Conference time

The last couple of days, I've been attending a conference at the Tianjin Hotel (about a ten-minute drive from the school). I think I mentioned it before -- it's the school's 50th anniversary. It's also the 11th conference on acupuncture, the 5th on herbal medicine, the first on TCM education.... anyway, it's a lot of to-do. But I sat in on some of the sessions -- mostly presentations of clinical research. It was interesting, what I could understand of it, since the interpretation (with the cool UN-style headphones) was at times terrible. But there were some good presentations on stroke recovery, emergency acupuncture using 人中 (Renzhong, Du 23) in the treatment of shock, and so on.

Yesterday had its moments. The morning was entirely consumed with the opening ceremonies and speeches -- no surprise there -- and I got to hear both Dr. Goto speak, and Dr. Shi, who went on for a good while about the Xingnao Kaiqiao (Clear the Brain and Open the Orifices) theory of treating stroke. Although I never did get to see him clinically, from his speech I can see that the First Teaching Hospital at Tianjin University of TCM is continuing his work and research. It was actually quite good, even if a bit redundant.

Then came lunch -- which, although there was a banquet for the attendees, I was technically there on the employee plan, apparently. So I got... a Big Mac.

Ten years or more since my last Big Mac, and I have to go all the way to China to get it. And it tastes almost exactly the same as I remember it, for whatever that's worth. Since a Big Mac costs about the same here as it does at home (15 元, a little over $2 US), I don't think I'll have another. That's what I spend on three meals, some days.

Today, though, that was not meant to be. Breakfast -- chicken in flatbread. Lunch -- a couple of different dishes, and an egg. An afternoon snack of those seafood aebelskivers -- still odd, still strangely tasty, I'll get to those in another post. And for dinner, Ting and I went to have 火锅 at a relatively hot restaurant near here. More on that later -- but 火锅 roughly translates as "hot pot". But this isn't like the Taiwanese hot pot that you find at Koryo or something else in the Bay Area. This is... real broth. A divided "pot" with spicy on one side and mild on the other. Chinese herbs in both broths. Very nice... and Ting and I ate ourselves silly. It was nice, and she insisted on paying for me.

One last thing about that. Dinner cost 163元, a little over $20... and we had four-star service throughout the meal. Attendant in the washroom, refreshed hot towels, as much or as little attention as we wanted, complimentary snacks while we waited for our table. Amazing what you can do in a country where labor is still dirt cheap.

Anyway -- last day in clinic tomorrow, probably my last post on Chinese medicine for a while coming up, too.

And definitely the last word on politics for a while in this space right now.

I feel truly honored to be alive to witness how the election went, and to be a part of that moment was just amazing. I'm having trouble finding a working set of headphones, so I haven't listened to any of the speeches, but I will... and for the most part, it was a good day for civil rights in the US on Tuesday. I'm not going to let the Prop 8 vote get me down much. There's always one more thing to think about, and I'll just enjoy what I've seen, and worry about what I can't directly affect some other time. Even folks over here are pleased to hear that Obama won... read what you like into that, but most people are just happy to see some change in the US.