Ouch, bad pun in my title (you'll see), but not as ouch as Lusya, Tanya's kitten (cat?) who followed some meat out of a window which happened to be on the 5th floor of a building and ended up on the pavement below. Two trips to vets later and Lusya's been X-rayed a number of times (the first lot done by incompetents who didnt see any break, and the second by an apparently much better vet who managed to show a distinct fracture), and had her hip put back together with metal plates, yay for surgery! She's doing okay now, despite some interesting wound management (they didn't fully close up, instead she's had a swab sewn in - what? I thought that just HELPED infection? it has something to do with fluid buildup I'm not sure - and Marta's been giving her injections three times a day, until last night, because today she goes back to the vet and they'll examine her / hopefully close her up properly for a few months until they need to remove the metalwork) - but she's chirpy enough and doesnt seem at all bothered by the whole healing process, apparently feeling no pain in the op site, but with no apparent nerve damage either (she can definitely feel tweezers pulling at the fur around her foot!) - kittens' pain self-management must be awesome.
There is one funny side of this - she sometimes has to wear a protective collar to stop her licking at her wound, and the Chinese for this collar is an "Elizabeth", a direct reference to the ruffs worn in "olde England", which we all thought was really quite amusing.
Oh wait, not as amusing as this (not cat related, and I got her permission before posting) - Marta lost her phone. Hmm, that doesnt surprise me anymore, but HOW did she lose it? "In the toilet at the uni". I could see where this was going before she even finished the story. See, they don't do seated things here, they have squatters. And poor Marta left her phone in the back pocket of her jeans (big mistake anyway, thieves love that), so while she was taking her trousers off, the phone slipped out and fell into the ceramic basin, slid down it and plooooop! Right into the vertical hole, where everything else goes. Nice one, Marta!
No way to get it back (and would you want to, even if you COULD?), but at least is gives a classic Tale of Urumqi for my blog :)
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Bureaucrapcy
Not a spelling error there, sorry, just a rubbish pun. Honestly, the amount of stuff that needs signing and photocopying to get anywhere in China is ridiculous. I bet they lose half the stuff we give them anyway, and why nothing is done electronically is beyond me. In order to register for a temporary residence permit we have to do the following:
1. Get forms from XNU
2. Make sure we make 4 photocopies of all the documents
3. Fill them out and take them back to the International Office for the school stamp
4. Take them to the Police along with copies of our landlady’s ID and rent contract
5. Don’t forget passport photos!
6. Obtain a residency permit from the local police station
7. Take it back to the University
8. Have it signed and stamped, and take it to the main Police office in the city
9. Here, they will issue us with actual residency permits (not sure, don’t ask) and include a stamp in our passports.
So, why can’t we just go straight to the main Police office? And why did we only get told about these other forms (specific to the University, regarding living off campus) after we had been to the Police station with our landlady’s ID and rent contract? And why is there no one to help us fill in one of the forms which is completely in Chinese? This is madness. The local Police office pretty much just waves us past the gate security now, we’ve been back so many times (and still have to go back again). I have about 15 days left before I am considered an illegal resident in China. I have no desire for this to occur, let’s hope some people pull their fingers out for us and get us these residency permits. I bet they don’t allow entry to China though, so if I want to travel internationally I will need to get another visa from someplace – or just not travel internationally. I hate the Olympics and all the heightened security measures that surround them.
On another note, I have finally completed my medical examinations and been registered for classes even though I’ve not yet received my student ID. The medical exams were not great but not the end of the world either – we had to fast for about 12 hours beforehand (and people that know me know I can pass out when I’m having my blood taken even on a full stomach), and in the morning we had to spend some time at the uni taking some language tests for class placements … I didn’t do as well as I wanted on those tests, but I didn’t do so badly either. I’ve been put in an intermediate class, and I know at least one other member of the group, there are only going to be about 15 of us total, I hope the others are good students or I will have to do more complaining (both here and formally!) … The medical exams were simple though – a blood test (a quick confirmation of blood type and then a sample or two to be sent to a lab for overnight testing, things like, white / red blood cell counts, HIV, Syphilis, Plague, and so on), a urine test (blood sugars and so on), X-ray (mobile not static, they sort of move the X-ray box around and it scans you in real time), 12 SL ECG, blood pressure, heart rate, vision, and an abdominal / lower chest ultrasound. Apparently I have type O blood – this I did not know. Now it’s possible, but mum always seemed sure I had type B. And Marta’s blood also showed up as O, but she is sure she has type A … whether the Chinese test was botched or not, we don’t know … but at any rate, at least O can be given to anyone, so if we have to receive maybe it’s just easiest! The X-ray was interesting, the doctor refused to sign off my sheet fully until he had seen my ECG report (which came back with the notes, “sinus bradycardia with sinus arrhythmia”, which they ummed and ahhed over for a minute or so, made a note on the paper, and then he signed me off as “healthy”) – really great for my confidence, eh. Blood pressure was stupidly low on the first reading (94 / 48) and not much higher on the second (103 / 58) but that’s hardly surprising given that I usually have it quite low, and that I’d not been eating for ages. The tests lasted about half an hour, and we paid RMB 283 (about £22.50) for them all, came back the next day and collected our health examination booklets which have our photo and all the results printed on the inside – they look like little passports, and have to be taken with us if we go travelling, inside or outside China I am told. At least we got all the results quickly – next-day service in the UK? I don’t think so, you’d have to wait a week. But it would be free I suppose. Swings and roundabouts really.
