Hainan Part Three: Culture is All About People

Ask any one of my Cross Cultural Communication students and they will tell you . . . "Culture is all about people, people are all the same and people are all different." It is the core to our understanding of cultures around the world and can there be anything more fascinating than people? So endlessly diverse in every way imaginable and yet all very much the same. Our trip to Hainan was a chance for us to see yet another fraction of this incredible country's vast cultural landscape. The ocean was beautiful, the seafood was delicious, the weather was perfect but the culture . . . the people made the trip worthwhile.
















Case in point. A funeral procession marched by our car. Hundreds of people marching through the street carrying flowers and banners and lighting fire crackers to scare away the evil spirits. All I wanted to do was stare because everything about them was so different. So when I stared what did I see? They were staring at us because everything about us was so different. I guess that kind of makes us the same.

Hainan Part Two: Monkey Island

A short sky tram ride from Hainan is an island filled with monkeys running free. I have been on a quest for years to see a wild monkey and in one day I hit the monkey mother-load. There weren't only thousands of wild monkeys but wild monkeys who played basketball and rode motorcycles. There were monkey swimming pools, monkey stage shows and even a monkey prison for monkeys who broke monkey laws.

Insert joke here about LaWanda getting the monkey
off her back

Hainan Part One

The Spring Festival is the grandest holiday in the Chinese calendar. Our school takes a full four weeks off so the students can travel back home to spend time with their families. Our friend (and my student) Tracy invited us to spend a week with her family and friends in Hainan. Hainan is the southern most province in China. It was a wonderful chance to build some great relationships, see some more of China, try some new foods, relax a little learn more about this vast and amazing country. It didn't hurt that the weather was warm and Rachel even got to see the ocean (one of her favorite things).

Rachel and Mary checking out the ocean


Rachel's first coconut milk

Never go on a trip with Chinese people without a
handy dandy Chinese/English dictionary

Rachel with Tracy and Mary

"My $36 Root Canal" or "Who Needs Novicane?"

For years I have been frustrated and baffled by the racket we call health insurance. It's not so much the impossible to understand hmo jargon or the whole, "sorry, the only doctor left in your network is a first year nursing student at the community college." The biggest irritation for me has always been the annual 27% premium increase (can I get an amen?)

I have found the answer!

Ready for this . . . Here it is . . . Move to China. Simple as that. I have crossed over into a new world of dental, health care options. No long hours in the waiting room just walk right in, take a seat and bzzzzzzzzzzz root canal!

The entire process took about three weeks, each one a little less painful that the previous and the final bill . . . that's right . . . 36 bucks. Granted there were a few teeny tiny downside details like that shot of novocaine that, with frightening precision, numbed the entire right side of my face except the actual tooth and corresponding nerve which were then drilled and impaled with a scrapy, picky tool. The bad however, was far outweighed by the priceless education of the whole experience. For instance, it took me no time at all to learn the Chinese words for RRRAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! THAT HURTS!! and did you know that if the little spit sucker thing doesn't work you can stuff a patients mouth with cotton balls to sop up the puddle of saliva pooling in the back of his throat? Seriously . . . I never knew that.

So, I hate to come off like an insurance salesman but if you're tooth hurts but you're worn out with the mind numbing nightmare of hmo's, inadequate copays and the endless political debate surrounding it all . . . call your travel agent right now (don't wait) grab 36 bucks and some novocaine if you've got it and we'll pick you up at the airport.

Just one quick disclaimer for integrity's sake. The picture above, although strikingly similar to my experience, is not actually me. I cannot tell you how much I really wanted to pull out my camera phone and snap a picture but I just couldn't get up the nerve. Must have been the novocaine. Oh wait.

Are you kidding me . . . the sequel

Just as a follow up to my last post post let me set your minds at ease (I know you were worried). Turns out you can get the superbowl in China (although very few people know what it is). In fact, thanks to an insightful friend (also living in China) we were even able to pull it up on the internet . . . in English . . . with commercials.

A few friends, a computer, a big stack of pancakes, some breakfast burritos (thanks to my lovely wife) . . . could there be a better way to watch my Bears fumble their way to a super bowl pummeling? All in all a great super bowl Monday (pummeling excepted).