast on the kid from waist to ankle for 3 months in a “shooting arrow” position. So the normal leg is straight and the loose joint leg has the knee up and out. After the 3 months, there are two more phases of 3 months with different positions so the joint can grow closer together with all the stretching and molding. They gave me scrubs to wear, and my goodness, they were the ugliest things ever. First the top was too big and was a wrap around so every once in awhile I’d discover how low cut it had become. Then the pants looked like Aladdin pants, I wish I had a picture of myself, cause that would be the one I would send around for future interviews. “See how I sacrificed my summer working in a developing country hospital, yea that’s right, wearing ugly scrubs!!”
I went shopping again in the afternoon and I walked into a nice big store where they take foreign tourists for “authentic” goods. One sales guy started following me around and immediately asked me if I was Taiwanese, Korean? Singaporean? And finally Chinese, but asked if I went to school in the States. Following, he tried to charge me 900rmb for a bracelet that I just saw in another store for 300rmb. I laughed and said yea right and left.
My new goal is to try one of everything at the bakery I walk by everyday. I actually walk by it at least 4 times a day coming to and from the hospital. It is certainly my Pandora’s box. Every night I tell myself, no tomorrow is going to be a break day from the bakery, but every day I get something new. So thus the new goal, probably easier to accomplish! I just can’t seem to resist such perfect looking little cakes.
Song of the season: Do you remember by Jack Johnson…go ahead and indulge.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
ps
The funny thing the ortho guy told me is when patients come in they like to get IV, they figure hey why not I’m at the hospital why shouldn’t I get some good for me glucose. But when the foreigners come in to stay at the hospital, they bring their own antibiotics and always refuse the IV even if they need it. Also the rule here is they tell the family of the patient the situation of their illness before the patient. First they discuss it over with the family and what to tell the patient for fear of scaring the patient into more stress. Interesting…
Lucky to be altitude sickness free
June 27, 2007
I was beginning to lose hope in my trip the first day, but of course it was just premature homesick fright. But these past two days have been a complete 180 change. On Monday, I hung out at ob/gyn for a few hours with the chief of ob/gyn. He gave me a tour and talked with me about ob/gyn in Lhasa vs the States. Tuesday was pretty great cause I met with the Chief of Ortho who took me on grand rounds, explained radiographs, etc. He was this big guy who resembled the asian guy in Austin Powers who throws the shoe at Austin. There was a lady in her 40s who was in a terrible car accident about 4 days ago and broke her right foot and ankle and completely skinned her left foot quite deeply. I went to see the doctor clean the wound and it literally looked like something out of a Frankenstein book. I estimate around 70 stitches, but I honestly have no clue. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take a picture.
Today, I went to optho and hung out with the chief there. Hong Kong and a few of the large enterprises there donated a train for a month and a half to give free cataract surgeries to the people of Tibet. They started at the end of June and will be continuing throughout July. They’ve already performed 200 surgeries. So next week I’m going with the Chief of Optho to the train station to help evaluate the patients and whether they meet the criteria for the free operation. I’m pretty excited about this connection especially since I read about it online before I came. Wahoo!
For the next few days and beginning of next week, I think I’m just going to stick with optho and ortho and not dabble too much. Apparently, a lot of people get severe altitude sickness. I think 25% of patients in optho today were travelers there because of altitude sickness. One guy had to be hospitalized. Now I feel pretty lucky about being able to adapt pretty well.
I was beginning to lose hope in my trip the first day, but of course it was just premature homesick fright. But these past two days have been a complete 180 change. On Monday, I hung out at ob/gyn for a few hours with the chief of ob/gyn. He gave me a tour and talked with me about ob/gyn in Lhasa vs the States. Tuesday was pretty great cause I met with the Chief of Ortho who took me on grand rounds, explained radiographs, etc. He was this big guy who resembled the asian guy in Austin Powers who throws the shoe at Austin. There was a lady in her 40s who was in a terrible car accident about 4 days ago and broke her right foot and ankle and completely skinned her left foot quite deeply. I went to see the doctor clean the wound and it literally looked like something out of a Frankenstein book. I estimate around 70 stitches, but I honestly have no clue. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take a picture.