Back to my classes, I’m not sure what all of them comprise – I couldn’t translate all the Chinese – but I know I have quite a few! First class runs from 0930 – 1130, second from 1140 – 1330 and third class from 1600 – 1750, all Beijing times. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I have all three classes (oh fun), Wednesdays and Fridays I finish at 1330 (woop) … altogether I think I have something like 24.5 hours a week, much much more than I am used to in the UK! Although all the classes are in Chinese (as far as I know), I think four of them are not language classes per se – two are in Chinese culture, and two are for the HSK – a sort of exam to show what level of Chinese you have, internationally recognised (I think) … oh and one, I think is homework session, it’s the only one Marta and I share.
1. Get forms from XNU
2. Make sure we make 4 photocopies of all the documents
3. Fill them out and take them back to the International Office for the school stamp
4. Take them to the Police along with copies of our landlady’s ID and rent contract
5. Don’t forget passport photos!
6. Obtain a residency permit from the local police station
7. Take it back to the University
8. Have it signed and stamped, and take it to the main Police office in the city
9. Here, they will issue us with actual residency permits (not sure, don’t ask) and include a stamp in our passports.
So, why can’t we just go straight to the main Police office? And why did we only get told about these other forms (specific to the University, regarding living off campus) after we had been to the Police station with our landlady’s ID and rent contract? And why is there no one to help us fill in one of the forms which is completely in Chinese? This is madness. The local Police office pretty much just waves us past the gate security now, we’ve been back so many times (and still have to go back again). I have about 15 days left before I am considered an illegal resident in China. I have no desire for this to occur, let’s hope some people pull their fingers out for us and get us these residency permits. I bet they don’t allow entry to China though, so if I want to travel internationally I will need to get another visa from someplace – or just not travel internationally. I hate the Olympics and all the heightened security measures that surround them.
On another note, I have finally completed my medical examinations and been registered for classes even though I’ve not yet received my student ID. The medical exams were not great but not the end of the world either – we had to fast for about 12 hours beforehand (and people that know me know I can pass out when I’m having my blood taken even on a full stomach), and in the morning we had to spend some time at the uni taking some language tests for class placements … I didn’t do as well as I wanted on those tests, but I didn’t do so badly either. I’ve been put in an intermediate class, and I know at least one other member of the group, there are only going to be about 15 of us total, I hope the others are good students or I will have to do more complaining (both here and formally!) … The medical exams were simple though – a blood test (a quick confirmation of blood type and then a sample or two to be sent to a lab for overnight testing, things like, white / red blood cell counts, HIV, Syphilis, Plague, and so on), a urine test (blood sugars and so on), X-ray (mobile not static, they sort of move the X-ray box around and it scans you in real time), 12 SL ECG, blood pressure, heart rate, vision, and an abdominal / lower chest ultrasound. Apparently I have type O blood – this I did not know. Now it’s possible, but mum always seemed sure I had type B. And Marta’s blood also showed up as O, but she is sure she has type A … whether the Chinese test was botched or not, we don’t know … but at any rate, at least O can be given to anyone, so if we have to receive maybe it’s just easiest! The X-ray was interesting, the doctor refused to sign off my sheet fully until he had seen my ECG report (which came back with the notes, “sinus bradycardia with sinus arrhythmia”, which they ummed and ahhed over for a minute or so, made a note on the paper, and then he signed me off as “healthy”) – really great for my confidence, eh. Blood pressure was stupidly low on the first reading (94 / 48) and not much higher on the second (103 / 58) but that’s hardly surprising given that I usually have it quite low, and that I’d not been eating for ages. The tests lasted about half an hour, and we paid RMB 283 (about £22.50) for them all, came back the next day and collected our health examination booklets which have our photo and all the results printed on the inside – they look like little passports, and have to be taken with us if we go travelling, inside or outside China I am told. At least we got all the results quickly – next-day service in the UK? I don’t think so, you’d have to wait a week. But it would be free I suppose. Swings and roundabouts really.
Back to my classes, I’m not sure what all of them comprise – I couldn’t translate all the Chinese – but I know I have quite a few! First class runs from 0930 – 1130, second from 1140 – 1330 and third class from 1600 – 1750, all Beijing times. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I have all three classes (oh fun), Wednesdays and Fridays I finish at 1330 (woop) … altogether I think I have something like 24.5 hours a week, much much more than I am used to in the UK! Although all the classes are in Chinese (as far as I know), I think four of them are not language classes per se – two are in Chinese culture, and two are for the HSK – a sort of exam to show what level of Chinese you have, internationally recognised (I think) … oh and one, I think is homework session, it’s the only one Marta and I share.
Chocolate Kettles
A very long entry, in which I lose the will to live. Also, if you are offended by rude language, don't read. The frustration is at points tangible.
