We are now approaching one week in Shanghai and are starting to settle into a
routine. We awake in the morning and go grab some breakfast. Most of us opt for
Bao Zi, which is a delicious steamed flour dumpling filled with either
meat or veggies. There is a great little shop that sells them from the sidewalk
about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. There are 0.7rmb each or about 10 cents
US. 3 of them is a BIG breakfast. There is also a Starbucks about 5 minutes
from the hotel that many students are hitting in the morning. So far I have
held out, opting instead to brew tea in my room, but I am sure there is
corporate coffee in my near future.
We then are picked up by a private bus at 7:30 and taken to
one of two area hospitals. Once there we spend the rest of the morning
observing patients getting either acupuncture or herbal formulas (often both).
On average we are seeing between 10 and 30 patients per shift. We are then
bussed back to the hotel and have a lunch break. Many of us use this time to
call home, as it is late evening back in Seattle.
At 1:30 we then sit for a 2-3 hour lecture, on various topics. So far we have
covered constipation, gastritis, and pain of the back, neck and knees. The
quality of the lectures is quite good.
After a review of the day, we then have our evenings free.
Common activities are sight seeing, shopping, and going to the library for some
internet time. Dinners are always an adventure, and we are all exploring the
wide variety of foods available.
Most of us are crashing by about 10:00 PM. A common theme
seems to be waking around 4:00am. We think that this may be due to the fact
that it is noon in Seattle
(accounting for daylight savings time) which is the zenith of Yang energy that
our bodies are used to.
More updates to follow.
