Back in time to Portland

On the airplane back to Portland….


This trip has been so good for me. I feel so solid in my person, in my feelings and plans. I feel infinitely healthier and happier and more optimistic. I feel more secure about my relationships and their future, and feel all right about leaving the past in the past. I feel ready to reaffirm my friendships in Portland and build new ones elsewhere—abroad and in the states perhaps. I feel open to whatever will happen, and that is a fantastic feeling.

China was a challenge, for sure. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. A mysteriously sprained and then kindly and miraculously healed ankle. Then “travel sickness”, then the flu, then more travel sickness, then gastritis, then deep and incessant phlegm that I am bringing home with me on the plane as I type.
I am changed by this country, I am changed by China. She has made her way into my body for sure, and also my spirit. I am unable to even outline all the ways in which I think I’ve been affected, it is infinite. I feel so deliciously blessed to have been there, to have graduated and then to have contextualized everything I have learned about Chinese medicine with clinical experience IN China. So much of it is so much more clear having seen where it comes from, and also extreme ways in which it can be used. Having talked about a patient with ‘yang type’ jaundice and then needling a patient who is the color of orange juice are completely different things. To have talked about using herbs and acupuncture for cancer and to have seen herbal IV drips for a pulmonary cancer patient and then needling her are worlds apart. My confidence in the medicine and myself have increased exponentially, as has my inspiration. I have thousands of ideas swimming in my head of not only what I might be able to accomplish in my practice, but also how I want to accomplish that. I now know that it IS possible to have a desk, a prescription pad and a pulse pillow and write fifty formulas in a morning—and have patients rave about what a great doctor you are---all using Shan Han Lun modifications. I know that with the right spirit, a smile and genuine concern, patients in the most dire circumstances will not only benefit from acupuncture, but consider you a friend and partner in their healing. I was so impressed by the doctors I met and worked with. Their true compassion, wisdom and joyousness shined through with each interaction. They work hard and long hours, but they love what they do and I can see why---it is so gratifying. The OCOM clinical experience was wonderful, but nothing like what I have seen and done in China and I can’t imagine starting a practice without that reference point.
I am so grateful. And I will read and re-read this post many times throughout the years as I pay off my student loans and grumble about the cost.

Yesterday, we were in Shanghai having our last day in China—which was perfect. I started out with a leisurely breakfast of fruit, tea and toast in the dining room. I think I lounged there for about 1.5 hours. Then I went off myself on an erhu search. An Erhu is a 2 stringed Chinese instrument that is played similarly to the cello, but is much much much smaller. After nearly being pick pocketed for my umbrella and sunglasses by this younger Chinese guy who looked incredibly strung out on something or other, I took the metro three stops to Huangpi road and Huaihui lu, one of the major shopping districts of Shanghai. I had 2 hours before I was supposed to meet some friends for lunch, and I was on a mission. I walked down the major street for quite a while and saw lots of fun stuff, yoga dancing and the fancy shopping mall and lots of amazing Chinese fashion. I decided I probably wasn’t going to find an erhu in times square, so I turned down a side street that looked relatively promising as far as cheaper items go. I found a sock shop where I got some great stuff, and after a great exchange with the shop lady (who told me my very limited Chinese was good!), I asked her where I could find an erhu. She pointed me exactly to it and even wrote down the name of the street in Chinese. I walked just three or so blocks and found a fancy instrument shop with everything from erhus to baby grands. I had limited myself to a rather small erhu budget, so I wasn’t sold on the spendy instruments and after a brief demonstration; I kept walking and told myself I would think about it. After winding around a few corners and seeing a few more things I decided that it would be silly to pass up the instrument over a couple hundred kuai, and made my way back to the street I had been on. Just when I thought I knew where I was, I saw an instrument shop on the other side of the street and crossed to check it out. I thought perhaps I was more turned around than I thought and that it was the same one I had been in. It was not though, and their erhus were a little bit cheaper! Hurray! So I shelled out and bought it and was thrilled with my purchase. I was right on schedule, so after hailing a cab I made my way to “Face” or “la visage” as I would rather say. I think my favorite thing about Face was that it is international and could probably be called the word for “face” in any language. We had a fantastic lunch that was about $40 US, so given that price in CHINA, you can imagine how delicious it was. We got the thing on the menu that said you “have to try this dish!” and I was so glad I did. It was leisurely and breezy and loungealicious as the four of us sat by the open window and chatted casually about medicine and travel and watched the children play on the lawn.
Then three of us went to the yuyuan gardens, which were definitely more structure than garden and perhaps more fish than people if that is possible considering the thousands of people that were there.
It was also the busiest shopping square/open market I have ever seen. I’m still too overwhelmed to even think about it.

Then cab back to the hotel to quickly shower before our last dinner all together for Beijing duck. The meal was all in all pretty good, but I don’t think that duck is my thing.

A few of us walked around the street the restaurant was on to do some last minute shopping and blow the rest of our kuai. I found the best hats ever and got matching ones for Timber and I for 3 kuai each---that’s like .50 cents! I’m wearing mine on the flight home and can’t wait to give her her’s. They’re black and have off black lettering in what I think might be Portuguese, but the best part is the opaque black vinyl rims. I was going to buy one, but when they rang it up and it was 3 kuai and not 9 like the sticker said I ran downstairs and got a second one. Between that and the iced tea I bought today in the airport I successfully spent most of my kuai.

Then home to re-pack, and an excited and light sleep. I was up with the morning call at 6am feeling like it was Christmas, and now here I am flying to Tokyo and then home. I have loved every minute of this trip but would not have wanted it a day longer or a day shorter.