Marta and I have just had an awful couple of days – today was probably the worst, because it was just an extension of the uncertainty of the last so long. The vast majority of people here are so unbelievably unhelpful, and when things are getting done, they take about ten times what they ought to … a few examples from the very recent past.
* SETTING UP A BANK ACCOUNT – you would think this was a relatively simple task, no? On Friday, Marta and I went with Zohra to the Bank of China to set up some local accounts. The first difficulty was finding the branch, because it had moved, without notice or leaving directions, to a temporary location about a mile away while its ordinary premises were being redecorated. The temperature, even early in the morning, was high, and neither Marta nor I had had enough water or breakfast – fortunately we were able to pick these up on the way. Having found the branch, we had a meeting with a man who appeared to be the bank manager (and also the security guard, who seemed to know as much about banking as all the clerks there, really it was weird), and it eventually transpired that we couldn’t open accounts today, even with Zohra being there to translate and all, no, we had to come back on Monday. Seriously. They have a day for people to open bank accounts, this is just odd (not to mention inconvenient). So, okay let’s come back on Monday.
Well, we went back on Monday, and oh my, I’m glad we budgeted some time for it – setting up Marta’s account (she wants one which can have USD put into it, but take RMB out, so her parents can send her money, because she’s lost her Polish bank card, which was her only source of money for a year – that in itself is stupidity) … it took at least 20 minutes before we were seen, despite being there bang on 10 as requested, and then a further 40 minutes (minimum) to even get to a stage approaching the opening of a bank account. Finally she was done, and luckily my account (a simple RMB-only job) took only a few minutes to get sorted.
The whole process took 90 minutes, to set up two accounts. What a joke. Even worse, tonight the bank phoned Marta and said they had forgotten to take back one of the (many) slips of paper that they had given her in the account-opening palaver, and could she please come in tomorrow to give it back? Yes, the afternoon is okay. Christ.
* REGISTERING WITH THE UNIVERSITY – so, you’re an exchange student, you’ve just travelled thousands of miles to be at your new institution, and you know damn well that the students who have gone to your place of study will be well-received, looked after, guided through all the formalities, etc etc. You expect the same in return? Well, don’t. Not if you come to XNU anyway. The entire affair so far has been nothing short of shambolic. If we didn’t have Zohra we would be absolutely lost. Anniwar was so vague last week, “oh you will come back on Monday to register for classes, have your medical examination, and so on, your college will take care of you”. Today we went back to ask some basic questions, like if a printer was available (Marta forgot to print off a couple of important documents, so we wanted to hook my computer up to a printer and get them sent off as soon as possible) – the answer was that our college would take care of it, for sure.
US: Oh and where IS our college???
HIM: It’s on the 4th floor of this building, you didn’t know this?
US: No we did not know this, we don’t know anything here.
HIM: Didn’t you talk to last year’s students?
US: No, barely, and not about this. (We expect this to be the kind of information that is provided when we arrive not passed on like some kind of chain letter!)
So, down to the fourth floor we go. There’s a room with a load of international-looking people inside, it seems to be the place to wait for some kind of registration … but we need to sit down, it’s been boiling outside again, and we’re virtually passing out. As we take a seat, maybe it looked like we were queue-jumping, because the bloke in the desk opposite got uppity, but we explained we were just sitting. Then we got chatting to a Japanese student, who had some English as well, and while this was going on some woman came over and asked if we wanted to pay the tuition fee. WHAT FUCKING TUITION FEE? We are EXCHANGE students. We tried to get this across to her, but she didn’t understand and then the main man in charge of the office, some fat bastard, told us to go to the 8th floor. “But we just came from there!”, we protested, but he jabbered off in Chinese at us, and then said “Hao?” (OK?) to which I said no, not OK and he just said “Good, not okay, go upstairs”, and basically shoved us out of the office, in front of everyone. Both Marta and I felt treated like shit, and totally confused about the whole situation. The Japanese girl has arranged to come back in the morning for some kind of language test, and maybe we will be there for it too (or maybe just to REGISTER, would be nice) … now, onto the medical exam.
* MEDICAL EXAMINATION – the university requires us to have something like a urine test, blood test, X-ray (possibly) and ECG, presumably to make sure we aren’t diabetic, HIV-positive, carrying TB, or about to drop dead from heart failure (I hope they check blood pressure too, because by now mine is absolutely through the roof). They require it. You would expect them to a) set it up for incoming students, b) have the facilities close to hand, c) give out information on where these facilities are located, d) all the above. Apparently (a) has been done, but without (b), (c) and (d), that’s quite useless. By hook and by crook, and through our multi-national foreign friends (both teachers and students, all of whom are being fucked around as much as we are) we discover that the medical centre is at a different location (someone wrote the address so we can use a taxi), and yes they require all the above tests, and it’s a good thing we didn’t have them done in the UK because they don’t recognise foreign lab results (or not without a fuss, anyway), oh and you can’t eat on the morning of your tests, they have to be “clean”, which makes me think they are testing sugars. The centre is only open for foreigners’ testing on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, which means we have missed the boat for today, what with having eaten and all. Still, this gives us time to get the required passport photos, photocopies of our passports and visas, and medical examination fee together, as well as some food for immediately after the testing, because seriously, not eating and then going out in the heat they have here, and then having blood taken after 10 in the morning (plus a long wait if I know the Chinese system by now) is a little more than stupid. I will pass out, simple as.
