I realize that I just wrote a post about how hot and unbelievably uncomfortable it is to be outside for even a minute here in Shanghai these days so the fact that I have signed up to run a marathon may prompt the need for check of the mental faculties. Yes, I have signed up for the Hangzhou Marathon in November. Not only have I signed up, I have assembled a run group to encourage my craziness. We've actually been running together for about 5 weeks now very informally. To be honest, I was all talk in the beginning when I said I wanted to do a marathon here in China but one thing led to another and all of a sudden I found myself putting together a training calendar for 5 other people and not long after that the title "Coach" was thrown at me. AHHH me and my big mouth!! I think the real craziness hit me when a friend who is coming to visit asked what she could bring from the States and I immediately answered BODY GLIDE. No. Not peanut butter M&Ms, Wheat Thins or Oatmeal Teddy Grahams (all of which are also greatly appreciated ;). Body Glide :/ (I envision my brother and Susan, his fiance, saying "What's wrong with that?!?" ). So here I am....training for a marathon....in....China...Lord help me.
It's an interesting thing running in Shanghai. I don't think I could have come from a farther extreme in terms of running environment. I could have walked out of my door in San Francisco and blindly chosen any direction to run in and eventually found myself among the most beautiful running trails in the state. Not exactly the case here. Unless you want to be intimate with a bike, motorcycle, taxi or BUS it's wise not to do any action blindly. I did do a couple runs out on the sidewalks near my old apartment and I could never figure out if the locals were staring at me because I was either a)blonde/western/woman or b)running. The running for health or leisure aspect hasn't really hit here but honest-to-god if there's an announcement for a slash in prices for cooking oil you best be looking out for the sudden herd of Michael Johnson's sprinting your way.
So my Saturdays now consist of 7am wake-ups, which would probably happen if I was running or not due to the rabid vegetable bargaining going on in the markets below my apartment. I'm going to digress here but it is AMAZING to see the bustle of activity that goes on early weekend mornings. We take the metro to get to our run destination and it is PACKED. Like wall-to-wall, face-in-armpit PACKED. Sometimes I just want to shout: WHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING!?!?!? Really where are they all going at 7am on a Saturday?!!? Once I figure it out I'll let you know. Anyway, we have a really nice park to run in that knocks out about 10ks which is fine for now but once we get into the real training (20-30ks) we'll have to get creative with our run destinations. Luckily I have another friend who spent time in Austin and shares my CA run culture experience. We're determined to bring that lifestyle to China so I when friends ask what they can bring from home I don't have to say body glide :)
Here is a link to the marathon I will be doing: http://www.hangzhou-marathon.com/index.php?lang=en
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Someone turn off the Oven!!
I just can't win. Last year (the last 4 years for that matter) I was complaining about a fogged in San Francisco July that resembled nothing close to Summer. Well looks like the Summer gods are making up for lost time in Nicole-land because DAMN!!!!!! its HOT in Shanghai! I probably sweat more in the walk from my bedroom to bathroom than I did in all 3 marathons. Yes I have AC, central AC actually, and it goes on very frequently but I am from California. We're genetically programmed to be "green" (and when I eventually meet Leonardo DiCaprio he will be captivated by my ability to stay environmentally conscious and fall in love with me and....hey, a girl can dream can't she??).
Anyway it's running a consistent 97-100 degrees the last week or so with about 70%humidity. For example: right now as I write at 10pm Accuweather is reporting a temp of 100! 100!!! At 10pm!! I have basically kissed good hair days, dry clothes, clear skin and the likes goodbye. I just made myself sound so hot! It doesn't help that I have to deal with THIS every day. It's one thing to be sticky and hot in your own space but when you have to be arm to arm with people in the same, and usually worse, condition it makes things slightly more unpleasant. I will say one thing for China, they're not a smelly bunch. Thank God. I think that purely derives from luck though b/c you can't find deodorant in abundance and most clothes are worn several days in a row. I mean there are definite "scents" but BO is not one of them. Again...thank god because I've been on the bad end of exposed armpits more times than I care to think of.