Today, I went to optho and hung out with the chief there. Hong Kong and a few of the large enterprises there donated a train for a month and a half to give free cataract surgeries to the people of Tibet. They started at the end of June and will be continuing throughout July. They’ve already performed 200 surgeries. So next week I’m going with the Chief of Optho to the train station to help evaluate the patients and whether they meet the criteria for the free operation. I’m pretty excited about this connection especially since I read about it online before I came. Wahoo!
For the next few days and beginning of next week, I think I’m just going to stick with optho and ortho and not dabble too much. Apparently, a lot of people get severe altitude sickness. I think 25% of patients in optho today were travelers there because of altitude sickness. One guy had to be hospitalized. Now I feel pretty lucky about being able to adapt pretty well.
Monday, June 25, 2007
the glamours of Lhasa
June 26, 2007
So on Sunday I decided to do a little shopping around town. I went to Barkhor street and picked up some jewelry and got interrogated about where I was from. The people here are very confused because I sorta look different, but I speak Chinese, though not that well, and I’m in Lhasa traveling. So after buying random stuff, I went clothing shopping. When you walk into a store there are about 5 girls greeting you repeating the same phrase. I try not to open my mouth as to give away any information about me so I just nod and smile. A few feet into the store you notice there’s a tail that you can’t seem to get rid of. A sales person will be following 2 feet behind you commenting on every item you touch or barely even look at. “Oh you can try it on, try it on…” After awhile you are like alright I get the point, it’s free to try shit on. I walk into this one store that seems pretty hip and with it only to find out how fat I really am. I picked up a dress to try on, and the sales girl looks me up and down and puts the one I have in my hand down and picks up the bigger size and says…you are very voluptuous how about this one. Thanks and a big f you. Never shopping in China again, cause I’m apparently a giant.
Then I walk into another boutique like store and of course there are 2 salesgirls following me around. One of them greeted me and as usual I just smiled and nodded. Next thing I know, one girl says to the other, “See I told you she’s Japanese.” So I turn around and say oh no I’m actually from Beijing, that kind of put them off. So I’ve gotten Japanese, Korean, what will they think of next.
Also I spend at most $4 a day on food…awesome! That’s including my indulgences at the local bakery. They make cake just the way I like it, not sweet with a little cream, and so so fluffy.
Last night I watched Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, for those of you who don’t know, it was from 1954 with Best Actress. So romantical! You don’t find such elegant people like that anymore. Probably Audrey Hepburn at her best and Gregory Peck is quite handsome in it. I cried a little I have to admit. It made me miss my ninny-muggins.
Today I’m spending the day in ortho with the coolest doctor ever, the chief of ortho. He is this huge guy with a belly and big side burns, kinda like elvis. He taught me all I know about ortho and said I should come work there after I graduate. Sweet, if all fails, ortho in Tibet! It’s funny how the ortho stereotype carries over universally. I’m going back this afternoon to see a possible gangrenous foot, this morning he said it didn’t smell too good. Oh the glamours of Lhasa!
So on Sunday I decided to do a little shopping around town. I went to Barkhor street and picked up some jewelry and got interrogated about where I was from. The people here are very confused because I sorta look different, but I speak Chinese, though not that well, and I’m in Lhasa traveling. So after buying random stuff, I went clothing shopping. When you walk into a store there are about 5 girls greeting you repeating the same phrase. I try not to open my mouth as to give away any information about me so I just nod and smile. A few feet into the store you notice there’s a tail that you can’t seem to get rid of. A sales person will be following 2 feet behind you commenting on every item you touch or barely even look at. “Oh you can try it on, try it on…” After awhile you are like alright I get the point, it’s free to try shit on. I walk into this one store that seems pretty hip and with it only to find out how fat I really am. I picked up a dress to try on, and the sales girl looks me up and down and puts the one I have in my hand down and picks up the bigger size and says…you are very voluptuous how about this one. Thanks and a big f you. Never shopping in China again, cause I’m apparently a giant.
