Google Maps have been updated. Check out a map that I have created here.
I have marked where we live, our office and various other places that we have been too so that you get a feel for where we are located within Suzhou.
Suzhou is divided into 3 main areas - the SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) to the east (around Jinji Lake), the old town or "downtown" (within the moat area) and the SND (Suzhou New District) (to the west)). We probably spend most of our time in the SIP or downtown. We haven't really explored the SND much but we probably should more as I'm sure there is lots of awesome food to be eaten there!
edit: once you click on the link and are redirected to google maps - change the map to a satellite image to see my map properly otherwise the tags will end up in random places! Google's maps and satellite images aren't overlaid correctly so things will look a little skewed in the 'map' state.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Going to the doctor
Everyone here has told us that if you're sick, you go and see the doctor at the hospital! This in itself is strange to us because at home if we're sick, we'd go to see the doctor as a medical clinic. We only go to the hospital if we're really ill, require an operation or if it's at a strange hour of the night when urgent medical attention is needed. Here, the doctor most commonly prescribes an IV drip also. The thought of sitting around with a bunch of other people with an IV drip in my arm does really not appeal to me, whether it be for an hour or 8!
I have been sick with a cold ever since the day it snowed in Suzhou! I'm going to blame the snow because I can. Matt and I were so excited about it, I probably didn't realise how cold it actually was. Anyways, this cold has hung on and on and I developed a cough. I have gone to the chemist twice to get OTC drugs and drunk a whole bottle of cough medicine. I thought that I was getting better about a week ago and then this past week the sickness has hit me again and today it really hit me, so I decided to visit the doctor. We read somewhere that at Kowloon Hospital they have a foreigners clinic with English speaking doctors, which sounded good to us as the hospital is only a few blocks away. We rocked up today and had no idea where to go and people everywhere. I went to the reception desk to ask about the clinic and apparently it's closed on Sunday! Bummer!! She asked what was wrong and I said I had a cold so she sent me to the Respiratory department. I then had to go to the Cashier and pay 13 Yuan and got a book and a card and had to give the guy my name and birthday. He told me to go to level 2, so I did. We really had no idea what was going on. Level 2 looked a little like an airport with boarding gates. There are different 'departments' all with a nurse station / reception desk and a waiting area. We found the respiratory department and my name was on an electronic board. We went through to a doctors office where he quickly examined me (he could speak english, luckily!) and wanted me to undertake two days of IV treatment! errr GROSS! I asked if I could have tablets instead as I wasn't keen on the IV idea so he wrote out a prescription for 4 different tablets!!!!! I then went to the nurse station / reception desk thing again to pay and then downstairs to the pharmacy to collect my drugs and that was it. It all seemed rather easy once we had done it but it seems like a really strange way to see a doctor.
Apparently I have acute bronchitis and pharyngitis! Fun fun fun!! I have four different lots of tablets to take, some 3 x 3 times a day and others 2 x 3 times a day. Crazy!! At least I don't have to sit with an IV though. There were people sitting downstairs in the reception area with IV drips attached. I have also been informed that some places have rooms full of booths with seats where everyone is attached to an IV. Crazy! I guess an IV is instant but the idea seems wrong to me. So hopefully now that I have drugs, my illness will be gone!! It will feel so nice to not have to blow my nose all the time, to be able to sleep through the night without coughing and to not have random coughing attacks.
So if you're sick in China, going to the doctor really isn't as bad as it sounds. It might be daunting but once done, it's not so bad. I even have my own hospital card thing now so next time I go, they know who I am!
