Autumn Festival

I've been here nearly a week, and still I'm having trouble staying up later than 8:30pm. I called for pen pals, and have been a poor correspondent because I just can't stay awake. Between adjusting to the time change, S-- waking up daily around 6:30, and dealing with the many new and exhausting things around me, I feel like crawling into bed right now (the time is 7:45 pm).

But today, the Autumn Festival, was too eventful a day to miss describing.

With a little work (and the help of HBO), we managed to stay up after 10:00 last night. Looking forward to a leisurely morning, we were rudely awakened by S-- at 6:00 this morning. She had no intention of going back to sleep after her morning bottle, and the whole family was up and running by 7:15. This led to two sleepy adults, and a sleep-deprived toddler most of the morning. That said, L-- did remarkably well.

We took the morning slow because of the festivities we had planned for the afternoon. L-- and S-- spent their first afternoon with paid babysitters. I'm a lucky mother, having made it over 2 years without ever needing to pay someone to watch my kids. But I'm afraid the time has come. And the girls (the Chinese-Canadian daughters of Sheila, our agent) who stayed with them were great.

We hired the sitters because China scheduled us for our state physicals today. Anyone desiring to live in the People's Republic of China for over a year, or wanting to leave for longer than 3 months, needs a physical conducted at China's Exit and Entry Medical Center. Armed with a post-it note written in Chinese, we jumped in a taxi and rode over half an hour to the west to the clinic. Upon arrival, we were prepared for the worst. We'd heard stories about ridiculous Chinese bureaucracy, flimsy phlebotomists and indignities throughout the process. But apparently the Chinese heard these rumors as well, because our entire experience was relatively painless.

Quite confident that they would request a urine sample, I showed up prepared, having drunk water all morning. We went to the first line, where the woman in a pressed pink uniform requested our paperwork and 3 passport pictures. She handed us a form, which we completed and joined the same line to return. With my new form in hand, she sent me to Room 102 - The Waiting Room. I'm not sure the title of the room I'd been waiting in before. After about a 15 minute wait, my number was called and I moved into the room next door. I sat on a small stool in front of a woman at a computer. I'm not sure what she did, but when she was finished I sat on a small stool in front of the woman across from her. This took a total of only 2 minutes or so. They asked if I was pregnant, and then sent me to Room 103.

In Room 103, things began to move quite efficiently. One person asked me to remove my shoes and took my weight. Immediately, another person asked me to put my shoes back on and cover them with paper booties. This was a task in flip-flops, but there was no time for figuring it out because that next nurse needed me out of her chair. She handed me a warm waffle robe and pointed me toward a small changing room. The sign said to remove all clothes from the waist up, and then place them in nifty little lockers like they have at amusement parks, or the pool. Room 108, she told me. They drew blood, did a very snappy eye test, performed an ultrasound and an EKG, gave me a chest x-ray, each nurse in their own separate room, all off of a hallway straight out of a nightmare - oddly lit, not quite white, doors on either side, and people wearing white robes over their pants, blue paper booties over their shoes, and rubber bands with keys o them around their wrists. All was completed in under an hour, but they never asked me to pee. Needless to say, at the end of the hour I was in dire need. And thus my first experience with a squat pot.

We hopped the cab back to downtown, grabbed a leisurely lunch sans children, and headed back to relieve the babysitters. The only way we knew that today is th Autumn Festival was by the fruit basket delivered to us by the hotel. It had two moon cakes inside, which we are looking forward to. We're not sure the story behind the Autumn Festival, but it has something to do with moon gazing and gifting friends and family with moon cakes. We'll let you know how tasty they are tomorrow.