Then I walk into another boutique like store and of course there are 2 salesgirls following me around. One of them greeted me and as usual I just smiled and nodded. Next thing I know, one girl says to the other, “See I told you she’s Japanese.” So I turn around and say oh no I’m actually from Beijing, that kind of put them off. So I’ve gotten Japanese, Korean, what will they think of next.
Also I spend at most $4 a day on food…awesome! That’s including my indulgences at the local bakery. They make cake just the way I like it, not sweet with a little cream, and so so fluffy.
Last night I watched Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, for those of you who don’t know, it was from 1954 with Best Actress. So romantical! You don’t find such elegant people like that anymore. Probably Audrey Hepburn at her best and Gregory Peck is quite handsome in it. I cried a little I have to admit. It made me miss my ninny-muggins.
Today I’m spending the day in ortho with the coolest doctor ever, the chief of ortho. He is this huge guy with a belly and big side burns, kinda like elvis. He taught me all I know about ortho and said I should come work there after I graduate. Sweet, if all fails, ortho in Tibet! It’s funny how the ortho stereotype carries over universally. I’m going back this afternoon to see a possible gangrenous foot, this morning he said it didn’t smell too good. Oh the glamours of Lhasa!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
lazy sunday
June 24, 2007
I did a little shopping today and got some lunch at the foreigner friendly restaurant that our tour guide took us to last week. I was looking for this noodle place my mom told me about but I couldn’t find it. I asked someone and they told me it was in the Islam district which is a slight walk away, so I’m gonna try that next week when I get bored. It started drizzling but luckily I made it home right before the rain really came down heavy. I found a cute little bakery that I need to try too. They’ve got these little biscuits I used to looveeee when I was little, so I need to go see if it’s the real deal.
Last week when I took my jacket off a policeman told me I wasn’t allowed to wear short sleeves so I put my jacket back on confused. Later I found out he was looking out for me because he said the UV light was too much for me to handle since I’m not from here. It was funny and weird at the same time.
Today someone in a store asked me where I was from so I said Beijing. Then he said, no way do you just work there, implying I was from outside the city originally because my accent was not authentic. As soon as I open my mouth I’m a dead give away. There’s no fooling the people here!
I did a little shopping today and got some lunch at the foreigner friendly restaurant that our tour guide took us to last week. I was looking for this noodle place my mom told me about but I couldn’t find it. I asked someone and they told me it was in the Islam district which is a slight walk away, so I’m gonna try that next week when I get bored. It started drizzling but luckily I made it home right before the rain really came down heavy. I found a cute little bakery that I need to try too. They’ve got these little biscuits I used to looveeee when I was little, so I need to go see if it’s the real deal.
Last week when I took my jacket off a policeman told me I wasn’t allowed to wear short sleeves so I put my jacket back on confused. Later I found out he was looking out for me because he said the UV light was too much for me to handle since I’m not from here. It was funny and weird at the same time.
Today someone in a store asked me where I was from so I said Beijing. Then he said, no way do you just work there, implying I was from outside the city originally because my accent was not authentic. As soon as I open my mouth I’m a dead give away. There’s no fooling the people here!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday/Saturday
June 23, 2007
On Friday we went to Namotso Lake at 5190 meters above sea level. It’s the highest salt lake in the world. For reference, Lhasa is 3750 meters above. The drive there was about a 5 hour bus ride which was absolutely horrendous, with bus drivers who smoked. But other than that the ride up was beautiful. Getting out of Lhasa the city, small huts lined the side of the road, but then farther out the villages were spaced out at the bottom of the mountains. There were lots of barley grown on the side of the road, which is one of their main sources of crops. This part of Tibet is pretty dry, so not much greens or fruits are grown. There were lots of herds of yaks grazing around and lots of sheep too. That’s where they get the milk/butter to make the tsampka tea, which uses yak or sheep milk. Also there were piles of yak poop made into patties piled up in 5 foot piles, which they use to burn for heat and cooking…yum.