I have been sick with a cold ever since the day it snowed in Suzhou! I'm going to blame the snow because I can. Matt and I were so excited about it, I probably didn't realise how cold it actually was. Anyways, this cold has hung on and on and I developed a cough. I have gone to the chemist twice to get OTC drugs and drunk a whole bottle of cough medicine. I thought that I was getting better about a week ago and then this past week the sickness has hit me again and today it really hit me, so I decided to visit the doctor. We read somewhere that at Kowloon Hospital they have a foreigners clinic with English speaking doctors, which sounded good to us as the hospital is only a few blocks away. We rocked up today and had no idea where to go and people everywhere. I went to the reception desk to ask about the clinic and apparently it's closed on Sunday! Bummer!! She asked what was wrong and I said I had a cold so she sent me to the Respiratory department. I then had to go to the Cashier and pay 13 Yuan and got a book and a card and had to give the guy my name and birthday. He told me to go to level 2, so I did. We really had no idea what was going on. Level 2 looked a little like an airport with boarding gates. There are different 'departments' all with a nurse station / reception desk and a waiting area. We found the respiratory department and my name was on an electronic board. We went through to a doctors office where he quickly examined me (he could speak english, luckily!) and wanted me to undertake two days of IV treatment! errr GROSS! I asked if I could have tablets instead as I wasn't keen on the IV idea so he wrote out a prescription for 4 different tablets!!!!! I then went to the nurse station / reception desk thing again to pay and then downstairs to the pharmacy to collect my drugs and that was it. It all seemed rather easy once we had done it but it seems like a really strange way to see a doctor.
Apparently I have acute bronchitis and pharyngitis! Fun fun fun!! I have four different lots of tablets to take, some 3 x 3 times a day and others 2 x 3 times a day. Crazy!! At least I don't have to sit with an IV though. There were people sitting downstairs in the reception area with IV drips attached. I have also been informed that some places have rooms full of booths with seats where everyone is attached to an IV. Crazy! I guess an IV is instant but the idea seems wrong to me. So hopefully now that I have drugs, my illness will be gone!! It will feel so nice to not have to blow my nose all the time, to be able to sleep through the night without coughing and to not have random coughing attacks.
So if you're sick in China, going to the doctor really isn't as bad as it sounds. It might be daunting but once done, it's not so bad. I even have my own hospital card thing now so next time I go, they know who I am!
What was I going to say again?
I thought I had something that I wanted to write about here, but now I can't remember. It mustn't have been that important.
So, life in China goes on. I have been given a couple more classes at work. 2 x Grade 2 classes at a new school and the lessons are only 20 mins long! Kind of strange but it's easy. The school is nicer than others that we go to and the kids are smart and already know alot of english. I also had to do an Intro to Interchange class with girls from work this morning. Interchange is for older students who already have a pretty decent grasp on the language. Whilst I don't want to teach older kids in schools, doing Interchange classes at the centre could really be ok I think, as you can just talk to them in english and they mostly understand. Craig has announced that he is definitely leaving at the end of June so who knows what will happen then. I think they are getting us prepared to take over some of his classes when the need arises? I think that schools have holidays in July and August? I really don't know when, so I'm not sure when we'll get a new teacher or if or what will happen. We have been informed though that they want to take kids on a trip to Expo (hello!, i'll go!). At first it was just talk of a day trip or a 2 day trip. It's way too much for a day trip as we have to travel to Shanghai and well, it's China ... so going anywhere means battling large crowds, so expecting to see a lot of Expo in one day just doesn't compute in my mind. They are now talking about doing a week 'summer camp' in Shanghai. Sounds kind of awesome to me but details are only light on at the moment. Spending 24 / 7 with a bunch of kids will get VERY tiring, especially as kids are kids and just go wherever they want, whenever .. so they require an awful lot of chasing after, BUT getting to spend a week in Shanghai doing touristy stuff and going to Expo for FREE sounds appealing! I guess we'll find out more in the coming weeks.
We also supposedly get a long weekend the first weekend in May. Details for this are still sketchy too, as to if weekend classes will be canceled, or if we'll have another field trip or what days we will actually have off. This is frustrating as Matt and I really would love to go away for the long weekend and need to book buses and accommodation. We are planning on going to Hangzhou if possible, but Matt has been investigating and a lot of accommodation is already booked out for this weekend. I guess once again, only time will tell! But it's annoying as we don't get holidays, only 'holidays' and if we never get the chance to leave Suzhou I will get annoyed!
