I realized how I stopped posting and all so I figured I'd take some time out of my VERY BUSY SCHEDULE to write something. Just kidding. My schedule's full-ish, but nowhere near as busy as I make it seem. It's just a bit like pulling teeth sometimes if only because I am running out of things to teach and I've still got two months left. It's starting to worry me. Eventually classes will consist of me staring at them for a few hours and them staring back at me. It'll be the most riveting class ever!
Monday I had a bit of a mental breakdown because of that. It sucked. I canceled classes for that day. I told them my stomach and head was bothering me. My stomach was bothering me, but that was from stress. Or so I thought. Tuesday went without a hitch, until about eight or so that night when I started getting stomach cramps. I thought it was just my monthly curse from hell, which part of it was, but this was a little different. I took some Mydol and went to bed only to wake up at midnight in such severe agony I could barely stand it. I was freezing despite my nice, warm comforter, a space heater on full blast, and pajamas to keep me warm. It hurt to wear clothes and I couldn't even lay still for more than a few minutes before my whole body started aching and my stomach twisted in new knots. The next day I went to class to try to teach, but I could barely walk to class. It was an effort to stand. So I let them out halfway through class telling them I would go to the doctor. So I got to go to a Chinese hospital.
Now, it might have been serious enough to have taken me to an American hospital, but here's the thing: there are no plain, regular doctors in China. If you're sick, anywhere from a little bitty cold to your arm being severed, you're going to the hospital. We got there and it was mass chaos. It was crazy. We had to pay to be seen by a doctor, something minimal like 4 yuan. Then Lili, our helper, described my symptoms to the doctor. Then we went to get an X-ray and my blood drawn. That was 35 yuan. I hated having my blood drawn. Basically, as my buddy, Josh, said in his journal previously, you just stick your hand through a window like you would see at a pharmacy, they stab you with a needle, make your finger bleed and get some of that on this tiny little stick. It made me unhappy. Then we went back and he looked at the stuff and sent us upstairs to a gut doctor who said he wanted to do more tests, but I was so tired that I just wanted to go home, so Lili refused on my behalf, we got some medicine and went home. I got to chill out the rest of the day. Now, you might be saying, "Rebecca, you should've had those tests done. Now you don't know what's wrong with you exactly." Well, lemme explain. A lot of those doctors are looking to extort money out of you by running tests they might not actually think you need. Besides, I'm an American and in their mind I am very rich and can afford to cough up all the yuan they want me to.
So then the rest of the week, I used this as an excuse to let my classes out super early. I was still getting stomach pains up until two or so days ago and I was so tired that I thought it would be okay. No one's complained yet.
Anyways, the medicine they gave me seems to have worked, but I just finished them this morning. We'll see how that goes.
Oh and my ex-boyfriend's a jackass. I feel that I need to proclaim this publicly because I'm super pissed off at him right now. I think I should maybe give an explanation. We broke up before I left. It was pretty much mutual. We had been together one year. I leave. He gets a girlfriend who is still in high school two months later. Now, that pissed me off because it made me feel like I was easily replaceable, but I shrugged it off mostly because I was like, "Well, whatever. He's still a kid. I'll just make sure to take him off my phone plan when I get back to the states." That was pre- his biggest jackassery.
Before I left, he told me that he was sure that he could still handle his part of the rent in China. I asked him about five hundred times if he was sure. I said each of those times, "Are you sure? Because I don't want to be stuck in China and find out that I have to get money to Lindsey to cover your part of the rent because you decided to ditch us at the last second. I'll be in CHINA and I don't know how easily I'd be able to do that. I need to know now while I'm in AMERICA so that I can cover this." He always said, "Yeah. Yes. Don't worry about it." MOTHER FUCKER. You can see where this is going, I'm sure. I just got word from my lovely roomie, Linz, that this jackass isn't going to pay rent this month. He's not in school; he's not working. He's not doing fucking anything. And he tried to get her to borrow money for him. FUCKER STILL OWES MY FRIEND, AARON, SOMETHING LIKE $200. And now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to either get the money out of him or kick him out without him stealing the stuff I want to keep. Linz is hiding my preciousness as I type this. I'm pissed.
Luckily, what I'm losing to his jackassery, I'm sort of making up in that they offered me and Tyler (just me and Tyler, by the way) extra classes to teach. We'll be paid about 200 yuan each week for our services. That'll maybe cover part of his fuck up, but at least it's something. Hopefully, the next time I post, it will be a little happier. Oh! BEIJING'S COMING UP AND I'M SUPER EXCITED! WOO!
And thanks to Linz for the package! <3 you!!