At Namotso, as soon as we walked down near the lake, Tibetan village children would surround us and chase after us asking us to take pictures with them for 1 yuan. Also, the Tibetans have yaks down there for people to ride on and take pictures, charging 10 yuan. But sometimes to get money, they’ll lead their yak into your picture on purpose and then try to charge you for taking a picture of them, even though it was unintentional on your part. The harassing was pretty brutal. But seeing the number of tourists, they must make a load, plus there’s nothing for the Tibetans to buy out there.
The trip back was even more brutal cause there was nothing to look forward to, but overall definitely worth it. I have to attach some pictures, that’d be the easiest way.
Today I met up with the doctor and lady from the hospital who’s been helping me arrange this trip. They were incredibly nice and accommodating, so work at the hospital starts on Monday morning. I’m pretty excited to do some real stuff and take a break from the touring. They are going to give me a tour of the hospital and then arrange for specific departments I’m interested in, so I get a more specific experience in the hospital. This hospital is the biggest one and main one in Tibet with 500 beds. It’s hooked up with the SOS, NGO, etc and all major cases from all over Tibet gets sent here. Also, it’s the main teaching hospital for residents from the medical university.
So my dad left today so all alone here in the middle of Tibet. I met some pretty chill people, a Scottish dude, an Australian girl, a couple brits, and all a bunch of hippies, but very cool. The Scottish dude was teaching English in Naning and met the Australian girl in Vietnam, quit his teaching job and has been traveling with her every since, probably like a month or two. After their trip from here to Nepal and India, he’s going back to Australia with her and going to find a job. I can’t imagine me doing something like that, but I have so much admiration for people like that. There was an older British lady from Devon who’s doing a 6 months world tour and is currently on her 3rd month. She’s doing some amazing things, like safari and camping in the Serengeti, swimming with dolphins in New Zealand, bungee jumping, and so much more. I was quite inspired after this afternoon to do some backpacking in the future, especially with a special someone. Tonight we all hung out on the roof and watched Babel on a projector, pretty clutch considering I’m in Tibet. Drank some Lhasa beer and chatted with really cool people. People lead such free lives, it’s sad comparing it to how rigid mine is, but such is life. More the reason to take advantage of every break I get in the future. While talking to these people I felt a little naïve because I haven’t done the backpacking around different continents, but then as the conversation went on I had a lot to offer about the places I have been to, so I felt better about that. More to come…
On Friday we went to Namotso Lake at 5190 meters above sea level. It’s the highest salt lake in the world. For reference, Lhasa is 3750 meters above. The drive there was about a 5 hour bus ride which was absolutely horrendous, with bus drivers who smoked. But other than that the ride up was beautiful. Getting out of Lhasa the city, small huts lined the side of the road, but then farther out the villages were spaced out at the bottom of the mountains. There were lots of barley grown on the side of the road, which is one of their main sources of crops. This part of Tibet is pretty dry, so not much greens or fruits are grown. There were lots of herds of yaks grazing around and lots of sheep too. That’s where they get the milk/butter to make the tsampka tea, which uses yak or sheep milk. Also there were piles of yak poop made into patties piled up in 5 foot piles, which they use to burn for heat and cooking…yum.
At Namotso, as soon as we walked down near the lake, Tibetan village children would surround us and chase after us asking us to take pictures with them for 1 yuan. Also, the Tibetans have yaks down there for people to ride on and take pictures, charging 10 yuan. But sometimes to get money, they’ll lead their yak into your picture on purpose and then try to charge you for taking a picture of them, even though it was unintentional on your part. The harassing was pretty brutal. But seeing the number of tourists, they must make a load, plus there’s nothing for the Tibetans to buy out there.
The trip back was even more brutal cause there was nothing to look forward to, but overall definitely worth it. I have to attach some pictures, that’d be the easiest way.