So this heat comes right when I have included a walk of about 20 looong minutes to my daily routine. That would be the walk from the metro to my new classroom at Jiaotong University. In order to maintain my visa and not have to return to the US I had to sign up for Summer school. If you're wondering if I'm at all concerned about being 26 and have to say that I am in Summer school the answer is a big fat YES...but I am encouraged by the fact that I have 2 40+ classmates in my class of 7. Although, I did grapple with a bout of discouragement when my sweet looking, 40-something, Chilean classmate leaned over during our break and said, "The American students always do the best in my classes." (Umm...have you heard of a little country called Korea, honey?!?) I responded with, "Well I hope I don't prove that wrong (wink wink, smile)." She replied with not the most jovial of faces and said, "Oh we'll see." For the next 3 hours I sat there petrified of flubbing up business Chinese as if I held the fate of American student's image around the world in my hands! The chick was watching me too, I swear! I answered a question and she leaned over again and asked how I knew that. Score one for America! Take that World! Sadly in the end, I think we ended up sub zero in the scoring due to my unwavering inability to remember characters. Sorry America...at least we have our good image in other sectors to stand on...you know like the economy, foreign policy, etc.....................................................
Anyway it's running a consistent 97-100 degrees the last week or so with about 70%humidity. For example: right now as I write at 10pm Accuweather is reporting a temp of 100! 100!!! At 10pm!! I have basically kissed good hair days, dry clothes, clear skin and the likes goodbye. I just made myself sound so hot! It doesn't help that I have to deal with THIS every day. It's one thing to be sticky and hot in your own space but when you have to be arm to arm with people in the same, and usually worse, condition it makes things slightly more unpleasant. I will say one thing for China, they're not a smelly bunch. Thank God. I think that purely derives from luck though b/c you can't find deodorant in abundance and most clothes are worn several days in a row. I mean there are definite "scents" but BO is not one of them. Again...thank god because I've been on the bad end of exposed armpits more times than I care to think of.
So this heat comes right when I have included a walk of about 20 looong minutes to my daily routine. That would be the walk from the metro to my new classroom at Jiaotong University. In order to maintain my visa and not have to return to the US I had to sign up for Summer school. If you're wondering if I'm at all concerned about being 26 and have to say that I am in Summer school the answer is a big fat YES...but I am encouraged by the fact that I have 2 40+ classmates in my class of 7. Although, I did grapple with a bout of discouragement when my sweet looking, 40-something, Chilean classmate leaned over during our break and said, "The American students always do the best in my classes." (Umm...have you heard of a little country called Korea, honey?!?) I responded with, "Well I hope I don't prove that wrong (wink wink, smile)." She replied with not the most jovial of faces and said, "Oh we'll see." For the next 3 hours I sat there petrified of flubbing up business Chinese as if I held the fate of American student's image around the world in my hands! The chick was watching me too, I swear! I answered a question and she leaned over again and asked how I knew that. Score one for America! Take that World! Sadly in the end, I think we ended up sub zero in the scoring due to my unwavering inability to remember characters. Sorry America...at least we have our good image in other sectors to stand on...you know like the economy, foreign policy, etc.....................................................
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Surviving the Quarantine Exam...barely
Many apologies friends for the long absence. Quite a bit has happened but not much has warranted the "I can't wait to blog about this" thoughts in my head...UNTIL TODAY. And boy did they come back with a vengeance. Before I get to my Shanghai Quarantine story I'll give you an update on my life for the past 6 weeks: I moved into a new apartment with a gorgeous view and signed a one-year lease (YIKES!). Still don't have a job, but I am working on that little detail AND I may have picked up a special friend along the way. We'll leave that for another post though (or if you've talked to my mom in the last 6 weeks i'm sure you have all major and minor details).
