Kaiping, Hospital - Day 11

May 4, 2014

First stop, the hospital. My mother and grandmother have to go there for their dental appointment. It's quite cheap for dental procedures done in China rather than in Vancouver. My mother wanted me to see the dentist too since 1. it's cheap 2. I have no insurance 3. I eat way too much chocolate; but, obviously, I declined, it is just so SCARY. Also, the hospital we went to is also the hospital my mother and grandmother worked at before they moved to Canada. A lot of doctors and nurses that they know whom worked at the hospital have already retired, probably not because they want to but because there's a mandatory retiring age. Maybe for doctors it's higher but most people in Kaiping must retire by 40 so that they can make room for the young people, forced retirement. They can still work, but their pay won't be as quite low and it would not be full-time plus their they may not have the same position. My aunt insisted to come along to the hospital saying that we WILL get lost since the hospital is gigantic. Well, because she came along one of us have to ride on the back of her scooter and the other 3 would take the taxi.

When you arrive at the hospital main entrance, there's this round-a-bout road for cars, but mainly taxis.

The entrance to the hospital. When I entered the hospital, everything was in Chinese and there was a very large semi-circle reception desk on the right. There were people everywhere, it was a bit like a mall. A lot of people. This hospital have specialist offices, ER, pharmacy, dentist, wards, etc, everything in one place.

This is how the hospital wards/living quarters? looks like. The picture was taken on the rooftop on the other side of the hospital. If you look closely, you can see pants and clothing hanging on the balcony.

This is the inside of the hospital. Every floor has basically the same design, except for the first floor. Here, we are just waiting for the dental receptionist to call us in, and other people were waiting for a specialist appointment. Anyways, while we waited my both my mother and grandmother, my sister and I went to explore the hospital. First, it was SO HOT in there to just sit, there's only a fan on the wall. Most of the fans weren't even turned on, so I had to go up to one, turn it on, and stand there. I don't know how they take this heat! Later I encountered a washroom, a washroom for patients, and it was a squatter... UM, what if the patient is old and have trouble walking??

This is how the dentist office looks like. Yes, it was dim, and the blue light was there. The dentist that they saw ended up to be somebody they know during the time they worked at the hospital. She's old, probably in her late 50s to early 60s. Initially, she had retired but was told to come back because there wasn't enough dentists, I believe, so she came back and is working some hours. 

Later on we went back downstairs to the main floor so that we can pay for the service. The main floor is like a zoo, way too many people congested there. My mother than went to the pharmacy area to check if her friend, back from her nursing days, was there, and she was. Her friend used to be a nurse and now works at the pharmacy in the hospital dispensing medications to patients. Everybody who is seen at the hospital MUST go to this pharmacy to pick-up their medications, and because of this, her friend is VERY WELL KNOWN in Kaiping. People recognize her when they go out to eat, especially at restaurants, they would also pick up her "tab" and sometimes even fight to "pick up her tab." One time, we went out to eat and 2 tables wanted to pick up her tab. I guess, with her working at a pharmacy, she can give them more medications? 

After we left the hospital, my aunt took my grandma home, or so we thought, in her scooter; they went shopping. My mother, sister and me went shopping also. After shopping, we needed to go home and ended up catching an "ILLEGAL" taxi. There's so many illegal taxis in operation, usually they look like a van instead of a cab. These illegal taxis would drive up to you and offer you a fixed price to your destination but at a higher price. Once we got home, my mother asked him if she can rent him for a day for a fixed price. I believe the guy said 500RMB, my mother took his number and we went back up those long, never-ending stairs.

Once we got home, we started packing goodie bags again; except this time it was filled mostly with foreign chocolate and candies that we brought form Canada. And we brought like 4-5 suitcases of foreign products to give away.

Returned home and somebody brought us two chickens!

Had to place the chicken in the storage room which is located outside of the building.

After this, we had to go out for dinner again. AGAIN. This time it was with grandpa side of the family, which wasn't that big because I believe my grandmother are not that close with them. So we only had two tables in the private room, great because there's AC. The dinner wasn't bad due to the wonderful tasting sweet and sour fish! SO YUMMY!

During dinner, a funny/embarrassing incident occurred; so, my grandpa's side of the family sat down with their child who was in middle school, perhaps 13 years old, and my grandma look at the father and said "very handsome boy," to which the father said, she's a girl. LOL. My grandma corrected herself and said, "very pretty girl." It was hilarious because her tone didn't change at all. HAHAHA. My grandmother eyes isn't too good, so all is forgiven, I hope; but you can't really blame her since the girl had a boy haircut and was wearing her uniform (pants). Most middle schools in Kaiping requires all the girls to have short hair, not to be longer than their shoulders.

I'm getting bigger at this point.