Shots

Today I straightened out the shot thing. It's amazing when you get the right person. After being referred around from office to office to website and back, my doctors nurse figured everything out and I get the shot (I love shots (not)) tomorrow for HEP A. They also have some other things they might want me to take (you know, stomach stuff).

The web tells you everything from "don't worry about it" to "you will be lucky to live long enough to get to the baggage carousel". I was thinking today that I want Spock from Star Trek on the other end giving me crisp, accurate data like "You have a 1 in 947 chance of contracting Hepatitis without the shot, and a 1 in 11,232 chance with it". After reading all this stuff, I think I will stay away from "sketchy" food. I did wait until the last minute so "my bad", but not too bad. I can sleep tonight. Thank you nurse from the health center.

So I need to figure out what to take. Clothes, not too many, some electronic gadgets, not too many, a couple good books (small ones), teeth scrubbing and face scraping stuff. We may need to carry everything as we are not sure if there is any place to leave stuff so I'll take a big backpack with a small pack inside (day trips). The average high this time of year is upper 80's and lows are mid 60's so no long-johns required here. I have comfy sneakers that should do the trick.

I have been reading a bit of Chinese history and in some respects, they have had more changes by far than we have in our brand new country. All those dynasties, the last emperor, Mao, and then the new go-go economy. I am very interested in meeting folks there and smiling and making silly hand gestures at them. How do they cut steak with chopsticks? What's the waving cat all about? And do those numbered meals in Chinese restaurants correspond to the same numbers over there or will I need a US meal number to Chinese meal number decoder ring of some kind. So many questions to be answered.

I video chatted with Jake today and he bought train tickets to Shanghai. They didn't have sleeper seats, but he assured me the train was pretty comfy. It's a high speed train so not sure what that means.

Gotta rest up for my shot tomorrow, oh boy!!