It is unbelievable, and unacceptable, that a host institution does not have available someone (or some people, plural) to guide visiting students through their registration and help them set up in the university. The people who are available as standard are rubbish – it is only by chance that we have Zohra, who is patient and goes out of her way to help us. Without her, I don’t know what we would have done – packed up and left by now, I am almost certain.
* PRINTING – we need to buy a memory stick, transfer the files, and print them off someplace else, nowhere and no one here at the university seems to have a printer. Marta if you are reading this, you could have avoided this problem by just turning up to one of the year abroad meetings and / or paying attention to everything I told you about the process.
* HOUSE REGISTRATION – you want to live somewhere in China, you have to register with the local police. Local is the key word there. You’d think any old police station could register you but no, it has to be the one nearest you. Why they couldn’t tell us this before, I don’t know … so we spent ages this afternoon hanging around waiting for the police office on campus to reopen (they have some kind of afternoon break, from about local time 1200 til 1400, which is Beijing time 1400 til 1600, and most annoying really. They opened and it then took a further half hour to establish some kind of contact and then for them to tell us (via Zohra, on the phone) that we need to go to the police office nearest our house, now we are living in a different part of town … add to this the extremely lazy and unprofessional look of almost all the police stations I have seen here, and the picture is not a pretty one. Virtually everyone we are dealing with in this country is unhelpful, and worse, they can’t see they are being anything other than normal.
* MAIL – if people send us post, apparently the way we get it is someone comes round and rings our doorbell (no mail slots or anything), and then rings our telephone number (I will include them on the mail printouts when I get round to posting that) if we are not in (which we may not be, given that we have classes and hopefully some kind of social life developing) … so this is just one more crazy annoying thing that we have to contend with, living here. I hope nothing goes missing, maybe people can just send us postcards or letters, nothing too special to begin with, so we know the system works.
* CHINA MOBILE – I bought my SIM the other day from a China Mobile store, and they said come to a CM store in September to add on Caller ID Display function, an extra Y5 a month … it didn’t occur to me that that was only 40p and I should have asked for it there and then, but anyway, I went to a CM store today and I wasn’t able to understand a word they said to me, except the gist of it which was they couldn’t / wouldn’t / weren’t going to do it for me. Infuriated, I left.
* SHOPPING – we went shopping today, for other household goods. Slowly but surely we are turning this flat into something resembling some kind of Western home. If we could sort out the fridge (there appear to be a load of insecty-type things that live inside it, if we can’t clear them out or put poison down for them, I think we might just ask the landlady to buy us a new fridge, it would be better for the apartment anyway). I digress, we went to a department store because of the many things we still ought to have for basic living, a mattress for my bed is definitely high on the list. Currently I am sleeping on one side of Marta’s double bed because the mattress in her room is at least remotely comfortable (once you fold your duvet in half and lie on top of that) … Mine is a thin padding that covers my bed, which is a couple of boxes put crudely together in some kind of DIY fashion – honestly, it’s crap. And why my room, so small, needs a double bed which takes up most of the living space, I do not know. Point is, we went shopping, and got a mattress, and a pillow, and we then had to pay for these items immediately. But surely you check out with ALL your goods and pay at the main till? No, not here. So then we spent another 30 minutes in the store looking at other things while wheeling around these two products that we had just bought … incroyable. For the record, the “mattress” I now have really isn’t so great either, it’s some kind of thin thing again, but because it’s just me on the bed I am going to use half the bed for books and general storage, and the other half (nearer the door) for sleeping on, so I can fold this “mattress” in two and then wrap up in my duvet as well, to pad myself somewhat. It’s crazy.
* OLYMPICS – “Wow, you’re going to China in 2008? Aren’t you excited? Are you going to Beijing? Do you think you will see the Olympics?” … a number of people have asked me these questions a number of times. The answers are “Yes”, “No”, “Hell no”, and “Again, no” … Beijing is not a pretty city. At least it wasn’t when I went there for a week in 2006. The only nice bit was when I got out of the city and went to the Great Wall for a day, that was amazing and I would definitely go again (Lucy?) … Beijing being busy with Olympic fever just makes it an even less exciting prospect as far as I am concerned; it’s most of the reason I chose to fly to Shanghai in the first place. Visas were supposedly harder to get hold of and prices rose, flights became hard to find, and now even at the university things are put on hold while we wait for students to make their way back to XNU having been in Beijing – but of course no one tells us this until today, while we are stressing that our classes have begun and we don’t know where they are. Also, if term starts in another week, that could have been a week that I spent in England. I am not pleased.
* POSTAL SERVICE – I want to send a present to Lucy. I want to put a letter inside this present, the two must travel together, that’s how it works. So I go to the post office and try to get a box for the present. Yes I can have a box, says the idiot behind the counter. But we won’t send that. Why not? Because it might break. I’m sorry but since when has a post office made the decision not to send something in case it breaks? That’s the sender’s risk. And also, I would PAD IT OUT, I am not stupid. But no, “We can send the letter. But not that” … I cannot believe this country. Or maybe it is just this postal branch, I will try a different one and see what they say ☹ Sorry Lucy, no letter or present just yet, I’ve been stupidly busy getting frustrated with all the other rubbish that is going on here.
