Hangzhou Trip

Good news and bad news!
Good news is that apparently I am in good condition; I passed all my medical tests.
Bad news is that I will be homeward bound somewhere next week. Next Tuesday I should have all the paperwork so either on Tuesday or shortly thereafter I will be on my happy pills again flying to Amsterdam.
I must have done something really really bad either in this life somewhere or in some previous life; cause having to fly over 11 hours TWICE in about 3 or 4 days is punishment big time!
Yesterday itself was quite an experience. The train ride was nice. We were in the fancy part of the train: little compartments with 4 beds. An elderly couple had the lower beds; we were on the top bunks. I think we scared them quite a bit, me by falling off the bed while trying to climb on, Ben by kicking the poor dear lady in the head when he tried to climb up. Oh how difficult not to laugh out loud sometimes!
I didn’t get much sleep as it was quite warm in there and we had no clue if we would be woken up or if we had to keep track of all the announcements ourselves. Bit hard to do when all you understand is “blablablablabla-name of town-blablablabla”. Good to know for next time that they actually come in and shout you awake once you have arrived at your destination. Would have saved a lot of worry of ending up in Shanghai by mistake. Ah well, one lives to learn.
We got to Hangzhou around 5 am. As the clinic only opens at 8 we had loads of time to kill. Hangzhou is a very nice city; too bad we did not really have the chance of seeing much of it. We did explore around the area near the clinic. Everything starts very early in this part of China, partly because it is full daylight at 5am, partly because otherwise you won’t get anything done due to the immense heat during daytime. Especially walking around all the lil food places was hard, as we were not allowed to eat before the medical. Water can fill you up only so much and it tastes of nothing!
The clinic itself was quite busy, but we got all tests done just after 10. The tests were the usual hassle: give blood, pee in a cup, eye, ear, throat check-up, blood pressure etc. etc.. The interesting ones were the E.C.G. and a scan. For the E.C.G. they strapped you down to a table with these kind of clamps…I was half expecting them to electrocute me. Kinda James Bond-ish :) The scan was interesting cause the person doing it was going up and down across my liver/kidneys while talking on her mobile phone through it all. I guess she found what she was looking for, cause I got the all clear and a piece of tissue to get rid of the gel.
Now I don’t know where one of the doctors got her degree or what size she thinks babies are in Europe, but I really don’t see how it is medically possible to squeeze out a baby via a caesarean through a scar of about 8 centimetres. It did not help either that I had no idea what she was saying to me in Chinese, however pointing at the scar and repeating “baby baby baby” kinda brought the idea across. Luckily she recognised the word appendix. For the ones coming to visit me and still having their appendices…. not to worry if you get appendicitis here! I now know the Chinese word for appendix, so we can tell the doctors :)
The rest of the day we spent running around the general area of the clinic, drowning our sorrows and tiredness in Starbucks (more for the air-conditioning than for the coffee). We also went across town to two bus stations to get our tickets for the return journey home. Hangzhou is very very sprawled out, so we got to see the city in its full glory taxiing from the East Bus Station to the South Bus Station. Our medical results were ready at 3; we dropped off our papers to the school branch in Hangzhou and went to catch our bus. Handy tip for every traveller…. CHECK THE TIME ON YOUR TICKETS! Repeating 6 times that we wanted our tickets for the 5:30 bus and showing them the time in writing apparently did not help much; when we tried to board, we noticed they had given us tickets for the 1:30 bus, which by then we had missed for 5 hours. They were very nice about it though and let us on the bus anyways. Methinks the driver really badly wanted to go home as he completed the journey in 4 hours instead of the 5 it was supposed to take.
The scenery on the road to Wenzhou is absolutely beautiful: mountains, fields, and little towns. Weird building styles though, everything from big square shed like houses to something colourful that looks like a castle from a fairy tale. I want one of those! :)
We got back to Wenzhou around 10. For me it was lovely: I could go to bed and rest; poor Ben had to go home, pack and be at the airport for 5:30 the next morning for his flights to Shanghai & LA. The poor guy must be absolutely dying by now! Hope all goes well for him with his papers.
When he’s back it is my turn, really not looking forward to all that, but eh, it is a free ”holiday” at home for a few days.
That’s it for now, more on the visa trip when I have some details.