Day 37 “You’ve got to be kidding me, you have no heat either?”
I am glad to see from your responses that I am not the only one interested in the potty humor. I can’t help myself, sorry! I totally agree Tobey you have to have a sense of humor to be a nurse. The grossest thing I can handle is the scum coming off of people’s teeth, but that’s fun! Come on all you hygienists out there, don’t you agree?! I know you do…there’s nothing more fun or gratifying than watching those chunks fly off people’s teeth. Okay, done with the gross humor. Can you tell I’m ready to go back to work?
We spent the day at Dino Beach. Dino Beach is a water park with slides and other water activities. The kids have been begging me to go since they first heard about it a couple of weeks back. We had plans to go last week, but when Riley burnt himself we put those plans on hold. We took Farah with us so she could keep an eye on Claire while I stayed with the boys. Overall, I would say it was an expensive disappointment. We couldn’t do any of the big slides because the boys had on the wrong kind of swim shorts. The boys and I waited in line for quite a while to do one of the big water slides. I went down first and waited and the bottom for a long time without them showing up. I asked the lifeguard at the bottom where my children might be and if she could communicate with the life guards at the top to help me figure it out? She told me to go back to the top and look for them because she had no way to talk to the top lifeguard. What? Haven’t they heard of walkie-talkies or phones? Just about when I started panicking Riley and Aiden came around the corner (they had no idea where I was either…so they were pretty worried too). They were denied access to the slide because their shorts had pockets in them. Neither of them had snaps, buttons, or Velcro or anything beyond a flap of fabric in the back, but they were apparently the wrong type of shorts. Until that moment I hadn’t really noticed that every other male in that park was wearing a more European style swimsuit. They all had on the skin tight, sleek, polyester style swim suits. You know the ones that leave nothing to the imagination? My boys were wearing boxer style swim trunks. We were all pretty unhappy about this because we paid a ton to get into this place and now we couldn’t do much. Also, the website that I had referenced before I left was seriously outdated in regards to price, so I didn’t bring nearly enough cash with us (and there were no ATM’s available like the in the US in these type of places). We really wanted to rent tubes and float down the river and ride the other rides, but because of my lack of cash we couldn’t do that either. We brought a ton of drinks with us, but we weren’t allowed to bring those in. I have heard that there is some fear about explosives so they are not allowing outside liquids into most establishments (probably related to the Olympics again…although I did hear that there were a couple of buses bombed in the central part of China a couple of days ago). We did find some rather fun water play areas to hang out in. They were designed for younger children, but we filled our time playing in these areas. There was a wave pool too. Which could have been a lot of fun, but all the inter tubes kept knocking us over and I was afraid some one was going to get hurt so we didn’t get to enjoy that as much as we really wanted to. Ugh! It could have been so much fun. I think if I had been able to read Chinese I might have read some of the rules and brought more money with us. I felt pretty ripped off and discouraged by the end of the day. We have been to water parks in Canada, Mexico and many in the United States and honestly this is the only one that I have been disappointed in.
We noticed that several men had large red/brownish circles on their backs. When Riley pointed out the first man I thought maybe he had some sort of skin condition that I had never heard of, but when we started noticing several men I realized it was probably self inflicted. I asked Farah about it and she said it was a form of Eastern medicine called Chinese cupping. Ah-ha, I’ve heard of that before…I read about some famous people doing that in a gossip magazine once. I looked it up on the internet. Here are some interesting pictures. Ouch! Apparently cupping is recommended for the treatment of pain, gastro-intestinal disorders, lung diseases (especially chronic cough and asthma…go figure with all the smoking around here that everybody doesn’t need this), and paralysis, though it can be used for other disorders as well. Now that I know what this is and I am aware of it; I have noticed a few women with these same marks on the upper back/shoulder area above their shirts. I can’t imagine doing this, it looks like it really hurts. Here is a picture from the internet.
Farah and I had lots of time to talk while she and I watched the kids play. I learned several interesting things about her life. She lives in a dorm with three other young women. Her dorm doesn’t have air conditioning or heat. It does get cold enough to snow around here during the winter. I was told it is often around 0-5 degrees Celsius through out the winter. I asked her how she stayed warm and she said they add warm water to bags to put around their hands. She said there are parts of town that there is no heat available and cant be without changing the structure of the town. I didn’t understand this; I guess I don’t understand how they heat the houses here. I asked her if she had considered buying a space heater. She didn’t know what it was; I told her I would send her a link in an email so she could check it out. She has electricity, but no space heater? She graduates this upcoming spring. She said she plans to move to a different area of the city; where she can get AC and heat. I also learned that the water in all of China is not potable. I thought that the water wasn’t safe for visitors to drink because of the difference between home and here, but the water isn’t safe for anyone to drink. This is a major city; one of the biggest in the world (maybe 5th or 6th if I remember correctly) and it doesn’t have safe water for its people? Wow! I just can’t imagine.
Another interesting observation….to swim here you have to buy a “health card”. We had to buy them from the front desk of our apartment before we used the swimming pool. I assumed that they would ask us some “health questions” before they handed it out to us. They didn’t ask us any health questions, but I assumed it was too hard for them to translate it into English so just had us sign it anyway. But now I don’t think that was the case at all. Farah had to buy one before we went into the water park and she not only didn’t have to answer any questions, but no one ever checked her card. What is the point? It seems to me this is one more way to control the people and collect money. The cards aren’t very expensive, but what is the point?
