At any rate, I find myself wanting to blog more about "culture" and "interesting things" in China, rather than "eye stuff". Perhaps that is because, at this point, I have the eye stuff down pretty well (I guess three years of ophtho residency and a year of your own clinics do that! Of course there is always more to learn and experience to be had...)
So...more fun and culture stuff.
Yesterday (Sunday 4/26), Dr. Wu, Dr. Susan, and Cassie (one of the residents) took me to the outskirts of Chengdu to go biking! It was a beautiful day--just perfect. It took us about an hour to get to our destination (despite it not being that far distance-wise), but the traffic is incredible in this city, especially on a nice weekend day! I would be so nervous to drive here, but Dr. Wu did a great job. (I misspoke in an earlier post...Chengdu is about 14 million people, not 10 million.)
I must digress here and talk about the traffic for a moment. I am very amazed by the skill of the drivers here in Chengdu. They all know exactly where they are in regards to other cars, pedestrians, people on motorbikes, busses, etc. They know exactly how wide and how long their cars are. Thus, the traffic FLOWS and flows well, despite the sheer number of people using the roadway. It has best been described to me by the Chris (my Canadian friend from church) who said, "It works for them. It is like a school of fish that dart in and out of the group, but they all know where they are and they move as a unit...". Indeed, that was a great analogy. They just flow in and out, merge and exit, with very few accidents. (I have only seen one accident in my 3 weeks here, and I have been out and about quite a bit). They are incredibly good drivers.
Okay, back to biking. We went to a park and Dr. Wu rented bicycles for us. Of course there were no helmets...(which, in my family, is a major "no-no"). But, I knew we wouldn't be going fast, and we were biking in a park. We had a lot of fun, but my father, who was a "serious" bicyclist would have been horrified. The bikes were in disrepair, there were pedestrians and bikes fighting for the right of way, people stopping in the middle of the path for who knows what reason (mostly photos, I presume), children riding helmet-less standing up on the rear of the bike (small children). It was an accident waiting to happen! But, we did have a lot of fun, despite spending a massive amount of concentration trying to dodge all the road hazards! For how well the motorists "know their position" in relation to everyone else, the bicyclists had no clue!
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| Cassie, Dr. Wu, me. It was nice to see lots of green! (Yes, here we are stopped in the middle of the path for a photo...) |
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| "Surprise!" This photo was inspired by my friend in Ohio, Julia. Dr. Wu thought this was hilarious and this was definitely her favorite photo of the day! |
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| Cassie and Dr. Wu getting ready to roll! |
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| Me and Cassie. She is so fun and kind. And as a bonus she speaks English really well :) |
Afterwards, we went to a nearby restaurant and ate...what else?! Chinese hot pot. It was spicy and delicious, as always. There were a large number of ophthalmologists already there, and we joined their group.
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| Chinese Hot Pot, Sichuan style. Everyone dig in! (The chopsticks are especially long for these occasions so that you don't burn your hands when trying to grab your food.) |
We finished out the afternoon by going to Dr. Fan's house. He was the former Chair of the ophthalmology position (a position now held by Dr. Wu). He has a very nice house on the outskirts of Chengdu. This was the first free-standing house I had seen! Almost everyone lives in apartments!
All in all it was a great day :)
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| Beautiful view in Dr. Fan's backyard. |
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| Setting the table for tea in Dr. Fan's backyard. |
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