* REGRETS – do I have any? Oh yes. Not having even LOOKED AT the other apartment we were offered, because it was out of our price range (though realistically speaking it wasn’t, we just didn’t want to spend that much, but maybe we should have since it came furnished and was apparently very nice to live in last year). So if I could go back and do this all again, I would at least LOOK at the other place. On the plus side, living here is not SO bad, and I do like the grounds of the complex we are in, and everyone here is Chinese so there’s no chance we can speak English with the neighbours, and I am sure at some point (maybe when we have some classmates, a routine, a house that works somewhat normally, and some more contact with our Western friends who are having as much trouble as we are and who exert some kind of calming normality influence on me, I will stop getting stressed about everything. Right now, however, I just wish that I was at home, and that I had never bothered learning Chinese or coming here. Really.
Mum and Dad, if you’re reading this, yes I am actually that frustrated and depressed, and I’m sorry I haven’t phoned or texted but texts cost 49p each (from my O2 card, the Chinese one won’t send to the UK and if it does I don’t know how much it costs), so I have just been texting Lucy. We are due to have the internet installed tomorrow evening, so hopefully I will be able to get online regularly then and you can Skype me or I can call you, whatever. I miss almost everything back home, and you know I don’t get homesick easily (ever?) – all the events of the last few days have just made me want to pack up and go. I guess I will stick it out, at least a couple of months, see if things improve. It doesn’t help that Marta and I made this choice on a flat, but by local standards it is definitely (more than) good. I think that just makes it worse.
[EDIT – Today, Tuesday, I am much less stressed. See more recent entries]
Marta and I have just had an awful couple of days – today was probably the worst, because it was just an extension of the uncertainty of the last so long. The vast majority of people here are so unbelievably unhelpful, and when things are getting done, they take about ten times what they ought to … a few examples from the very recent past.
* SETTING UP A BANK ACCOUNT – you would think this was a relatively simple task, no? On Friday, Marta and I went with Zohra to the Bank of China to set up some local accounts. The first difficulty was finding the branch, because it had moved, without notice or leaving directions, to a temporary location about a mile away while its ordinary premises were being redecorated. The temperature, even early in the morning, was high, and neither Marta nor I had had enough water or breakfast – fortunately we were able to pick these up on the way. Having found the branch, we had a meeting with a man who appeared to be the bank manager (and also the security guard, who seemed to know as much about banking as all the clerks there, really it was weird), and it eventually transpired that we couldn’t open accounts today, even with Zohra being there to translate and all, no, we had to come back on Monday. Seriously. They have a day for people to open bank accounts, this is just odd (not to mention inconvenient). So, okay let’s come back on Monday.
Well, we went back on Monday, and oh my, I’m glad we budgeted some time for it – setting up Marta’s account (she wants one which can have USD put into it, but take RMB out, so her parents can send her money, because she’s lost her Polish bank card, which was her only source of money for a year – that in itself is stupidity) … it took at least 20 minutes before we were seen, despite being there bang on 10 as requested, and then a further 40 minutes (minimum) to even get to a stage approaching the opening of a bank account. Finally she was done, and luckily my account (a simple RMB-only job) took only a few minutes to get sorted.
The whole process took 90 minutes, to set up two accounts. What a joke. Even worse, tonight the bank phoned Marta and said they had forgotten to take back one of the (many) slips of paper that they had given her in the account-opening palaver, and could she please come in tomorrow to give it back? Yes, the afternoon is okay. Christ.
* REGISTERING WITH THE UNIVERSITY – so, you’re an exchange student, you’ve just travelled thousands of miles to be at your new institution, and you know damn well that the students who have gone to your place of study will be well-received, looked after, guided through all the formalities, etc etc. You expect the same in return? Well, don’t. Not if you come to XNU anyway. The entire affair so far has been nothing short of shambolic. If we didn’t have Zohra we would be absolutely lost. Anniwar was so vague last week, “oh you will come back on Monday to register for classes, have your medical examination, and so on, your college will take care of you”. Today we went back to ask some basic questions, like if a printer was available (Marta forgot to print off a couple of important documents, so we wanted to hook my computer up to a printer and get them sent off as soon as possible) – the answer was that our college would take care of it, for sure.
US: Oh and where IS our college???
HIM: It’s on the 4th floor of this building, you didn’t know this?
US: No we did not know this, we don’t know anything here.
HIM: Didn’t you talk to last year’s students?
US: No, barely, and not about this. (We expect this to be the kind of information that is provided when we arrive not passed on like some kind of chain letter!)
