One of the worst fears that we carried into this glorious adventure was that at some point in our travels we might have to face a serious health issue. That fear finally materialized last Monday though thankfully more scare than life altering . Teaching her first class of the week, Nonie tripped while stepping up on to the raised podium at the front of the class. She fell hard on her right arm and managed to break it near the shoulder. To you medical types, she has a fracture of the greater tubercle on the anterior humerus as well as two small bone chips floating about. Nonie, like the trooper she is, finished her class and waited for my arrival before doing anything about it.
I contacted our local support guy, Guodong to come and take Nonie to the campus hospital, expecting that I would follow along quickly after my class. Nonie was in, seen by a doctor had ex-rays, referred to a specialist, saw the specialist, had a catscan, saw the specialist and then her original doctor again and was virtually out the door before my class ended 1 hour and 45 minutes later. She came away impressed by the speed and professionalism that was displayed by the Chinese medical system. She has to return in two weeks for a follow up and may need to wear a brace for another two weeks. Right now she is making do with a simple sling. According to her, the pain has been quite manageable and she seems quite comfortable with ibuprofen for pain relief. She was back teaching both her classes on Tuesday. What a women.
Other than that one setback, the past ten days has been very quiet with little happening other than work and the odd nap. Nonie was to give her presentation on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic preparations to the school on Wednesday so we were busy putting the final touches to her speech and powerpoint presentation. We had the pleasure of attending a power point presentation prepared by Branson and Brian last week. Quite impressive so went back to the drawing board to jazz up Nonie's. Luckily the presentation has now been put off till next week due to her injury so we will have further opportunities to add some glitz. An interesting note: Haerbin was one of the Cities that applied to host the Olympic Winter Games. Hopefully they are not going to hold a grudge.
Haerbin winter has come on strong this week. Today has been the coldest day yet as we woke up to -17 degrees Celsius. Still managed to get out for a 5:30 AM run. That's just how tough I am. Actually, I had already run to the track which is only a block away before I realized how freakin cold it was. Any skin that was exposed was instant popsicle. Since I was already running with the regular early morning track gang, I did not want to appear as a wimp and leave before they did. Bad mistake as I lost the feeling in my fingers and toes within the first ten minutes on the track. Which at the time, did not feel bad, but when I got home and they began to warm up. *#+@#%$%!
We had the pleasure of attending another symphony concert on Tuesday. The concert was to celebrate the upcoming World University games that will be held in Harbin around the end of February, beginning of March. According to the press, students from all around the world be be coming to Haerbin to compete in the usual games that one would expect from a winter event. I am looking forward to the hockey and curling events. Both will have strong representation from Canada. The ski competitions will be held in a resort about 3 or 4 hours away from Haerbin called Yabuli. I am hoping we can fit in a weekend there for some skiing in March. I must remember to bring back a Canadian flag when we return for the next semester so Nonie and I can have something to wave madly about during the games and when the Canadian teams kick butt and win all those gold medals.
Nonie and I are organizing a ping pong tournament for this weekend. More on that and some pictures in our next blog.
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