Back to the quarantine! So since I love Shanghai so much and want to stay here for a while I had to enroll in another semester of Uni to easily extend my visa and if you are here more than 6 months you have to get a medical exam. Thinking this was no big deal, probably just a check of my height/weight/blood pressure/heart beat/etc, an easy formality to get a visa, I rejoiced in my soon-to-be visa extension success. UNTIL I talked to a few folks who had been through the "formality" and was met with sly grins and phrases like "rite of passage". Oh. dear. All I prayed for was no use of needles or blood drawing or, for that matter, coming within 20feet of a needle. Yes, I have a phobia. Yes, it's all mental, I know, but its there and I get really lightheaded and hot and sweaty and would rather lick a Chinese Metro handrail than get my blood drawn in China! Again I was met with the sly grins and "rite of passage" jargon. Noooooo!
Naturally I put this off until the last minute but finally couldn't escape it. So off I went to the "Shanghai Quarantine Service". The word quarantine jut gets it all going on a bad start. Like you're entering the Int'l House of Disease or so. But, it started out normal enough with many foreigners joining me. What I would soon find out is that we go as a group of about 15 for each appt time and do different stations. What I DIDN'T know, that apparently everyone else did, is that I should have worn pants b/c you have to dress in a gown for the exam but can leave your bottom apparel on. WELL, being nearly 100 degrees in Shanghai at the moment my choice of clothing usually resorts to dresses and did on this particular day. AWESOME. The gown, naturally, was fitted for Chinese people who, on average, are "slightly" shorter than my 5feet8inches. So I had to walk around the quarantine area in front of everyone else in this tiny Chinese dressing gown, holding it down as far as it would go to not show any, um, backend real estate. Uncomfortable from the get-go?? YES but moving on.
Test #1 was an xray. Really?? Is this necessary?? I swear I haven't stolen the torch and swallowed it. I clearly angered the tech in the brief 5 seconds it took me to enter the room b/c he pushed me in front of an apparatus and concocted me in this incredibly odd position, quite forcefully, and told me not to move. I stood there for about a good 5 minutes not moving a muscle but also not hearing anything happening then finally hearing the techie say something that sounded a mix between "don't move" and "good". "What?" "Don't move" "Ah!" "Good" "What?" This went on for about 30 seconds when he finally came in the room and removed me from the apparatus (clearly calling me a stupid foreigner in his head all the while).
Next room...duh duh duh...NOOOO are those??? Yes they are! NOOOOOO! Needles and rubber strips NOOOOOOOOO! It took me a good minute tomentally pump myself up for this and sit down in the seat while the Chinese nurses kept saying "please be calm". After deep breaths and serious closing of the eyes, it was over but not before I had to sit in the room another 10 minutes and listen while 3 more people got their blood taken. UGH! The snap of the rubber and taping of the vein almost made me puke! But I survived. Which I am so happy b/c I got to experience the rest of this lovely exam. I have to say this was probably the most normal of all the tests as it only got weirder from there.
Next was my doctor exam. Let me set the scene first. This hospital is what you would expect out of a 1950's Chinese Hospital, and it hasn't changed since. Pink cement walls, steel gurneys and blue curtains. Nice. The cute little old doctor told me to get on the bed (no sanitary changeable paper here) and started to feel for my heartbeat, etc. Normal enough right?? NO. He then pulled out a sonogram machine!!! Wha??? And started poking and prodding my ribs and stomach which happened to be quite sore from yesterday's yoga session! Why am I having a sonogram in China?? Why?
NEXT, was my ECG whatever the heck that is. I KID YOU NOT. They hooked up electrode CLAMPS to my right ankle and both wrists then stuck suction cups to my chest! Where am IIIIIII??? Please take a moment to picture this and don't forget the skimpy robe that I was wearing as well. The doctor finished after about 5 minutes and proceeded to tell me that everything was normal. No. I'm sorry honey. There is NOTHING normal about this.
When all was said and done I had x-rays, a sonogram, was hooked to electrodes, given an eye test, blood drawn, and a full body doctor exam all within 45 minutes. At least I can say it was efficient.
And so continues this odd but fabulous life I live in China.