Today I met up with the doctor and lady from the hospital who’s been helping me arrange this trip. They were incredibly nice and accommodating, so work at the hospital starts on Monday morning. I’m pretty excited to do some real stuff and take a break from the touring. They are going to give me a tour of the hospital and then arrange for specific departments I’m interested in, so I get a more specific experience in the hospital. This hospital is the biggest one and main one in Tibet with 500 beds. It’s hooked up with the SOS, NGO, etc and all major cases from all over Tibet gets sent here. Also, it’s the main teaching hospital for residents from the medical university.
So my dad left today so all alone here in the middle of Tibet. I met some pretty chill people, a Scottish dude, an Australian girl, a couple brits, and all a bunch of hippies, but very cool. The Scottish dude was teaching English in Naning and met the Australian girl in Vietnam, quit his teaching job and has been traveling with her every since, probably like a month or two. After their trip from here to Nepal and India, he’s going back to Australia with her and going to find a job. I can’t imagine me doing something like that, but I have so much admiration for people like that. There was an older British lady from Devon who’s doing a 6 months world tour and is currently on her 3rd month. She’s doing some amazing things, like safari and camping in the Serengeti, swimming with dolphins in New Zealand, bungee jumping, and so much more. I was quite inspired after this afternoon to do some backpacking in the future, especially with a special someone. Tonight we all hung out on the roof and watched Babel on a projector, pretty clutch considering I’m in Tibet. Drank some Lhasa beer and chatted with really cool people. People lead such free lives, it’s sad comparing it to how rigid mine is, but such is life. More the reason to take advantage of every break I get in the future. While talking to these people I felt a little naïve because I haven’t done the backpacking around different continents, but then as the conversation went on I had a lot to offer about the places I have been to, so I felt better about that. More to come…
Thursday, June 21, 2007
yak sports
I’m sorry to be the one to break to news to you Jia, but looks like your summer plans aren’t going to work out. I asked our tour guide and he’s never heard of yak sports. He said, they ride horses here and play polo on horses. Sorry!
PR: I hope you are reading my masterpieces, especially todays and hope all is well in trauma. Please give Dr. Mohr my best and we’re still competing to be like her, just cause I’m away doesn’t mean I have given up.
PR: I hope you are reading my masterpieces, especially todays and hope all is well in trauma. Please give Dr. Mohr my best and we’re still competing to be like her, just cause I’m away doesn’t mean I have given up.
June 21, 2007
I had a traumatic event happen to me today. I still get woozy thinking about it. Because you are all living in luxury right now with nice clean bathroom facilities I’m going to tell you what happened. We went to Potola Palace today which is the Dalai Lama’s palace from back in the 17th century. The 5th to the 13th Dalai Lama’s are buried there in tombs of tons of gold and lots of jewels. So we’ve been drinking a lot of water cause the weather is soo dry here. After taking the hour tour I really had to go to the bathroom by the end and found one finally at the exit of the palace. Mind you the palace is 120 meters higher than Lhasa which is already 3750 meters above. I can smell the bathroom from like 100 feet away so I walk in and there are two holes in the ground but two people are already in there. So I wait until one of them is done, by now I can’t wait for the 2nd person to leave so I walk in. Whatever, I’ve been in bathrooms like this before (holes in the ground/squatters) except this time I look down and it’s basically a big hole in the ground that’s 100 feet below where I’m standing. It’s not like a well where it’s dark with walls all the way down, it’s just a pile of garbage below on the ground somewhere, with complete natural lighting. I was so scared shitless….no pun intended. JIA: warning do not go to the bathroom in Potola when you come here!!! You are skinny enough to fall through! The hole in the ground was like half a foot wide.