I am glad to see from your responses that I am not the only one interested in the potty humor. I can’t help myself, sorry! I totally agree Tobey you have to have a sense of humor to be a nurse. The grossest thing I can handle is the scum coming off of people’s teeth, but that’s fun! Come on all you hygienists out there, don’t you agree?! I know you do…there’s nothing more fun or gratifying than watching those chunks fly off people’s teeth. Okay, done with the gross humor. Can you tell I’m ready to go back to work?
We spent the day at Dino Beach. Dino Beach is a water park with slides and other water activities. The kids have been begging me to go since they first heard about it a couple of weeks back. We had plans to go last week, but when Riley burnt himself we put those plans on hold. We took Farah with us so she could keep an eye on Claire while I stayed with the boys. Overall, I would say it was an expensive disappointment. We couldn’t do any of the big slides because the boys had on the wrong kind of swim shorts. The boys and I waited in line for quite a while to do one of the big water slides. I went down first and waited and the bottom for a long time without them showing up. I asked the lifeguard at the bottom where my children might be and if she could communicate with the life guards at the top to help me figure it out? She told me to go back to the top and look for them because she had no way to talk to the top lifeguard. What? Haven’t they heard of walkie-talkies or phones? Just about when I started panicking Riley and Aiden came around the corner (they had no idea where I was either…so they were pretty worried too). They were denied access to the slide because their shorts had pockets in them. Neither of them had snaps, buttons, or Velcro or anything beyond a flap of fabric in the back, but they were apparently the wrong type of shorts. Until that moment I hadn’t really noticed that every other male in that park was wearing a more European style swimsuit. They all had on the skin tight, sleek, polyester style swim suits. You know the ones that leave nothing to the imagination? My boys were wearing boxer style swim trunks. We were all pretty unhappy about this because we paid a ton to get into this place and now we couldn’t do much. Also, the website that I had referenced before I left was seriously outdated in regards to price, so I didn’t bring nearly enough cash with us (and there were no ATM’s available like the in the US in these type of places). We really wanted to rent tubes and float down the river and ride the other rides, but because of my lack of cash we couldn’t do that either. We brought a ton of drinks with us, but we weren’t allowed to bring those in. I have heard that there is some fear about explosives so they are not allowing outside liquids into most establishments (probably related to the Olympics again…although I did hear that there were a couple of buses bombed in the central part of China a couple of days ago). We did find some rather fun water play areas to hang out in. They were designed for younger children, but we filled our time playing in these areas. There was a wave pool too. Which could have been a lot of fun, but all the inter tubes kept knocking us over and I was afraid some one was going to get hurt so we didn’t get to enjoy that as much as we really wanted to. Ugh! It could have been so much fun. I think if I had been able to read Chinese I might have read some of the rules and brought more money with us. I felt pretty ripped off and discouraged by the end of the day. We have been to water parks in Canada, Mexico and many in the United States and honestly this is the only one that I have been disappointed in.
We noticed that several men had large red/brownish circles on their backs. When Riley pointed out the first man I thought maybe he had some sort of skin condition that I had never heard of, but when we started noticing several men I realized it was probably self inflicted. I asked Farah about it and she said it was a form of Eastern medicine called Chinese cupping. Ah-ha, I’ve heard of that before…I read about some famous people doing that in a gossip magazine once. I looked it up on the internet. Here are some interesting pictures. Ouch! Apparently cupping is recommended for the treatment of pain, gastro-intestinal disorders, lung diseases (especially chronic cough and asthma…go figure with all the smoking around here that everybody doesn’t need this), and paralysis, though it can be used for other disorders as well. Now that I know what this is and I am aware of it; I have noticed a few women with these same marks on the upper back/shoulder area above their shirts. I can’t imagine doing this, it looks like it really hurts. Here is a picture from the internet.
Farah and I had lots of time to talk while she and I watched the kids play. I learned several interesting things about her life. She lives in a dorm with three other young women. Her dorm doesn’t have air conditioning or heat. It does get cold enough to snow around here during the winter. I was told it is often around 0-5 degrees Celsius through out the winter. I asked her how she stayed warm and she said they add warm water to bags to put around their hands. She said there are parts of town that there is no heat available and cant be without changing the structure of the town. I didn’t understand this; I guess I don’t understand how they heat the houses here. I asked her if she had considered buying a space heater. She didn’t know what it was; I told her I would send her a link in an email so she could check it out. She has electricity, but no space heater? She graduates this upcoming spring. She said she plans to move to a different area of the city; where she can get AC and heat. I also learned that the water in all of China is not potable. I thought that the water wasn’t safe for visitors to drink because of the difference between home and here, but the water isn’t safe for anyone to drink. This is a major city; one of the biggest in the world (maybe 5th or 6th if I remember correctly) and it doesn’t have safe water for its people? Wow! I just can’t imagine.
Another interesting observation….to swim here you have to buy a “health card”. We had to buy them from the front desk of our apartment before we used the swimming pool. I assumed that they would ask us some “health questions” before they handed it out to us. They didn’t ask us any health questions, but I assumed it was too hard for them to translate it into English so just had us sign it anyway. But now I don’t think that was the case at all. Farah had to buy one before we went into the water park and she not only didn’t have to answer any questions, but no one ever checked her card. What is the point? It seems to me this is one more way to control the people and collect money. The cards aren’t very expensive, but what is the point?
Sorry we didn't bring our camera today, so I have no other pictures.
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