So, down to the fourth floor we go. There’s a room with a load of international-looking people inside, it seems to be the place to wait for some kind of registration … but we need to sit down, it’s been boiling outside again, and we’re virtually passing out. As we take a seat, maybe it looked like we were queue-jumping, because the bloke in the desk opposite got uppity, but we explained we were just sitting. Then we got chatting to a Japanese student, who had some English as well, and while this was going on some woman came over and asked if we wanted to pay the tuition fee. WHAT FUCKING TUITION FEE? We are EXCHANGE students. We tried to get this across to her, but she didn’t understand and then the main man in charge of the office, some fat bastard, told us to go to the 8th floor. “But we just came from there!”, we protested, but he jabbered off in Chinese at us, and then said “Hao?” (OK?) to which I said no, not OK and he just said “Good, not okay, go upstairs”, and basically shoved us out of the office, in front of everyone. Both Marta and I felt treated like shit, and totally confused about the whole situation. The Japanese girl has arranged to come back in the morning for some kind of language test, and maybe we will be there for it too (or maybe just to REGISTER, would be nice) … now, onto the medical exam.
* MEDICAL EXAMINATION – the university requires us to have something like a urine test, blood test, X-ray (possibly) and ECG, presumably to make sure we aren’t diabetic, HIV-positive, carrying TB, or about to drop dead from heart failure (I hope they check blood pressure too, because by now mine is absolutely through the roof). They require it. You would expect them to a) set it up for incoming students, b) have the facilities close to hand, c) give out information on where these facilities are located, d) all the above. Apparently (a) has been done, but without (b), (c) and (d), that’s quite useless. By hook and by crook, and through our multi-national foreign friends (both teachers and students, all of whom are being fucked around as much as we are) we discover that the medical centre is at a different location (someone wrote the address so we can use a taxi), and yes they require all the above tests, and it’s a good thing we didn’t have them done in the UK because they don’t recognise foreign lab results (or not without a fuss, anyway), oh and you can’t eat on the morning of your tests, they have to be “clean”, which makes me think they are testing sugars. The centre is only open for foreigners’ testing on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, which means we have missed the boat for today, what with having eaten and all. Still, this gives us time to get the required passport photos, photocopies of our passports and visas, and medical examination fee together, as well as some food for immediately after the testing, because seriously, not eating and then going out in the heat they have here, and then having blood taken after 10 in the morning (plus a long wait if I know the Chinese system by now) is a little more than stupid. I will pass out, simple as.
It is unbelievable, and unacceptable, that a host institution does not have available someone (or some people, plural) to guide visiting students through their registration and help them set up in the university. The people who are available as standard are rubbish – it is only by chance that we have Zohra, who is patient and goes out of her way to help us. Without her, I don’t know what we would have done – packed up and left by now, I am almost certain.
* PRINTING – we need to buy a memory stick, transfer the files, and print them off someplace else, nowhere and no one here at the university seems to have a printer. Marta if you are reading this, you could have avoided this problem by just turning up to one of the year abroad meetings and / or paying attention to everything I told you about the process.
* HOUSE REGISTRATION – you want to live somewhere in China, you have to register with the local police. Local is the key word there. You’d think any old police station could register you but no, it has to be the one nearest you. Why they couldn’t tell us this before, I don’t know … so we spent ages this afternoon hanging around waiting for the police office on campus to reopen (they have some kind of afternoon break, from about local time 1200 til 1400, which is Beijing time 1400 til 1600, and most annoying really. They opened and it then took a further half hour to establish some kind of contact and then for them to tell us (via Zohra, on the phone) that we need to go to the police office nearest our house, now we are living in a different part of town … add to this the extremely lazy and unprofessional look of almost all the police stations I have seen here, and the picture is not a pretty one. Virtually everyone we are dealing with in this country is unhelpful, and worse, they can’t see they are being anything other than normal.
* MAIL – if people send us post, apparently the way we get it is someone comes round and rings our doorbell (no mail slots or anything), and then rings our telephone number (I will include them on the mail printouts when I get round to posting that) if we are not in (which we may not be, given that we have classes and hopefully some kind of social life developing) … so this is just one more crazy annoying thing that we have to contend with, living here. I hope nothing goes missing, maybe people can just send us postcards or letters, nothing too special to begin with, so we know the system works.
* CHINA MOBILE – I bought my SIM the other day from a China Mobile store, and they said come to a CM store in September to add on Caller ID Display function, an extra Y5 a month … it didn’t occur to me that that was only 40p and I should have asked for it there and then, but anyway, I went to a CM store today and I wasn’t able to understand a word they said to me, except the gist of it which was they couldn’t / wouldn’t / weren’t going to do it for me. Infuriated, I left.
* SHOPPING – we went shopping today, for other household goods. Slowly but surely we are turning this flat into something resembling some kind of Western home. If we could sort out the fridge (there appear to be a load of insecty-type things that live inside it, if we can’t clear them out or put poison down for them, I think we might just ask the landlady to buy us a new fridge, it would be better for the apartment anyway). I digress, we went to a department store because of the many things we still ought to have for basic living, a mattress for my bed is definitely high on the list. Currently I am sleeping on one side of Marta’s double bed because the mattress in her room is at least remotely comfortable (once you fold your duvet in half and lie on top of that) … Mine is a thin padding that covers my bed, which is a couple of boxes put crudely together in some kind of DIY fashion – honestly, it’s crap. And why my room, so small, needs a double bed which takes up most of the living space, I do not know. Point is, we went shopping, and got a mattress, and a pillow, and we then had to pay for these items immediately. But surely you check out with ALL your goods and pay at the main till? No, not here. So then we spent another 30 minutes in the store looking at other things while wheeling around these two products that we had just bought … incroyable. For the record, the “mattress” I now have really isn’t so great either, it’s some kind of thin thing again, but because it’s just me on the bed I am going to use half the bed for books and general storage, and the other half (nearer the door) for sleeping on, so I can fold this “mattress” in two and then wrap up in my duvet as well, to pad myself somewhat. It’s crazy.