I've had an infatuation with Cantonese food a little since we've been here as there aren't alot of Cantonese restaurants and Cantonese food is more the kind of 'chinese' food that we get at home. The food here is really not the same though and never would be. They serve meat in dishes that still has bones in it and arggh. I find it a bit yuck. We had cantonese the other night and while it was nice, it was a bit bland and meh. I think I'm over my obsession with it. We had dinner in the SIP in an area that has alot of restaurants. After dinner we went for a walk towards the lake as I wanted to check out Rainbow Walk by night. As we passed an apartment complex, I nearly fell over do to a large bang. What else could it be but fireworks?! They were being let off right between two buildings and the sound was just reverberating. Too bad if you'd just put your baby to bed! I can't believe that people don't get in trouble for this kind of thing. Someone is seriously going to start a fire one day! We found Rainbow Walk. It's advertised as a shopping complex and a lot of restaurants there are advertised. We really only found restaurants and not the cheap kind either. They are mostly foreign food restaurants i guess, so that equates to ........ more expensive dinners. Some of the places looked ok though and we may go back one day. The rest of the place once again looks so new and barely finished and is kind of like a wasteland. We wonder how the restaurants and stuff can really make any money? Rainbow Walk is practically on the lake though and I think on a nice summer's day, hanging out by the lake would be pretty cool. There is a huge fountain thing in the lake, a public square, decks over the lake, and bikes for hire / paddle boats for hire on the lake. We also saw a couple of big boats on the lake. If you can do lake cruises I'd be up for that. I think it would be interesting and something new to do.
I started writing this the other day but kept falling asleep so didn't end up posting it and went to bed instead. Indeed, my old habits of falling asleep on the couch haven't left me even though i've traveled across the continents.
I caught a bus to go downtown the other day, specifically to go to Shiquan St. I decided to catch the 110 bus for a change, instead of the 47 which we would normally get. They both go in totally opposite directions and the 47 goes up Shiquan St, while the 110 only stops near the end of the street and I would have to walk. The 47 bus is always old and seems to stall every time the driver stops to pick someone up or let someone off, so i thought I'd go for an adventure on the 110 as we haven't caught the 110 in that direction since our first night here and the 110 is generally a nicer bus! Well ... we got to downtown and i really couldn't decide or remember which stop that I should get off at. We went past Soochow University (Suzhou University) and I thought that maybe I'd gone too far. I got off at the next stop and went to a market that i'd seen near the university inside a building. The market really was quite average. I kept walking up to near the university and couldn't decide if i should walk a bit further up to find Shiquan St or just to come home, so i decided just to come home! I got on the bus outside the university and so did heaps of other university students I guess! There were probably about 10 other girls on the bus who were taller than me and gorgeous! It's wierd getting the feeling of being short in China. At 174cm tall, I don't really get the felling of being short very often, even at home. I thought maybe they'd just to uni to study modeling .... hah!, but I know that is just silly.
xoxo
So, life in China goes on. I have been given a couple more classes at work. 2 x Grade 2 classes at a new school and the lessons are only 20 mins long! Kind of strange but it's easy. The school is nicer than others that we go to and the kids are smart and already know alot of english. I also had to do an Intro to Interchange class with girls from work this morning. Interchange is for older students who already have a pretty decent grasp on the language. Whilst I don't want to teach older kids in schools, doing Interchange classes at the centre could really be ok I think, as you can just talk to them in english and they mostly understand. Craig has announced that he is definitely leaving at the end of June so who knows what will happen then. I think they are getting us prepared to take over some of his classes when the need arises? I think that schools have holidays in July and August? I really don't know when, so I'm not sure when we'll get a new teacher or if or what will happen. We have been informed though that they want to take kids on a trip to Expo (hello!, i'll go!). At first it was just talk of a day trip or a 2 day trip. It's way too much for a day trip as we have to travel to Shanghai and well, it's China ... so going anywhere means battling large crowds, so expecting to see a lot of Expo in one day just doesn't compute in my mind. They are now talking about doing a week 'summer camp' in Shanghai. Sounds kind of awesome to me but details are only light on at the moment. Spending 24 / 7 with a bunch of kids will get VERY tiring, especially as kids are kids and just go wherever they want, whenever .. so they require an awful lot of chasing after, BUT getting to spend a week in Shanghai doing touristy stuff and going to Expo for FREE sounds appealing! I guess we'll find out more in the coming weeks.
We also supposedly get a long weekend the first weekend in May. Details for this are still sketchy too, as to if weekend classes will be canceled, or if we'll have another field trip or what days we will actually have off. This is frustrating as Matt and I really would love to go away for the long weekend and need to book buses and accommodation. We are planning on going to Hangzhou if possible, but Matt has been investigating and a lot of accommodation is already booked out for this weekend. I guess once again, only time will tell! But it's annoying as we don't get holidays, only 'holidays' and if we never get the chance to leave Suzhou I will get annoyed!