I had a traumatic event happen to me today. I still get woozy thinking about it. Because you are all living in luxury right now with nice clean bathroom facilities I’m going to tell you what happened. We went to Potola Palace today which is the Dalai Lama’s palace from back in the 17th century. The 5th to the 13th Dalai Lama’s are buried there in tombs of tons of gold and lots of jewels. So we’ve been drinking a lot of water cause the weather is soo dry here. After taking the hour tour I really had to go to the bathroom by the end and found one finally at the exit of the palace. Mind you the palace is 120 meters higher than Lhasa which is already 3750 meters above. I can smell the bathroom from like 100 feet away so I walk in and there are two holes in the ground but two people are already in there. So I wait until one of them is done, by now I can’t wait for the 2nd person to leave so I walk in. Whatever, I’ve been in bathrooms like this before (holes in the ground/squatters) except this time I look down and it’s basically a big hole in the ground that’s 100 feet below where I’m standing. It’s not like a well where it’s dark with walls all the way down, it’s just a pile of garbage below on the ground somewhere, with complete natural lighting. I was so scared shitless….no pun intended. JIA: warning do not go to the bathroom in Potola when you come here!!! You are skinny enough to fall through! The hole in the ground was like half a foot wide.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
June 20, 2007
Today we met our tour guide, Ja Xi, who took us everywhere. He’s a really cool guy who’s been to college in New Delhi, and speaks English, Hindi, and Tibetan, but his Chinese was terrible so we just spoke English. He actually worked with the Red Cross and NGO as a translator for cataract surgery between American and Indian doctors and Tibetan doctors when teaching them how to perform the surgeries. He took us to Jokhang Temple which is the most sacred temple in Tibet. So today I learned the difference between a monastery and temple, maybe some of you knew already, but a monastery is where the monks reside and learn the mantra’s and a temple is a place of worship. I took some awesome pictures today that I will try to get my sister to post for me. Apparently blogspot and livejournal are censored websites in China so I can’t access them. I’ve resorted to sending them to my sister and having her post them for me.
This isn’t my dissertation so please mind the bad writing.
We also walked all of Lhasa I feel like. After Jokhang Temple we had lunch on this rooftop where I think I found my favorite Tibetan dish. It’s lamb that’s grilled with a spicy spice rub served with potato fries! I say potato fries cause they tasted more like sweet potato fries than french fries. It was amazing, exactly what I’ve been looking for. After lunch we walked to Potola Palace to get our tickets for tomorrow and then we took a cab to Sera Monastery, which is the main monastery for the yellow sect. There are four sects of Buddhism, basically four different ways to become Buddha, and this is one of them. As part of the monks’ studies they have to engage in debate everyday at 3pm for 2 hours. So we waited around and watched them debate in the main courtyard which was amazing. You’ll see my pictures, it’s way too hard to explain. But basically they pair up with one person sitting and one person sitting and they ask each other questions and debate. It was pretty amazing to see that.
On our way out of the monastery, there are a lot of beggars and children begging. They told us not to give them money because then we’ll get flocked with people asking for money. But today this one little kid followed me all the way down the hill begging the whole time saying Buddhist sayings, so with that kind of perseverance I gave him a good amount.
The weather’s amazing here, it’s in the low 70s, dry heat, with a slight breeze. Still no altitude sickness, just a little out of breath when climbing stairs. I can tell though if I tried to run it would be pretty difficult.
I’m meeting the people from the hospital tomorrow to set up my hospital schedule. There are a few places I can’t go alone, so I have to go with my dad while the tour guide is still with us.
Today we met our tour guide, Ja Xi, who took us everywhere. He’s a really cool guy who’s been to college in New Delhi, and speaks English, Hindi, and Tibetan, but his Chinese was terrible so we just spoke English. He actually worked with the Red Cross and NGO as a translator for cataract surgery between American and Indian doctors and Tibetan doctors when teaching them how to perform the surgeries. He took us to Jokhang Temple which is the most sacred temple in Tibet. So today I learned the difference between a monastery and temple, maybe some of you knew already, but a monastery is where the monks reside and learn the mantra’s and a temple is a place of worship. I took some awesome pictures today that I will try to get my sister to post for me. Apparently blogspot and livejournal are censored websites in China so I can’t access them. I’ve resorted to sending them to my sister and having her post them for me.
This isn’t my dissertation so please mind the bad writing.