* OLYMPICS – “Wow, you’re going to China in 2008? Aren’t you excited? Are you going to Beijing? Do you think you will see the Olympics?” … a number of people have asked me these questions a number of times. The answers are “Yes”, “No”, “Hell no”, and “Again, no” … Beijing is not a pretty city. At least it wasn’t when I went there for a week in 2006. The only nice bit was when I got out of the city and went to the Great Wall for a day, that was amazing and I would definitely go again (Lucy?) … Beijing being busy with Olympic fever just makes it an even less exciting prospect as far as I am concerned; it’s most of the reason I chose to fly to Shanghai in the first place. Visas were supposedly harder to get hold of and prices rose, flights became hard to find, and now even at the university things are put on hold while we wait for students to make their way back to XNU having been in Beijing – but of course no one tells us this until today, while we are stressing that our classes have begun and we don’t know where they are. Also, if term starts in another week, that could have been a week that I spent in England. I am not pleased.
* POSTAL SERVICE – I want to send a present to Lucy. I want to put a letter inside this present, the two must travel together, that’s how it works. So I go to the post office and try to get a box for the present. Yes I can have a box, says the idiot behind the counter. But we won’t send that. Why not? Because it might break. I’m sorry but since when has a post office made the decision not to send something in case it breaks? That’s the sender’s risk. And also, I would PAD IT OUT, I am not stupid. But no, “We can send the letter. But not that” … I cannot believe this country. Or maybe it is just this postal branch, I will try a different one and see what they say ☹ Sorry Lucy, no letter or present just yet, I’ve been stupidly busy getting frustrated with all the other rubbish that is going on here.
* REGRETS – do I have any? Oh yes. Not having even LOOKED AT the other apartment we were offered, because it was out of our price range (though realistically speaking it wasn’t, we just didn’t want to spend that much, but maybe we should have since it came furnished and was apparently very nice to live in last year). So if I could go back and do this all again, I would at least LOOK at the other place. On the plus side, living here is not SO bad, and I do like the grounds of the complex we are in, and everyone here is Chinese so there’s no chance we can speak English with the neighbours, and I am sure at some point (maybe when we have some classmates, a routine, a house that works somewhat normally, and some more contact with our Western friends who are having as much trouble as we are and who exert some kind of calming normality influence on me, I will stop getting stressed about everything. Right now, however, I just wish that I was at home, and that I had never bothered learning Chinese or coming here. Really.
Mum and Dad, if you’re reading this, yes I am actually that frustrated and depressed, and I’m sorry I haven’t phoned or texted but texts cost 49p each (from my O2 card, the Chinese one won’t send to the UK and if it does I don’t know how much it costs), so I have just been texting Lucy. We are due to have the internet installed tomorrow evening, so hopefully I will be able to get online regularly then and you can Skype me or I can call you, whatever. I miss almost everything back home, and you know I don’t get homesick easily (ever?) – all the events of the last few days have just made me want to pack up and go. I guess I will stick it out, at least a couple of months, see if things improve. It doesn’t help that Marta and I made this choice on a flat, but by local standards it is definitely (more than) good. I think that just makes it worse.
[EDIT – Today, Tuesday, I am much less stressed. See more recent entries]
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Travel Preparations (Part One)
Before you get anywhere near jetting off, you'll have a couple of meetings to sort out what you need - you'll probably get a handbook with some useful information in it as well. There's heaps to sort out, and this post is only going to cover the following:
* Vaccinations
* Getting to China
* Accommodation
I am constantly reminding the girl who is travelling with me to Urumqi that "China is not like anywhere else". Whether this is in respect of people coughing their lungs up in the streets, the fact that a "Chinese" toilet is little more than a hole in the ground, or that mentioning you have a religion on a visa application can land you in hot water, it holds true - China is different, and you cannot be too careful. For this reason your handbook from SML will probably advise you to get a variety of vaccinations (or at least be up to date with most of them). The most common ones are:
- Hepatitis A - quite a high risk in China, where it can be found in plenty of foods.
- Hepatitis B - less of a risk (usually bloodborne), but if you end up in hospital and they don't have clean equipment, well you're just asking for trouble.
- Meningitis C - most people have this before even coming to university. I think it lasts for about 10 years.
- MMR - Measles, Mumps, Rubella - usually people receive one as a kid and one later on in life. According to my travel nurse, if I've had the second shot, I should be good for life.
- Tetanus, Diptheria, Polio - none of these are nice, get vaccinated. Chances are, if you've been abroad any other time in the last decade you will have had these vaccinations.
- Typhoid - waterborne, which in China means quite a lot of places (the tap water is not potable by any means).
