New Year's Weekend and a Hospital Visit

For the New Year's weekend, I went to Harbin with a few of my colleagues. It was an awesome weekend; however, I did not sleep on the way to Harbin. We took an overnight train. I wanted to try China style so we slept on the hard sleepers. The beds were fine but it's 6 beds in one area and there is no door. I am a light sleeper so when someone is talking, snoring or walking by to use the washroom, I would wake up instantly. Also, the washroom was DISGUSTING. Someone threw up in the toilet and it wouldn't flush. Eww... Next time, I will buy tickets for the soft sleepers where there are 4 beds in a room. There is a door. The hotel we stayed at was nice and very close to everything. Thank goodness it was not too cold. We had to layer up but it was not as cold as previous years. I had the best Russian cabbage roll in Harbin. Some of the highlights were I stood and played on a frozen river, went to see the Siberian Tigers, celebrated New Year's with some of my colleagues, and went to the Ice Festival and slid down ice slides. Check out all the pictures on Facebook. 

I got very sick after I went to Harbin. I was coughing and hacking day and night. My students even told me to go home. Therefore, I took one day off and went to the hospital. Do NOT panic. I do not like going to hospitals but I needed some medication to help me sleep and stop the coughing. People in China goes to a hospital to see a doctor. They do not go to a doctor clinic. Thank goodness I have a MSH medical plan so I went straight up to the 5^th floor into the VIP room. If I didn't have that plan, I would have been totally lost. There were lines everywhere for paper and for scans and blood tests. I had to fill out some paper work and the nurse, Nancy, was very friendly. She spoke some English and helped me. The doctor's English was not very good. I do not know if he understood what I was saying. The only words that came out of him was “pain, breath deep (pronounced as breast deep), no, dating, period regular, hot?” I had a blood test right after. I did not have to wait and go another day. Everything is done instantly. Then I had a CT scan. There was a huge line up for the locals to get a form and a number. The nurse showed me where to go and helped me throughout the process. While I was waiting, I saw men smoking and spitting in the hospital. Hmmm.... I also saw a man wheeling his wife on a stretcher to go into the CT scan area and they had to line up. I wanted to get out of the hospital ASAP. I guess people can get everything done at once in a hospital. I found out my results on the same day and I had medications made at the hospital. Everything was so convenient. I hope I will not be returning to the hospital. I have an appointment to see a doctor in Hong Kong today.