過年

Sorry everyone, not much time to write this.

Last week was Chinese New Year. I was amped to celebrate it a bit. And to make this year's new years even more memorable, I got Strep throat.

This week was great and very full. But due to time I'll elaborate on this one story.

On Monday, as it was Pday, I figured I just need to rest what I was feeling off, so we had a good relaxing day. But then Tuesday came and my throat hurt like crazy and was super red and swollen and full of white puss. Go see a doctor, the answer is simple right? But don't forget that Tuesday was the third day of Chinese New Year. Every clinic and hospital was all shut down for the entire week...except the ER. I talked to the President's wife to see if I could try to just tough it out for a week and then see but she didn't like that idea with lots of strep all back up in the throat the way it was. So Tuesday afternoon we made it to the hospital ER. I stood in line for 15 minutes to register. Once registered we were put on a waiting list. After almost two hours, I still wasn't called. A car came flying up in the drive way and an entire family sprinting all over the place barged into the room. Then we had tons of medical assistants shouting and sprinting out to the car to get the dead man out of the car and flew him into the resuscitation room! That craziness went on for a solid 30 minutes as they tried to bring the old man back, finally they got a pulse. What a stressful sight that was even for a bystander.. When it died down a bit, I went and checked to see where my name was on the list. I still had another 20 or so names ahead of mine. At this point we threw in the towel and left.

Went back the next day and made it through a bit faster, but not much.

Socialized healthcare systems during the longest holiday break of the year are a nightmare!

In the end, I saw the doctor for a total of 2 minutes. She wrote a prescription I could've forged myself in two seconds.

Don't get sick on Chinese New Year if you're in Asia, you'll regret it.

But I ate a TON of food to make up for it :-)

So I will be working that off now. 

Love you all!!

Here are some pictures of the food for your enjoyment.

A family we ate a dinner with.

A man we love who we've been seeing in the hospital.

And the last one is proof that there are no thieves here in Taiwan (the owner left his keys in the ignition and everything..)