That was awful...

Last night I decided that today was going to be the day that I finally got the medicals done on Nicholas and Ryan so they can go to the kindergarten/daycare.  Tim said he would forgo the gym and come with me then we would drop him off at work afterward.  We had to go early because the kids weren't allowed to eat anything ahead of time and I knew they would be hungry which makes them owly.  We had a little trouble finding the place because I hadn't told Tian Ye ahead of time that we would be going.  I thought he knew exactly where it was because when we originally checked out the kindergarten and I gave him the paper, he said, "I know this" which I now realize may have just meant that he knew what had to be done but not necessarily where.  Anyway, we eventually found it and arrived just before eight o'clock.  It's a good thing we did because there was already a lineup and the place didn't open until eight.  The place was somewhat less than desirable and I really didn't even want to stay but I knew we had to get it done.  Tim took Ryan to the bathroom while I waited in line and when he came out he was shaking his head and all he could say was "disgusting".  When it was my turn at the counter Tian Ye came up with me.  We had asked him to come in with us since we had almost no idea what we were doing or what they might want.  The other parents in the line had paperwork but all we had was a sheet with information about Kid Castle and the address of the clinic.  Luckily I had brought the boys' passports for identification.

After registering and paying we were directed down a hallway already half-filled with people.  We were led into a room where a man and woman were weighing the kids.  Ryan screamed as soon as I tried to put him on the archaic scale so Nicholas went first.  He didn't want to get on but with a little coaxing he stayed long enough for them to get his weight and height.  Then the man listened to his chest through his shirt with a stethoscope.  Next it was Ryan's turn and there was no way he was going to stand on that thing.  He fought a good fight and in the end I don't know what they put down for his weight, maybe they just guessed.  Next we moved into the back part of the room where two women wanted to look in the kids' mouths and check their eyesight.  By this point Nicholas was now crying as well since he had realized he would be getting a needle.  I had to tip Ryan back for the woman to look at his teeth and for Nicholas we had to pry his mouth open.  Now I was sweating, Tim didn't know what to do, Tian Ye looked a little nervous and both Nick and Ryan were crying and clinging to me.  I tried to get Nick to sit down to read the eye chart but even if he could have seen it through his tears, he wouldn't have spoken a word.  The women wrote down what they could and we were shuffled out and told to go to door number eight next.

We noticed that the door across from number eight was where they were taking blood so we thought they had made a mistake in directing us to that one.  We sat in the hallway for about five minutes, Nicholas still crying while he watched the screaming kids coming out of the blood taking room.  As we sat there I noticed the old wooden door across from us had a biohazard sign and another that said HIV then a bunch of Chinese characters.  Great!  Then door eight opened and we were told to go in there.  Here a woman, perhaps a doctor (I'm guessing she was since her office was air conditioned) sat at a desk.  She looked us over with a rather discouraging look, opened her desk drawer and pulled out an incredibly odd laminated drawing which she laid down on a chair in front of us.  She spoke to Tian Ye and they were talking back and forth and I could tell he was getting a little annoyed.  I asked him what she wanted us to do and he said that she wanted to ask the kids about the drawing but since we didn't speak Chinese, she wanted Tian Ye to translate.  Now I must describe this picture.  She said it was "people" and it had a body and a head, but there was only one leg, no arms, the only parts on the face were little slits for eyes and there was a column of buttons where a shirt might be.  That was it.  We couldn't understand what this had to do with the physical exam and I said to Tian Ye, who was very frustrated, "What does she want to ask?" and he said she wanted to ask questions like, "How many legs are there?  Are there arms?" etc.  By this point Tim was starting to get a little angry and was trying to relay that message to the woman through Tian Ye who said that his English wasn't that good.  Tim said, "This is ridiculous.  It looks like an amputee!"  I was trying to calm things down because everyone, Tim, Tian Ye, the doctor, Nicholas and myself were all getting a little upset so I asked Tian Ye to tell the doctor to go ahead and ask a question even though I knew Nicholas wouldn't answer because he was still crying.  So the woman points at the picture and says, "Is this a boy?".  Huh?  Even I couldn't answer that one.  The poor amputee didn't have any reproductive parts drawn in to distinguish male from female.  "Okay, we've had enough."  I told Tian Ye to forget the doctor, that we would just go for the blood test now so we turned around and opened the door to walk out.  As soon as we opened the door about three adults and another kids tried to rush in and we had to push them out of our way telling them that they needed to let us out before they could come in.  I wonder if that kid was able to answer her ridiculous questions.

