7 Days to Shanghai (Hopefully)

If all goes well in the next 7 days, I will be going to shanghai in the next week. Things seem to be set in motion as far as this goes, but I am a little apprehensive because my health has been adjusting in the last week and I am concerned that travelling at this time might not be the best idea. I am going to continue to forge ahead with plans to go and wait to purchase my ticket until a couple of days before hand because I want to see if I improve.
Without going into too much detail, I think that I have over exterted myself and gotten a bacterial infection as the same time. I have developed quite the sour stomach over the last couple of years and after several weeks of challenging meals, I think I may have either eaten something questionable or had some questionable water. Regardless, the need to have a western style toilet nearby has been a much needed thing!
To add to the calamity, I managed to slice my index finger quite nicely yesterday while preparing lunch. I called the department head and asked him to take me to the hospital and it turns out that there is a clinic here on the campus that treats such things. I was quite happy to discover this. His assistant, the ever so lovely Fiona, escorted me down to the place to have my bloody finger examined. I felt that it might need to be stitched, but upon arrival, they immediatly cleaned the wound and inspected it and came to the conclusion that it would not need to be stitched. It was a close call though.
I heard rumours that the Chinese hospitals were much different than the western ones--and this clinic certainly echoed that theory. Chinese medicine is a mixture of modern pills and ancient Chinese remedies. The place did not have the stench of sterility, but rather a smell of herbals and peroxide.
The cleaned, salted and wrapped my finger and placed it in a neat gauze bandage and I was instructed to come back on Monday so that they could have a look. I asked Fiona to also explain that I have stomach issues, probably from bad water or food, and the woman understood and gave me a prescription of pills to take for the problem.
I have a set of four different pills to be taken three times daily, one set for antibiotic, three four the food illness. I took the first dose last night before bed and was able to sleep through most of the night--although I did have a strange series of dreams.
This morning I do feel slightly better and hope that this continues because if I am not better by mid week, I will be staying here in Chenzhou for at least half the break on the mend. From what I have read this is something that seems to be a common occurence and once you get through it, your stomach is good as new--and I could use a new one!
In other news, I seem to be the new recrutier for the foreign affairs department here on campus as I have assisted with one Americans visa issues and last night went to dinner with bob and fiona to recruit this guy from Britain that I liked, but was a little apprehensive about. He seemed like a nice enough guy, seemed to be well travelled, having just taught in Vietman for the last two years, but there was something about him that reminded me of a drifter of sorts. He thought it was rather amusing that I was mildly picky about the food, noting that this wouldnt be the case if I was ever to go to Vietnam. I asked him what he meant by that and he laughed and said that in Vietnam there is all sorts of things in your meal, wood, ants, mites and you just learn to get on and eat them. He also said that he eat dog quite often and he didnt mind it because he doesnt really like dogs, so it was okay. Perhaps this is where I thought that was a strange thing to say. I don't like a lot of things, but I wouldn't eat them. I am not a big fan of rats, but I wouldn't eat em. I didn't make this comment to this guy though because I feared what he might say in return.
In case you were wondering, he said that you know when you are eating dog (most of the time) because the meat is very dark and tough. It takes a while to chew and when they cook it, it doesnt smell very good and if you are near the kitchen, you'll know. He said that you have to chew it much longer than beef. Now I must admit that before speaking with him about this, I felt that I would indeed like to try a bit of it for myself, but after this conversation, I have decided to decline.
He also added that in Vietnam the have cat restaurants all over the place. He had not gone into those places because the smell is just horrible and he rather likes cats, so he doesnt think he could enjoy it as much. I nodded in agreement and felt my stomach grumble in protest at the thoughts that my brain was processing at the moment. These are not things one should be considering while partaking in a meal...
But then again, this is China and that is Vietnam.