We also walked all of Lhasa I feel like. After Jokhang Temple we had lunch on this rooftop where I think I found my favorite Tibetan dish. It’s lamb that’s grilled with a spicy spice rub served with potato fries! I say potato fries cause they tasted more like sweet potato fries than french fries. It was amazing, exactly what I’ve been looking for. After lunch we walked to Potola Palace to get our tickets for tomorrow and then we took a cab to Sera Monastery, which is the main monastery for the yellow sect. There are four sects of Buddhism, basically four different ways to become Buddha, and this is one of them. As part of the monks’ studies they have to engage in debate everyday at 3pm for 2 hours. So we waited around and watched them debate in the main courtyard which was amazing. You’ll see my pictures, it’s way too hard to explain. But basically they pair up with one person sitting and one person sitting and they ask each other questions and debate. It was pretty amazing to see that.
On our way out of the monastery, there are a lot of beggars and children begging. They told us not to give them money because then we’ll get flocked with people asking for money. But today this one little kid followed me all the way down the hill begging the whole time saying Buddhist sayings, so with that kind of perseverance I gave him a good amount.
The weather’s amazing here, it’s in the low 70s, dry heat, with a slight breeze. Still no altitude sickness, just a little out of breath when climbing stairs. I can tell though if I tried to run it would be pretty difficult.
I’m meeting the people from the hospital tomorrow to set up my hospital schedule. There are a few places I can’t go alone, so I have to go with my dad while the tour guide is still with us.
June 19th
June 19, 2007
First day in Tibet, it took what seemed like forever to get here. We took a cab from our apartment to the airport at 6am, the flight took off at 9:30, and landed in Chengdu for an hour around 12:30. Around 1:30 we boarded for Lhasa and arrived around 4:30pm. The bus ride from the airport took about an hour and finally we made it to the hotel…I mean hostel.
Today I learned two things in Beijing: when you look outside, it’s not permanently foggy, it’s smog. And fannypacks have made its revengeful return.
But anyways, so Lhasa, Tibet has some pretty great weather. When we got here it was a perfect 72 degrees and basically no humidity. Our hostel is right by Bankor Street which is a closed off pedestrian street with little shops and with sidewalks lined with booths and carts selling all sorts of stuff. For instance, you can buy all sorts of Tibetan jewelry, I’m assuming they are not real silver, Tibetan swords and knives, prayer flags, white shawls (to welcome visitors), and even silver fox fur, which I’m also assuming is illegal and endangered. So after walking around for a bit we found a restaurant to eat some dinner and I didn’t even bother looking at the menu I was so tired. When my dad ordered, I thought about it for a second and thought it sounded weird but didn’t say anything. When the food came, it was outrageous! We got dried yak meat, which is literally raw meat sun-dried which tastes sorta like beef jerky, but really bad. It was so dry it was stringy and had an aftertaste of grass. I guess that’s what happens when you eat natural grass raised yak. Hopefully next time we’ll get some cooked food. I had some yak butter tea, which was nice to try but I think I’ve had enough with 2 sips. It was buttery and salty and tasted like it had just come out of a yak. So unless I find something quick I like, this is going to be a weight loss program for me.
We also went to the town center where migrants come from all over to do these prayer things. They have like little footsies for their hands and they start by lieing on their stomachs on thin mats and then they push themselves up with their hands, stand up, and then they kneel down again and finally end on their stomachs again. They repeat this motion all day while saying prayers. Some serious religiousness and workout. I’ll be going back there to do some picture taking later on.
The people here are really nice and just want to sell you stuff. I asked how much this embroidered hanging was and the lady started out at 50, but the time I walked away, she had lowered it to 10, which divided by 7.7 is $1.30 basically. It’s a pretty good example of a 3rd world country, but we have cell phone service and my mom called us, so I guess not that far behind.
As for altitude sickness, I haven’t had anything, no headaches, no nausea. The only thing is a little out of breath when I walk too fast or when I climb stairs. So take that, klod!
I haven’t gone to the hospital yet, but I will probably in the next 2 days. If there are things in here that are incoherent, it’s cause I’m on 4 hours of sleep since Sunday. It’s 10pm here and I think I’m off to bed.