Most, if not all, of the above can be obtained free of charge. With the exception of Hepatitis B (and possibly HepA), the above are all one-shot vaccinations (as far as I remember). Where HepB is concerned, a full course consists of 3 injections, followed by a blood test to ensure your body is sufficiently immune. If you are anything like me, your body will for some reason or other refuse to produce antibodies; if this is the case, a booster shot (or sometimes second course) may be prescribed, followed by another blood test. Not being immune to HepB isn't a massive deal, as above I said it is mainly bloodborne, so unless you plan to be shagging around or shooting up with people you should be okay ... But there is always the chance you will end up in a less-than-hygienic hospital, and if you're clever you'll remember the title of my blog. :)
However there are more serious diseases common in certain parts of China, and it is up to you to find out about them. Use a travel clinic, books, go online, and ask around. Of the more common serious illnesses that may be contracted in China, the following three are probably the ones you will hear about the most:
- Rabies - "mad dog disease", carried by just about any mammal, and almost unstoppably lethal once symptoms develop. It is entirely acceptable to enter China (where the disease is prevalent) without any form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), but there are certain advantages to taking precautionary vaccinations. Number one, if you are bitten / scratched / otherwise come into contact with a rabid animal, a pre-exposure course gives you a little extra time to get to medical help (somewhere in the region of 36 - 72 hours I believe). Number two, it reduces the number of shots you require having come into contact with the virus. A normal course of Rabies injections is 5 shots given over a number of weeks. The pre-exposure course is 3 shots given in a 4-week period. Following this, should you be exposed, the post-exposure course is just 2 shots (instead of all 5). Cover lasts between 2 and 3 years, after which a booster shot is needed to keep the protection of the original pre-exposure course. From personal experience, doctors at the "Dog Bite Clinics" (yes they have them) in the large cities like Shanghai will have heard of PEP and know the correct procedure is to receive 2 additional shots only. Other locations, in smaller towns for example, may never have heard of PEP and will insist on giving all 5 injections. Fortunately vaccines like this are very cheap in most areas.
- Japanese (B) Encephalitis - normally transmitted in tropical regions (find a regional danger map online), the chance of getting the disease even if bitten by an infected insect is quite low, but as I said above, you cannot be too careful. The first course is almost the same as the Rabies PEP, 3 shots given sometime over a 4-week period, and then a booster shot every 2 or 3 years. Side effects can be worse with this shot (my experience anyway), but severe reactions are incredibly rare. Unlike Rabies, no post-exposure course is needed in the event you get bitten by a mosquito or whatnot.
- Malaria - tropical regions only, and I think the majority of people takes pills (if they take anything at all - I know people going to Haikou who are more "at risk" but will not be taking anti-malarial medication because of the side effects of prolonged usage).
Apparently a vaccine for Cholera exists. Apparently it is kind of useless as well - take it at your own risk (and your wallet's risk too I am informed). From what I've been told, if you are going to get cholera, you are going to get it. Lovely.
A word on costs - your GP can charge whatever the hell they want. In some cases you will have a wonderful practice where the logic goes something like "you are going to be at risk, therefore you need to be protected, therefore we will keep the cost as low as possible so you can be vaccinated and be safe". If this is the case, consider yourself lucky. A 3-shot course (Rabies or JapB Encephalitis for example) could cost as little as £6.50 (per 3-shot course). When I went to China on my GAP year I paid just £13.00 for those 6 shots.
Other practices take the "you are travelling, you are having some odd vaccination, it is your choice, so we will charge you a heap of money for inconveniencing us" - right now, I am registered with one such practice. I knew two people on my GAP year who were forced to choose between getting a vaccine or not simply because the full course ran into triple figures - if possible, change practice! I do not like the idea of not being protected against something just because I can't afford it. Fortunately I only need boosters for Rabies and JapB Encephalitis (one shot each), but both of those shots still costs £60 here. That's approximately 30x more expensive than at my last practice. You've been warned.
Remember to start having injections long before you intend to travel. Remember some vaccinations need blood tests and / or several weeks to be completed. Remember it is not very nice to have six or seven different vaccines running around your body all at once just because you left it a bit late. And remember to set aside a load of money for it all (if your GP is of the second variety especially).
Accommodation will vary from location to location - you'll be informed of what's on offer when you get your handbook. As for Urumqi, supposedly there is university accommodation (dorms / halls) for just £250/year. Yes, that's right, £250 for the whole year. The downside is that this year's students discovered the accommodation was that cheap because it was that bad. So bad they moved out as soon as they could. From what I have heard, there are plenty of refurbishments going on and the price has stayed the same, but I am reserving my judgement for when I arrive and see it with my own eyes. In the meantime I am seriously considering living out of the uni accommodation, not least because I enjoy my own freedoms and my own space. Yes, it will be more expensive, but it will still be a lot cheaper than the UK! And I can have a place to call my own. Be aware that if you go stay anywhere (hostels, hotels, even overnighting at some places) you may be required to register with the local police office (PSB - Public Security Bureau), and that not registering is something kind of serious. More on accommodation once I am out in China I imagine!
Part Two will probably cover things like Visas, Packing Extras and Money - but of course I've not written it yet ... so we'll see.
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