Next came the fun part, the blood taking.  We got to stand in the doorway watching two other kids screaming while their mother's held them still before we got our turn.  By this time Nicholas had himself so worked up he was coughing and almost vomitting.  I held him while she put the band on his arm and before she put the needle in I covered his eyes with my hand.  He screamed a little more when she stuck it in (luckily it was a really thin needle) then he asked if he could look now.  I took my hand away and he let out an even louder scream when he saw the needle sticking out of his arm so I covered his eyes again.  She did two vials then it was over and Tim took him out to have his juice pack.  Next it was Ryan's turn.  Even though he was standing right there while Nicholas screamed he had been watching the iPod so he didn't start crying until I put his arm up on the desk and the nurse tied on the band.  After that it was the same ordeal over again until it was done.  Poor Tian Ye had stayed for all of it, carrying our paperwork and handing over what they asked for when they asked for it.

When we got out to the van we thanked Tian Ye profusely and he apologized for the thing with the doctor and for his English not being very good.  We told him he did great and that we weren't upset with him at all, just with the doctor and the whole process.  I don't know how they can expect young children who are scared and unsure of what is going on in this going on in this hot, dirty clinic, to do eye tests and answer IQ questions.  Bizarre. 

We stopped for some drinks and drove Tim to work.  The kids were over their trauma by now but I'm not sure the three of us were.  I asked the kids what they wanted to do for the rest of the day and we decided on the aquarium.  We went there directly from Michelin and invited Tian Ye to come in with us.  I'm glad he did because even though Ryan is doing better with not running off, when they get excited both kids are all over the place looking at the animals.  We saw a lot more this time since we weren't in a hurry to get to the dolphin show.  There were a lot more animals and interesting tanks.  We came across one really big one and there was loud music playing.  People were gathered around and we had no idea what they were doing until we saw the mermaids.  Two women in mermaid costumes were in the tank with the fishes swimming around and doing a little show.  The burgundy and red costumes were gorgeous, with the exception of the huge yellow swim goggles, but it was cool.  We couldn't get a great view because of all the people so we moved on.  We soon found a pond with goldfish who, although they were huge, looked really hungry.  We bought some fish food and fed them which was quite an experience.  I have a video but it won't upload right now so I will post it later.

To feed these goldfish Ryan had to stand on the railing and while he was perched up there feeding the fishes an admirerer came along.  When she couldn't get his attention by chattering at him she grabbed his arm and tried to spin him around to look at her kid.  The nerve of some people!  I held him up and turned him right back around so he could continue with what he was doing.  Other people came along and stuck their faces right in his and started babbling at me, asking me something.  I asked Tian Ye what they wanted and he said that she wanted to know if Nick and Ryan were twins.  Come on people!

From here we made our way to the indoor playground we went to the last time we were there.  Even though they were hungry the boys played for a long time.  One little boy, about three, kept going after Ryan and grabbing him around the waist.  They were up at the top of the structure the first time and Ryan started screaching.  He really doesn't like to be restrained.  The mother of the kid was with him and when I walked over and looked up, she was trying to pry her kid off and laughing.  She got him off then let him go and he latched onto Ryan again.  I asked Nicholas to get over there and help Ryan so he went and helped him get through a tunnel to get away from the boy.  A little later they ended up in the same area and again the little bugger ran over and grabbed him around the waist, knocking him down.  The mother was right there and after she pulled him off she sat holding the kid who was screaming to get away and held her camera up to try and get a picture of Ryan.  Once she got her kid down she brought some little yogurt cups over to Nicholas for him and Ryan.  I thought it was a peace offering for her child being such a brat but after another round of yogurts Tian Ye said that she was trying to bribe my kids into getting their picture taken.  It didn't work.  At one point her kid came over to me and dove his hands into my purse and started grabbing stuff.  She came over and smacked him in the head then his father butted in, grabbed him by the shirt and carried him off.  He was quite the tyrant and the whole time we were there she followed him around trying to keep him out of trouble, laughing the whole time.