Back to the quarantine! So since I love Shanghai so much and want to stay here for a while I had to enroll in another semester of Uni to easily extend my visa and if you are here more than 6 months you have to get a medical exam. Thinking this was no big deal, probably just a check of my height/weight/blood pressure/heart beat/etc, an easy formality to get a visa, I rejoiced in my soon-to-be visa extension success. UNTIL I talked to a few folks who had been through the "formality" and was met with sly grins and phrases like "rite of passage". Oh. dear. All I prayed for was no use of needles or blood drawing or, for that matter, coming within 20feet of a needle. Yes, I have a phobia. Yes, it's all mental, I know, but its there and I get really lightheaded and hot and sweaty and would rather lick a Chinese Metro handrail than get my blood drawn in China! Again I was met with the sly grins and "rite of passage" jargon. Noooooo!
Naturally I put this off until the last minute but finally couldn't escape it. So off I went to the "Shanghai Quarantine Service". The word quarantine jut gets it all going on a bad start. Like you're entering the Int'l House of Disease or so. But, it started out normal enough with many foreigners joining me. What I would soon find out is that we go as a group of about 15 for each appt time and do different stations. What I DIDN'T know, that apparently everyone else did, is that I should have worn pants b/c you have to dress in a gown for the exam but can leave your bottom apparel on. WELL, being nearly 100 degrees in Shanghai at the moment my choice of clothing usually resorts to dresses and did on this particular day. AWESOME. The gown, naturally, was fitted for Chinese people who, on average, are "slightly" shorter than my 5feet8inches. So I had to walk around the quarantine area in front of everyone else in this tiny Chinese dressing gown, holding it down as far as it would go to not show any, um, backend real estate. Uncomfortable from the get-go?? YES but moving on.
Test #1 was an xray. Really?? Is this necessary?? I swear I haven't stolen the torch and swallowed it. I clearly angered the tech in the brief 5 seconds it took me to enter the room b/c he pushed me in front of an apparatus and concocted me in this incredibly odd position, quite forcefully, and told me not to move. I stood there for about a good 5 minutes not moving a muscle but also not hearing anything happening then finally hearing the techie say something that sounded a mix between "don't move" and "good". "What?" "Don't move" "Ah!" "Good" "What?" This went on for about 30 seconds when he finally came in the room and removed me from the apparatus (clearly calling me a stupid foreigner in his head all the while).
Next room...duh duh duh...NOOOO are those??? Yes they are! NOOOOOO! Needles and rubber strips NOOOOOOOOO! It took me a good minute tomentally pump myself up for this and sit down in the seat while the Chinese nurses kept saying "please be calm". After deep breaths and serious closing of the eyes, it was over but not before I had to sit in the room another 10 minutes and listen while 3 more people got their blood taken. UGH! The snap of the rubber and taping of the vein almost made me puke! But I survived. Which I am so happy b/c I got to experience the rest of this lovely exam. I have to say this was probably the most normal of all the tests as it only got weirder from there.
Next was my doctor exam. Let me set the scene first. This hospital is what you would expect out of a 1950's Chinese Hospital, and it hasn't changed since. Pink cement walls, steel gurneys and blue curtains. Nice. The cute little old doctor told me to get on the bed (no sanitary changeable paper here) and started to feel for my heartbeat, etc. Normal enough right?? NO. He then pulled out a sonogram machine!!! Wha??? And started poking and prodding my ribs and stomach which happened to be quite sore from yesterday's yoga session! Why am I having a sonogram in China?? Why?
NEXT, was my ECG whatever the heck that is. I KID YOU NOT. They hooked up electrode CLAMPS to my right ankle and both wrists then stuck suction cups to my chest! Where am IIIIIII??? Please take a moment to picture this and don't forget the skimpy robe that I was wearing as well. The doctor finished after about 5 minutes and proceeded to tell me that everything was normal. No. I'm sorry honey. There is NOTHING normal about this.
When all was said and done I had x-rays, a sonogram, was hooked to electrodes, given an eye test, blood drawn, and a full body doctor exam all within 45 minutes. At least I can say it was efficient.
And so continues this odd but fabulous life I live in China.
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