I've had an infatuation with Cantonese food a little since we've been here as there aren't alot of Cantonese restaurants and Cantonese food is more the kind of 'chinese' food that we get at home. The food here is really not the same though and never would be. They serve meat in dishes that still has bones in it and arggh. I find it a bit yuck. We had cantonese the other night and while it was nice, it was a bit bland and meh. I think I'm over my obsession with it. We had dinner in the SIP in an area that has alot of restaurants. After dinner we went for a walk towards the lake as I wanted to check out Rainbow Walk by night. As we passed an apartment complex, I nearly fell over do to a large bang. What else could it be but fireworks?! They were being let off right between two buildings and the sound was just reverberating. Too bad if you'd just put your baby to bed! I can't believe that people don't get in trouble for this kind of thing. Someone is seriously going to start a fire one day! We found Rainbow Walk. It's advertised as a shopping complex and a lot of restaurants there are advertised. We really only found restaurants and not the cheap kind either. They are mostly foreign food restaurants i guess, so that equates to ........ more expensive dinners. Some of the places looked ok though and we may go back one day. The rest of the place once again looks so new and barely finished and is kind of like a wasteland. We wonder how the restaurants and stuff can really make any money? Rainbow Walk is practically on the lake though and I think on a nice summer's day, hanging out by the lake would be pretty cool. There is a huge fountain thing in the lake, a public square, decks over the lake, and bikes for hire / paddle boats for hire on the lake. We also saw a couple of big boats on the lake. If you can do lake cruises I'd be up for that. I think it would be interesting and something new to do.
I started writing this the other day but kept falling asleep so didn't end up posting it and went to bed instead. Indeed, my old habits of falling asleep on the couch haven't left me even though i've traveled across the continents.
I caught a bus to go downtown the other day, specifically to go to Shiquan St. I decided to catch the 110 bus for a change, instead of the 47 which we would normally get. They both go in totally opposite directions and the 47 goes up Shiquan St, while the 110 only stops near the end of the street and I would have to walk. The 47 bus is always old and seems to stall every time the driver stops to pick someone up or let someone off, so i thought I'd go for an adventure on the 110 as we haven't caught the 110 in that direction since our first night here and the 110 is generally a nicer bus! Well ... we got to downtown and i really couldn't decide or remember which stop that I should get off at. We went past Soochow University (Suzhou University) and I thought that maybe I'd gone too far. I got off at the next stop and went to a market that i'd seen near the university inside a building. The market really was quite average. I kept walking up to near the university and couldn't decide if i should walk a bit further up to find Shiquan St or just to come home, so i decided just to come home! I got on the bus outside the university and so did heaps of other university students I guess! There were probably about 10 other girls on the bus who were taller than me and gorgeous! It's wierd getting the feeling of being short in China. At 174cm tall, I don't really get the felling of being short very often, even at home. I thought maybe they'd just to uni to study modeling .... hah!, but I know that is just silly.
xoxo
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Tomb Sweeping Day
Today is such a gorgeous Suzhou day! NOT! It's overcast and foggy outside, but at least it's a little warmer. I'm actually wearing a skirt! I tried riding my bike wearing a skirt this morning and it was an interesting exercise. Luckily I was wearing tights! I wonder how I will go once summer comes? They did predict snow again for next week (yeah I know, a total WHAT THE?), but in typical fashion, the weather report has changed again and now there is no longer snow but it's getting cooler again. Oh the joys!
So, in China they don't really celebrate Easter, but last Monday we did get a public holiday in the aid of Tomb Sweeping Day. From what I can gather, this day is a Buddhist day where they honour the spirits of their ancestors and clean their graves and honour their memories I guess. I don't know how much this tradition is really upheld anymore, but it was great for us to get a day off work. I loved finally getting two days off work in a row.
So, in China they don't really celebrate Easter, but last Monday we did get a public holiday in the aid of Tomb Sweeping Day. From what I can gather, this day is a Buddhist day where they honour the spirits of their ancestors and clean their graves and honour their memories I guess. I don't know how much this tradition is really upheld anymore, but it was great for us to get a day off work. I loved finally getting two days off work in a row.
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