Nice

First morning rounds, and I was sitting in the top attending physician's seat. Luckily I had the foresight to ask my friend Dr. Ela if it was anyone's seat so I got up before making a fool of myself by having to be told. :)
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Ordering food

Lee taught me some basic chinese characters. I can recognize chicken meat, chicken egg, beef, noodle, and rice. But I ordered tonight by myself, and the best I could do is point and grunt. I would order like that all of the time if I could get away with it.

Nick
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Walk sign

When the walk sign counts down, and hits zero, you had better be out of the way in this city because there is no delay.
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Hot pot

See third picture posted by Lee for reference for this post. The first two pics give a good feel for how crowded some of the streets are.

Hot pot is basically Chinese fondue. We went to dinner last night and had it. Its basically a bowl w two sides (spicy and mild) over a heat source. Full of all sorts of goodness, like garlic and peppers and herbs. Then they bring out raw stuff and you heat it in the boiling pot w chopsticks and enjoy. For example we had beef, lamb, seafood dumplings, Chinese mushroom, and some other vegetables and things that I'd never seen before but that were good.

It was a lot of fun, but its a very communal and slow way to eat. People share the pot and the trays with food. People can go to get hot pot in groups as a fun social occasion. I'd love to find a restaurant in the states that does it.

We had beer with the hot pot. An interesting thing I learned is that the beer stems from the early 1900s. When western powers invaded China during the Boxer Rebellion, the Germans came too. And they built breweries, from which the Chinese picked up the beer thing. I am grateful for that, as good beer is enough to keep me happy anywhere!

I've also learned to be more careful when I chew and swallow. Chinese food here is almost universally spicy (and if it doesn't come that way I make it that way). But while not super hard on the tongue, the particular spice that they use will absolutely decimate your throat if it gets anywhere near the windpipe, and you will be coughing and burning.

Nick
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Shopping in Shang Xia Jiu Ave

Shoppers, McDonald's, KFC, hotpot...

Lee
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Day one continued

So I accidentally hit send before I was done with the last post; it wasn't supposed to end so abruptly. Here is part two from day one in the markets.

After the mall, we then decided to go to another shopping district. We got back on the metro and went about 8 stops west to one popular shopping district there. This place was pure insanity. So many people. So many shops w/ ridiculously cheap shoes, clothes, or whatever else you'd want. There were also restaurants, food markets, thousands of people - and this went on for blocks and blocks, on multiple streets.

Through the entire day I must have seen hundreds of thousands of people, but I saw exactly one other caucasian westerner. It drove home the point that Guangzhou is not a tourist destination (it will be in several years I predict). Its not that it isn't safe or welcoming, because it is both.

The city just hasn't experienced a tourism boom yet. While many people speak some English, it seems like the less educated residents don't, which is fine. But they're the ones running the shops, restaurants, and transit. I've been travelling around thus far with three other fluent mandarin and english speakers but I feel like without them I'd be having an extremely tough time. This is all a good thing of course. I feel like I'm getting an incredibly unique experience here, really feeling how culturally powerful a huge city in China can be. But I know it is an authentic experience as well, since there aren't any watered down tourist havens that I've been in yet.

Anyway it is 7 am and my first day in the tumor hospital is today. The hospital is one of many and is absolutely gigantic. Will post pics soon hopefully :)

Nick
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Day one in the markets

Lee and I started the day making a loop around campus and our street. We had a breakfast of spicy beef and noodles with a 24 oz beer. It was very good, in a tiny shop off the street with a sleepy old man cashiering. The whole breakfast cost us like 3 US dollars for both of us.

We then met our SYSU medical friends who have been showing us around: Kristina Lee and Jue Wang. We boarded the metro stop at Martyrs Park and took it two stops east to the Tee Mall, which was the biggest in Guangzhou. It puts Circle Centre thouroughly to shame. It is a very nice mall from an infrastructure point of view. If I had to guess I'd say its 2-3 times the size of circle center. The contrasts were stark: some shops had expensive imports that wealthy Americans can't afford, others had very cheap wares.

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Supporting the Chinese Economy

A little taste of how being a gangster must feel like...

Thank you Sallie Mae!

Lee
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Finally in Guang Zhou!

So it turns out Sun Yat-sen Medical University is in downtown Guang Zhou, about 1-hour bus ride from Bai Yun airport. The weather here is definitely humid, a lot like Houston. I felt kinda funny going thru the custom in the Foreigner's line sice I have lived in China longer than in US.

Lee
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Test

I have concerns that my gmail email access and/or my blogger access will be blocked in China. If this works, I guess that means they aren't blocked because we just landed in Guangzhou!

Nick
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