Tuesday 6 May 2008

A few problems solved.

China always presents challenges to those foreigners who dare to try to live in the country. The language divide is of course one.

In the last few weeks I've suffered an awful cold, and resultant deafness that I couldn't seem to get any of the medical people to understand. Even with the "help" of interpreters. I've taken strange medication that was supposed to fix me - and my request for some sort of ear drops was always ignored - as the Chinese medicine would cure me - "guaranteed". Oh, yeh!

As well, I still have had challenges with the computer. I bought a new one, but we had continual trouble with the internet connection in the teachers' apartments - and all efforts to resolve it seemed to work for some and not others.

My deafness and cough continued despite the medication. In all areas I was getting desperate.

A few days in Shanghai might make me feel better - but it did not! New medication was recommended in Shanghai, and I didn't enjoy the endless crowds of people in the May long weekend, the heat, the walking, the stairs and my deafness.

When we returned to the college, we found that the Internet was off completely - so no hope of resolving any of my computer problems, and I had to seek out a friend to get a message back to home that I had survived the days in Shanghai.

Yesterday I was miserable. As well the movie I planned to show the students would not work on the college computer, and I spent hours trying to resolve that. With the deafness I was near to tears!

In the end, with the help of a college student I went to the college "hospital", and this time was sent to one of the local hospitals. (That is a whole story in itself!)

My ears were blocked - and at the hospital cleared and at long last I could hear! It is amazing how good I feel now!

And today I managed to download Firefox as my Internet Browser and almost instantly I found it easier to access the Internet.

I can hear and surf! All in one day. And I managed to show the movie - with the help of my laptop.

I feel quite inspired. I can hear and some things are working well for me.

Now if only the parcel (with my new camera) would arrive from Australia. Airmail from Brisbane should not take 4 weeks!




1 comment:

zwan said...

I thought Shanghai is quite a modern city, technology wise too. Actually thought of ging over to teach there too...but...