Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A Day of Meeting People


The Bund in Shanghai. This was a typical sight at the Bund, tourists taking pictures of the Cityscape.
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Today I went into Hangzhou city to have my medical test done. This is needed to get a work permit. This is the last permit that I have to get. The only findings were that my tonsils were swolen, but that makes sense as I am just getting over a cold, and the ECG showed "Left Ventricular High Voltage" What ever that means... Also my blood pressure is WAY down from what is was in Canada. I am 116 over 90 and in Canada I was 166 over 99. Way to go China! Making me healthy. It could be the fact that I can't find a good cup of coffee here.

While in Hangzhou I walked around West Lake for a while. I sat on a bench and an old man came up to me. I was expecting him to ask for change. I get that a lot, being one of the few white people here. But instead he just wanted to talk in English. We talked for the better part of an hour, him asking me questions about the English Language (Various rules, like possessive nouns and what not) Turns out, he learned English while serving in WWII and has continued to study it to this day. At one point, while I was showing him some examples on paper, we had a crowd of nearly 15 people watching us. They were enthralled at an old Chinese man and a Young Canadian were talking so easily. In the end, He pulled out a book and asked me to write a little about me. I flipped through the pages and he has correspondences from hundreds of other tourists.

Mr Yu, you made my day in Hangzhou! Thanks for the conversation.

On the bus ride back to Yuhang (Linping) I met a guy named Taj from Delhi. Turns out he lives in the same town as me and also doesn't really know anyone here. So we swapped numbers and are going to hit up the town one night. Finally another foreigner!

1 Comments:

Blogger A few words about Lisa.... said...

That story made my day! Im so happy you're havin a good time meetin locals!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:59:00 PM  

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