When I arrived the glow of the moon bounced off the window panes, the misty carbon aroma spoke, 3rd rate city. People, cars and open businesses staggered in small numbers. It was a shadow of a shadow compared to Shanghai and I was happy about it. Common life, common city, feeling uncommon to me. I was blessed to have my good friend Eric there to show me the ropes and give me information about medicine, culture, language, do's and don'ts and his ability to read a menu didn't hurt- oh, how grateful I was. We walked around the city, hopped in a cab and cruised around looking for a good restaurant. We found a good spot and started ordering way more than we could possibly- hey, I told you this was a research trip! Well anyway, it was good eats and after our feast we found slumber in the heights of our hotel. The next morning he had business to attend and I wandered about the city trying to see what was out and about. It was a much more beautiful city than I had first thought. I walked around for along looking for a place to have lunch- hey, research- I told you. But, so much for that, I found myself at a park with an empty stomach at what must have been the center of town. There was so much happening, traditional folk dancing, musicians, Mahjong, old-lady Karaoke, onlookers and off-lookers. In fact it was so cool I just skipped my lunch altogether. Eric has many friends and in fact a few of them were at the conference. We hung out with them later that night and to my surprise it was a woman who was doing her doctorate at Shanghai TCM University, so I got to pick her brain about the program and ask her all about it. She helped me understand a lot about what it takes to get a PhD in China. I could get into the details but I won't say much, let's just start by saying you HAVE TO SPEAK MANDARIN! Not that this is a shock to me, I figured as much, It just sinks in deeper every time you hear it. I mean, even at the schools that offer the programs in English it's a bit like shooting yourself in the foot. Eric asked me if I had business cards and I said, well kind of, I have intern cards from my university (ACTCM), "good enough" he said. After a good lecture in Chinese social graces from Eric I was ready to attend the Banquet at the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies! It was a total trip, I was exchanging my intern cards with business cards from government officials- so crazy. They must have looked at the card and under that cool exterior been like WTF! It was a blast, great food, meeting cool people, mingling with TCM government officials and watching Eric sing Hotel California and airguitar on stage was worth it all.
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