Ni hao!

Hello all! I would like to share a little experience I had today with the medical professionals in China. All those who are visiting or leaving CHina have to come to the Health Inspection office and receive a "physical examination". (I use that term loosely) It consists of blood being drawn by a man behind a window with no gloves on and who has just put out his cigarette. He was very good at finding my vein, however. After this, we went upstairs where they performed an ulstrasound on our lungs, this was done behind a red and black sheet and the patient wearing plastic booties, again no gloves. Next was an EKG, done with old school suction cups placed, obviously, all over the chest area, done with other men in the room behind a red and black linen sheet (extremely see through and it doesn't close all the way, if you can catch my drift, not that I'm modest or anything...). Next is a chest x-ray done with all the clothes on, including underwire bras (sorry if you are blushing now, but you see my point, ha!). This was also performed by the ultrasound man who has just put out his cigarette in the room where the blood is drawn. On the form there is also something about an eye and hearing examination which they marked as ok on both Bob and I. Bob is the other foreign english teacher. I really like Bob! He's 80 and has been in China for 10 years teaching english, always at the university level. This is how I spent my Wednesday morning.
Just to clear a few things up, I am in a city called Weifang, in the Shandong Province. Shandong Province is directly across from So. Korea on the Yellow Sea. I am 15 hours ahead of Reno time, so for most of you it is Tuesday night. Just so you know Wednesday is a good day.
The culture is very different here, but the people extremely kind and considerate! The driving/roads/traffic/biking/walking/horsedrawn cart riding is hazardous to your health, I don't watch anymore. I love the food! I may gain another 30 lbs while I'm here, which I don't need. But man am I going to love getting there! All the food is fried and greasy and SALTY! AND so good. Last night I had seafood pie at a Korean restaraunt, mostly made up of squid and maybe octopus and some shrimp, mostly squid. I also had kelp and some other mysterieous greens, but they were all tasty! I haven't bought one meal yet! Everytime we go out, the other people I am with pay! It's very kind, but I'm sure it's breaking their bank! Wendy, another english teacher (her real name is Zhou Jing), keeps saying next time, next time you will pay. SHe's so sweet! I haven't felt much of a culture shock, the first day I thought what am I doing!? But quickly got over it once I slept 12 hours. I love how different everything is! It will make me stretch and I really like that!
All of the freshmen arrive Monday and Yesterday. They will now do two weeks of military training before starting classes. Today they received their uniforms, looking out the window at the dorms, I see many green camaflouge t-shirts hanging out to dry.
I also found out today that I will have to give a lecture to several hundred of the student body twice during the semester. Hmmm... I asked Sun (pronounced "soon") what teacher have done in the past, he said they talked about music, the culture, anything really. SO, if you have any ideas, please share! I will also ask the students what they'd like to hear more about and see what the response will be. Bob is going first, xiexie (thank you, pronounced "shye shye"), Bob!
I guess that's all for now! More later! I love and miss you all so much! Thanks for your friendship, prayers and support! It all means so much to me!!!