Hospital visit, good food
Wow. These past few days in Beijing have been very eventful for many reasons. For one, my brother went to the hospital!On Wednesday night, Gustav was feeling a lot worse. His vomiting wasn’t stopping, and he felt pain in his stomach. So, scared, we brought him to the hospital. Instead of the emergency entrance, Beibei led us to a “special” entrance to the hospital that seemed completely deserted. It seemed like a unit for foreigners. He got hooked up with IV’s and drugs, and between those and the ultrasound, bloodtest, and bed-stay, and drug prescriptions, we were charged the equivalent of under $200. Back home, it would have been thousands! Despite the hospital not having toilet paper or soap, the doctors were very skilled and Gustav stayed for 4 hours. He’s been feeling much better!
Thursday was spent sleeping in till noon and going to Tianmen Square. Beijing hasn’t had clear skies at all since we’ve been here; every day has been foggy and stuffy. On Friday we went to the Beijing Zoo and had lots of fun wandering around the beautiful grounds. Boy, thoses animals could have used larger exhibits though. Except the pandas, they all had enormous beautiful exhibits. After the zoo, we went to Behai park and rented a row boat. The park is basically an island in the middle of a beautiful lake covered in plants and temples. I highly recommend it!Today we went to the Forbidden City. I can’t even describe how amazing it is. It’s huge and beautiful and timeless.
The food here is excellent! I’ve had a great time wandering around finding little restaurants with great dining. My favorite food so far has been the delicious dumplings served near the hostel- at 10 dumplings for 60 cents, it’s a great deal.
I’ve gotten my picture taken here several times already! A mother even asked me to pose with her daughter. I find it very weird and I’m feeling self-concious. I thought that in Beijing they would have seen enough foreigners with light hair that it wouldn’t be interesting enough for a photo any more. Apparently not.
Tags: China, Travel
afretheim
June 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Poor Gustav, sounds like Beibei really has the hookups though. China sounds exciting, pictures? I’m really jealous Anna. Stupid West Point.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Anna! I love your blog and plan on reading it from now on! I think your plan to travel the world is an awesome, though be it scary, one. And I wish you all the luck I can give.
I hope your brother is feeling better and I hope that you don’t get sick during your travels.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Drink the beer. It’s one of the safest things to drink because of the way it’s made and you’ll be less likely to end up like Gustav. Just don’t drink too much (had to say that of course).