Eventually we were all getting hungry so I went to get the boys and Tian Ye some chips and ice cream.  Was I feeling a little guilty?  Perhaps.  I brought the food back to the playground and when I tried to go in the woman at the gate said that I couldn't have food in there.  Really?  When we first arrived there was another mother eating a big plate of noodles while she watched her kid.  Tian Ye said something to her but I told him not to worry about it, we would just go to the cafeteria next door.  We went and sat down at a table there, the only people in the place, and a woman who worked there came over to us and said that we weren't allowed to bring the food into the cafeteria.  OH MY GOD!  We bought the food at the aquarium, just at a different stand.  Anyway, I asked Tian Ye to tell her I was going to buy something at the cafeteria so back off.  I got some rice and beef and we sat for a bit and munched.

As we sat there people were going by and eventually we aquired some really nosy admirers.  Two women got right in Ryan's face so he came over to me.  They asked how old the boys were and, of course, started patting his face and hair.  He got down and ran behind my chair and when he did one of the women dashed behind me and grabbed him.  I pulled him out of her arms while he squirmed to get away and ended up hitting his head on Nick's chair in the process.  I thought this would be enough to get them to back off, but no.  Even though I turned my back to them while I held Ryan they reached around me and across the table to keep touching both boys.  While all this was going on the man that was with them was asking Tian Ye a million questions and even though he wasn't answering, the man wouldn't stop.  Again, I had enough.  I told the boys to get up, we threw our garbage on the tray and walked away leaving the man and women behind us.  Afterward I asked Tian Ye what they were saying and he told me that the woman said she wanted to take Ryan home.  When I asked about the man's questions, he said that the nosy bugger was asking if Tian Ye was a friend of ours and later I found out that he wanted to know if they were Tian Ye's kids.  We were back at the playground by now and I quickly realized that the other parents kept looking at us and I knew what they were thinking.  They were just dying to know what the deal was with us.  Ha!  I think I could have some fun with this in the future!

We finally dragged the boys out of the playground and made our way outside.  I took Ryan on the merry-go-round where we had teenage boys taking our picture.  It was really hot, everyone was tired and I wasn't sure how much more I could take so we left.  Both Nicholas and Ryan fell asleep on the way home and it was a pretty quiet ride.  I had a hard time getting Nicholas out of the van and convincing him to walk from the gate to our building.  He was pretty tired after being woken up at 6:40 this morning.  We cooled off in the air conditioning for a while and I dozed off on the couch for about twenty minutes, until Ryan sat on my hair and wouldn't leave me alone so I got up.  I called Sue to see about going to YooHoo tomorrow and since Sonny was sleeping and she was trying to be quiet, I asked her if she wanted to join us outside.  I took the boys out with their diggers and squirt guns and Sue and I sat and talked for about an hour until Tim got home.  We came in and I gave the boys a bath while Tim made supper.  When the bath was done I headed over to Celine's house.  Her seamstress, also named Sue, was coming and I wanted to give her my purse to fix and Ryan's curtains so she could make new ones for me.  The curtains in his room were more like shears so they didn't keep any light out.  They were also white with pink roses all over them so I though we would have some new ones made that were a little more boyish.

When I got back from Celine's it was after seven so I ate my supper then got Ryan ready for bed.  Even though they were both really tired, neither of the kids went to bed easily.  I guess it was a bit of a stressful day for everyone.  I am late writing this blog because my 'new' computer that I bought before we left for China is not working right and is more like a really expensive DVD player now.  I'm writing this on my four-year-old laptop that is holding up extremely well.

Tomorrow will be another busy day but I won't tell you about it now.  I must go to bed.  Have a great day everyone!