Monster Mash

For the next two weeks I am teaching about Halloween to all my classes.  My liaison is afraid that my dressing up is going to scare the students and no decorations on the walls outside the office because she is afraid the inspection team will come and think it is messy.  She finally did agree to let me decorate the door to the office because it can be took down quickly.  Soooo, I have bought paper and a pumpkin and I am going to decorate the door, carve a jack-o'-lantern, and make me a witches hat and long black hair.  I still need to find some extremely cheep candy (I have 960 students) because I am inviting each class to trick-or-treat at my office Monday night, October 31.  So I will dress like a witch, light my pumpkin, and hand out candy to all who come and say the right words.  I haven't looked forward to Halloween like this in many years.

To finish off the lesson I am teaching on Halloween, I am showing a short clip on how to dance the Monster Mash.  Then I show a full length video of the entire song.  If there is time left, I restart the short clip and have all the students dance with it!  I am not sure which is funnier, this or the answers I get to the question, "If you were dressing up in a costume for Halloween, who/what would you be?  Why?"   These kids never cease to surprise me.  "I would be James Bond."  (I am thinking yea, he's cool, lots of toys...)  Why, I ask.  "Because he has lot's of beautiful girlfriends!"   Should have seen that one coming!   Or the guy who said, "I wouldn't dress up."  Why?  "I think I am scary enough already."  Hmmm.

Oh, how He works!

While I was in Changsha for the dentist yesterday, I went out to the Metro which is kind of like a Sam's club.  They also have some imported food and I wanted spaghetti noodles.  I was dying for spaghetti noodles in the land of noodles, go figure.  Anyway, needless to say, I was checking out everything on the shelves when someone spoke to me in English!  I turn and there was a young African American woman.  We began to talk: what are you doing here, how is your contract, where are you from. . . and that is when the light comes on and I actually become conscious of the fact that there are really no coincidences only arrangements by the One in charge.   This woman is not only from America; she is from North Carolina.  Not only from North Carolina though; she graduated the year after me from Winston Salem State University with me in Education and her in English.  In China, in Changsha, in the Metro at the same time as me.  For those of you who are still saying what a coincidence,  you need to Skype me so I can introduce you to my God.  Only He could arrange such a thing.

Dentist in China (well, at least Changsha)

Having checked out the hospital during my trip to China in 2006 with tonsillitis, my teeth must have felt left out; can you imagine?  I had this particular tooth worked on in America before I left, costing me over $100 for the filling and a warning from the dentist that it might abscess.  Well it did.  I went to Changsha yesterday to see the dentist.  I spent almost as much money getting to and from, adding the metro shopping side trip, in taxi and bus fare as I did at the dentist.  Seriously.

11.50 yuan ($1.82us) doctor visit,
3.00 yuan (47 cents us) xray,
205.00 yuan ($32.39us) drilling into, cleaning out nerve, pack with medicine and close up the tooth.
219.50 yuan total ($32.39)
When have any of you went to the dentist, paying for the whole charge, and only had to pay $32.49???!!!!

The dentist said the return visit will be about 600 yuan ($94.79us)

So basically I am getting a root canal for $129.47 (not counting the travel expense).  However, the travel expense yesterday was only $24.41 usd. (taxi from Luiyang to Changsha (one hour drive), taxi to and from Metro shopping, taxi to bus station, bus to Liuyang, taxi to school) which I will have to pay again for the next visit along with a hotel room for the night, but still.  Now Luiyang is 46 miles as the crow flies, not sure the exact mileage, so I think this is a pretty good cost considering.  Even with all the travel expense, I will be spending less than $200 usd on a root canal.  In China, you pay the fee before the work is done.  So I went in and paid to see the dentist, then came back and paid for the xray she wanted, then while the dentist started, my field director went back out and paid for the day's work.

The dentist was very nice.  She explained everything and I had no pain (even without numbing).

Unlike American dentist offices though, you are not in a private room but in chest high cubicles with 4 or 5 dentist working at the same time with no assistants.  The dentist held the water and mirror in one hand and drilled with the other.  No suction; she would just stop and let me spit.  In the xray room, the technician put a disposable glove over this thing he put in my mouth and used my thumb to hold it in place while he did the xray. No little bite down thingies, didn't remove any jewelry, no protective vest.

So, back to the room with cubicles, while others were waiting their turn, or waiting on family members, they were watching me while I was being worked on.  Yes, you read correctly, while the dentist was working on my tooth there were other people watching the whole process. Maybe we will take pictures next time.

However, compared to my experiences with dentists in America, I had a great experience yesterday and I am not concerned about the follow up visit in the least. Would it be this way anywhere in China? Maybe not.

There are many things here that many of you would absolutely abhor, with this being the least of probably.  I would say to you that sometimes you can rule, regulate, and nik-pik yourself into a corner from which you are left to live a very limited life.  And contrary to what you believe, the Chinese people are thriving without all of your rules and regulations and they are a hard working, inventive society, who has a high regard for education and family.  All of which America lost many, many years ago.

Having something new to eat when cooking for yourself every day in China

Cooler weather seemed to be calling for chicken pie.  However, it is my understanding that most stoves in China, for sure mine, do not have ovens, what to do? Start with chicken stew of course!  So I bought chicken breast and flour at the store yesterday.  Put the chicken in the crock pot to stew.  Moved it into a pot for the stove today and mixed my flour and milk to thicken it.  Of course, this is China so you aren't real sure it the flour is self rising or not, lol, which begs the question, will it thicken the stew? As you can see it did! 

Add some store bought rolls and you have chicken pie!

There were also fresh green beans at the store yesterday so I bought some and strung and broke them, added some pork, and now have fresh beans to go with my chicken pie!