PS: the really cool thing about the hostel is the rooftop that has an internet café and these tables with swings for seats that hang from the canopy. There’s a perfect view of Potola Palace and the mountains in the distance. I’ll add pictures later. (Potola Palace is the main palace where the Dalai Lama does his official business and was built in the mid 17th century commissioned by the 5th dalai lama)
First day in Tibet, it took what seemed like forever to get here. We took a cab from our apartment to the airport at 6am, the flight took off at 9:30, and landed in Chengdu for an hour around 12:30. Around 1:30 we boarded for Lhasa and arrived around 4:30pm. The bus ride from the airport took about an hour and finally we made it to the hotel…I mean hostel.
Today I learned two things in Beijing: when you look outside, it’s not permanently foggy, it’s smog. And fannypacks have made its revengeful return.
But anyways, so Lhasa, Tibet has some pretty great weather. When we got here it was a perfect 72 degrees and basically no humidity. Our hostel is right by Bankor Street which is a closed off pedestrian street with little shops and with sidewalks lined with booths and carts selling all sorts of stuff. For instance, you can buy all sorts of Tibetan jewelry, I’m assuming they are not real silver, Tibetan swords and knives, prayer flags, white shawls (to welcome visitors), and even silver fox fur, which I’m also assuming is illegal and endangered. So after walking around for a bit we found a restaurant to eat some dinner and I didn’t even bother looking at the menu I was so tired. When my dad ordered, I thought about it for a second and thought it sounded weird but didn’t say anything. When the food came, it was outrageous! We got dried yak meat, which is literally raw meat sun-dried which tastes sorta like beef jerky, but really bad. It was so dry it was stringy and had an aftertaste of grass. I guess that’s what happens when you eat natural grass raised yak. Hopefully next time we’ll get some cooked food. I had some yak butter tea, which was nice to try but I think I’ve had enough with 2 sips. It was buttery and salty and tasted like it had just come out of a yak. So unless I find something quick I like, this is going to be a weight loss program for me.
We also went to the town center where migrants come from all over to do these prayer things. They have like little footsies for their hands and they start by lieing on their stomachs on thin mats and then they push themselves up with their hands, stand up, and then they kneel down again and finally end on their stomachs again. They repeat this motion all day while saying prayers. Some serious religiousness and workout. I’ll be going back there to do some picture taking later on.
The people here are really nice and just want to sell you stuff. I asked how much this embroidered hanging was and the lady started out at 50, but the time I walked away, she had lowered it to 10, which divided by 7.7 is $1.30 basically. It’s a pretty good example of a 3rd world country, but we have cell phone service and my mom called us, so I guess not that far behind.
As for altitude sickness, I haven’t had anything, no headaches, no nausea. The only thing is a little out of breath when I walk too fast or when I climb stairs. So take that, klod!
I haven’t gone to the hospital yet, but I will probably in the next 2 days. If there are things in here that are incoherent, it’s cause I’m on 4 hours of sleep since Sunday. It’s 10pm here and I think I’m off to bed.
PS: the really cool thing about the hostel is the rooftop that has an internet café and these tables with swings for seats that hang from the canopy. There’s a perfect view of Potola Palace and the mountains in the distance. I’ll add pictures later. (Potola Palace is the main palace where the Dalai Lama does his official business and was built in the mid 17th century commissioned by the 5th dalai lama)
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Night before...
Lil' zhao rapping in the bathroom:
99 problems and a bitch ain't one...check it
Lil' zhao in the car:
me to mom: he married a tibetan woman that he met in the states?
Lil' zhao: did they meet on tibetaneharmony? "hi do you want to meet over a cup of tsampka?"
Tsampka (noun): yak butter tea, a delicacy of Tibet that also helps with altitude sickness.
99 problems and a bitch ain't one...check it
Lil' zhao in the car:
me to mom: he married a tibetan woman that he met in the states?
Lil' zhao: did they meet on tibetaneharmony? "hi do you want to meet over a cup of tsampka?"
Tsampka (noun): yak butter tea, a delicacy of Tibet that also helps with altitude sickness.
Friday, June 15, 2007
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