One of my favorite things in China was to find amusing signs!! I
called this Chinglish but obviously I didn’t invent the word back in 2004! So
many other people use it! I always pictures some Chinese man or woman sitting
in an office with a translating dictionary. Then word by word they were
translating into English signs for stores, restaurants, national sites in
China. I took many photos back when I was teaching here and would use them in
my English class - asking the students to read the Chinese and translate what
was meant. Many times I literally had NO IDEA what was meant! I’ve only seen a
couple of signs on this trip, so obviously someone in the government has taken
to corrections!
I heard (since I was here when China was preparing for the
Olympics in Beijing) that the Univ. of Maryland was hired to have their
students roam around Beijing and locate these signs so they could be changed in
time for the games!! But things have changed around the country as well!
As I was searching for something else here in Shanghai, at the end
of our trip, I came across this great blog/website that Heather someone does!
She had lived in Shanghai for two years and posted the best of her Chinglish
photos! So I thought I would just refer you to hers as there are some great
ones!!
Our day today, Sunday, didn’t go as planned!! Betty has been
sick, probably from eating something, for 3 days now - not able to keep
anything in her system. So we decided to find a doctor/hospital here that might
help out! She needs to be strong enough to fly home on Tuesday! The desk
girls do not speak much English. However, they gave it their best shot. I had
texted Ding (my Chinese doctor/friend from Yangzhou) to see if he had any
recommendations. One of the problems is that it’s Sunday!! He gave me one
name and number, I found a couple of others on the internet. The girls
downstairs called these and usually there was a recording saying it was
closed!! Finally they found one, gave us a slip with the name in Chinese as
well as PinYin (this is the anglicized version of Mandarin so you can pronounce
it) for a taxi driver to get us there. We headed out!
It was only a few blocks away and the driver dropped us and
pointed. One office referred us around the corner to another office. NO ONE
there spoke any English! We tried to pantomime (vomiting, diarrhea - what
fun!!) and got lots of Chinese spewed back at us! I looked up Ding’s number
from WeChat (I thought that was his phone). They tried calling but got someone
else! When I looked back on my texts and got his real phone, they seemed to
balk at calling long distance, when we said Yangzhou! At least I think that’s
what they were saying! I think I’m beginning to understand Mandarin through
osmosis!! :)
They wrote down the name and address of ANOTHER hospital (after
calling I think to check if they were open) and we grabbed another taxi!!This
was called the People’s Hospital (the sign was in English so that was
promising!) The sign said Outpatients Floor 2. No one was there but a
young woman sent us back downstairs. She told us to follow this guy to an area
of the hospital (there were at least 6 building! each numbered) designated for
Foreigners! Here we found some English, and after a wait, a doctor to speak to
Betty. She examined her then took blood to rule out a bacterial infection (that
would require admittance to the hospital). After 20 minutes the results came
back; no bacterial, but the doctor recommended Betty stay overnight and get
rehydrated and some nutrition through IV. Betty agreed so I left her to be
admitted and headed back to the hostel to get a book, and some toiletries for
her. This area I was unfamiliar with and it took me over an hour, and a couple
of misdirections before I got to the metro and home! It was now 1:30 pm and
I hadn’t eaten!!! So had to stop at KFC and relaxed in the room with
breakfast/lunch before heading back to the hospital.
She was comfortably ensconced on the 2nd floor hooked up to an IV.
She’d had pills for the nausea, liquid for the diarrhea and was getting fluids
and nutrition through an IV - said she’d been through 2 bags already! The dr.
had said she could drink fluids but nurses told her no! She was thirsty but so
far had nothing! Since she has no cell phone, we have no way to communicate. I
said I’d check at our hostel around 2 tomorrow to see if she’d been
released; if not I’d head to the hospital. She COULD stay another night if
needed as our flight home isn’t until 5:10 pm on Tuesday. So
hopefully she will be revived and ready to go home!! It’s a LOONG flight if
you’re not feeling well! Long anyway!!
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