2005-06-13 - 10:20 p.m.

I am leaving tomorrow morning for London and I can hardly wait! The Universe must be mad at me for something though, because I just got over the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. I felt like Sigourney Weaver in Aliens. That's how much my stomach was moving and twisting and churning all through the night and today, I don't even eat meat. People usually get sick here from eating bad meat. I don't think I drank the water either, but who knows. So now we have come to the subject of this entry- the hospitals in China. There are lots of Western medical clinics that cater to foreigners and are relatively inexpensive, but I was at the mercy of my school today, so they took me to the nearest local hospital. It was terrifying. The building was built probably in the 1940's and it looked like they used all the same equipment from back then too. It seemed as if half of the 17 million Shanghainese were waiting in the various lines all over the place. It was bizarre. There were empty hospital beds and equipment all over the place-in the lobbys, in the hallways...and there were sick people everywhere too-with blood on them. I almost fainted several times. Yes, I was in a hospital, I know that. But everywhere I turned, it was just chaos and sick people. Sick people were fighting over laying down on the random beds lying about. I am not kidding. I have nothing against sick people. Everyone gets sick at some point. I like people-sick or healthy. I don't want to make the wrong impression. I felt really sad for these people. It was such a cold, dirty, loud, and crowded place. It must have made everyone feel 10 times worse to go there. The place also had a huge old old old old winding staircase in one of the lobbies and I felt so bad for all these hurt people trying to get up these stairs with broken bones and bloody heads. I know I was in worse shape(emotionally at least) when I left the hosptial than when I got there. I finally got to see a doctor for 5 seconds. She pushed around on my stomach, said something in Chinese, and then gave me some medicine. She tried to give me a shot in the booty, but I squealed in terror when this was translated to me, so thankfully it didn't happen. I am not sure about how healthcare works here. I should find out. I think everyone gets taken care of for a realtively cheap price. I hear the medical business is just like any other business. If you need stitches, they'll tell you how few you can get and still be okay and survive (they charge by the stitch). This hospital was filthy though. I felt bad for some reason. Like it was my fault and I should be scrubbing the floors. I didn't scrub the floors as bad as I felt about it. No one else seemed to mind. This was another eye-opening purely Chinese experience. The medicine is working now. I would have cried buckets if I had to get on that airplane with a bad case of lingering food poisoning. London here I come!!!!

?lt;/P>

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