Lollipop!

Lollipops compliments of Ritz staff

Our second day I woke up starving.  The body clock was all out of whack so I was looking forward to breakfast.  As I shared my excitement for the restaurant to open, Stan reminded me not to eat.  I had forgotten that this morning would be my health check - cue music "dun, dun, dun!"  To gain residency in China they have you go through a battery of health tests before they decide to let you stay.  So Stan and the boys enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the executive lounge, while I looked on in envy.  Stan had done his health check before and they don't make little kids go through the process.

The driver picked us up and took us to the government hospital.  We were met there by an escort to help communicate through the process.  I would have taken photos, but this wasn't the time to draw more attention.  First I was taken to a room and told to sit in a chair. The nurse took my blood pressure, gave me a vision test, checked for color blindness, weighed and measured me.  Next I was taken to another room where I was told to lie on a hard metal table with a pillow - mind you a pillow that had who knows who's head on it moments before.  My escort was outside of the room at this point so it was now a game of guess that Mandarin and charades. The technician signaled for me to lift my shirt.  I exposed up to the lower part of my bra and he signaled that I was good. He then did an ultrasound of my stomach, lower ribs and sides.  When he was done he gave me a tissue to wipe off the goop they put on for ultrasounds, but it was all over my shirt.  I was signaled to go around to the other side of the curtain.  There was another table and machines with a lady waiting for me.  I wrongly assumed she would sympathize with my goop covered shirt so I pointed to it and then pointed to a tissue.  She barked something at me, sucked her teeth , rolled her eyes and waved me over to the table.  She was not the least bit concerned about my shirt.  She then pointed at my leg and my shirt and my arms over my head.  I wasn't sure what she was wanting, but thought she wanted my shirt off. I started to lift it all and she smacked my hand and shook her head, again saying what to my english speaking ears was Mandarin for "you dummy, not that!".  I was confused and so I lifted one pant leg - she clamped something on my leg, then tried my shirt again and she wasn't pleased.  I told her just do what ever she wanted to do or lift what needed to be lifted. Finally she did. Turned out she needed to put cups on my chest for an EKG.  She waved and barked at me to get off the table and leave when she was done. Nice. Next I was taken to a room and the man pointed to some feet on the floor in front of an x-ray machine.  No draping - just point shoot and get out.  Next was the blood draw - 4 vials.  Luckily I'm not squeamish about needles, because they were all business.  There was no coddling, are you ready? or anything like that.  The nurse was a champ though and got my typically hard to find veins on the first try.  Finally I was given a cup to give a urine sample in the bathroom.  I was told to put the sample on a tray with about 15 other open cup samples. Couldn't help but wonder if cross contamination and mix-ups happen because there was no one around to see that area, just a big tray of pee in varying shades of yellow. I was done after that.

I will say I did have an idea of what to expect from having a health check when we had moved to Guangzhou in 2007.  Admittedly that was far more traumatizing just because I'd never done such a thing and they did additional examinations and testing. Welcome back!

We returned to the hotel after the hospital.  Stan got a business call that took an hour while I was still starving.  To make it up to me he sent me to breakfast- alone. Aah - it was nice to have a quiet unrushed meal.  The boys and I napped after that and then it was out into the city.

First stop - Ikea!  Actually Ikea in China feels a bit like coming home because I spent a lot of time there when we were living in Guangzhou and Ikea is one of the few stores that carries the same products from country to country.

Next we went to B&Q - basically like the Home Depot for China.  One fun thing I had forgotten about is moving escalators for shopping carts.  The cart locks in on a ramp and up /down you go!  The boys thought that was cool.

We had finished grabbing what we set out for, but needed to stay out to keep the boys awake so we went to Coco Plaza.  This is a shopping center right by the Ritz.  The mall was a nice modern mall with lots of stores.  We got to go in a grocery store and the boys were quite amused with the live fish swimming around for catching/cooking.  The shopping complex was pretty large and had all kinds of stores.  There was an outdoor play area with kids acivities too.  Kenney had fun squawking back and forth with a little chinese girl. It was pretty cute.

Back at the Ritz we had another care package from the hotel staff awaiting us. This was our Christmas photo they had taken the day before along with some chocolates, cookies, bread, and a handmade card.   That evening we ate down in the hotel restaurant for a final dinner. Cole wisely requested another bath in the giant tub before bed that night.

Dinner fun!

The TV Guide at the Ritz