Lets see, since we last talked we’ve seen some new sights here- like the Emergency Room. We all crashed out last night and then at about midnight Nathan woke up screaming that his ear hurt. Of course, why wouldn’t something like this happen over a long weekend while we were away? So PC is up calling Tricare to figure out the insurance portion of our problem, Im trying to convince Nathan to just chew up a damn motrin already. Mackenzie woke up to join the commotion and was vacillating between “fun, party at midnight” and fussy and exhausted. I tried calling the front desk to see if Hong Kong was one of those countries where you can just go to the pharmacy and get what you need….no Rx needed. Well, its not. And then Im all worried about what the hospitals are like and Oh God what if he gets exposed to piggy flu there and he’s allergic to amoxicillin so what if they accidently give him that and I don’t want to take the baby so I’ll stay here with her while I worry about them….so, nothing too stressful.

There is an adventist hospital here we were directed to. The hotel manager was extremely helpful and kind and insisted one of the guys from the concierge come with us to translate or fill out any forms in Chinese for us. Tricare totally came through for us- sometimes military medicine can totally come through for you and they really did. They contacted the hospital for us to let them know we were coming, pre-filled out the form for us with all our information, and sent the hospital a letter of guarantee for payment. PC walked in, there was no one there, they were required to quite literally ’scrub in’, put masks on, they were seen, they got a prescription of I don’t know what exactly but it seems kosher, they went to the billing office, everything was totally covered including the prescription and they came home. Easy as pie. If something had to go wrong- I think this is as good of an outcome as we could hope for.

As a sidenote I just figured if we had to go the ER and pay for it, we’d pay for it because you do what you need to do. The total bill for our ER visit here was about $100. In the US it would have been $1000. PC said the hospital was as good as anything you’d see in the US. We have such an messed up healthcare system it floors me.

We talked to our friends today and they’ve spent their day dealing with a nice ’bout of the stomach flu. Nathan is a bit subdued because of his ear infection. I sort of feel like the universe is trying to tell me something. Its been POURING rain today and while the kids have been awesome, it didn’t seem fair to drag them around in the rain so we went to a nice mall, where I found the greatest grocery store I’ve ever been to in my entire life.

Im a big fan of going into grocery stores in other countries. I like to see what’s available and what kinds of things are unique. I think you can learn a lot about a culture by what they eat ( por ejemplo: our hotel is in the dried seafood district and evidently dried seahorse is a real treat and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. I’ll take their word for it.) The grocery store we found today had me having an internal conversation with myself that went something like “UGH. WHY CANT I SHOP SOMEWHERE LIKE THIS. Why can’t I go broke on world class food like this? Why does Japan suck? Why do I have to live there? Why can’t I live here where I could shop at THIS grocery store? (Yes, somebody please call the waambulance for me, I know.)” Its like Trader Joes and Whole Foods and the very best of the best international grocery store combined. The produce was beautiful and all labeled where it came from; watermelon from Malaysia, pummelo from Thailand, pineapple from the Philippines. A great (I mean FANTASTIC) cheese selection (and I was drooling thinking about getting some cheese, crackers and some good wine. The best we can get in Japan, ugh, don’t get me started.) A whole row of great European chocolate (Im going to allow myself one bar lest I go crazy, but how dark do I want it? Would the bar labeled 99% cacao be too dark?) They had row after row organized by food type (Mexican! Indian! Thai! and had a really great selection of those foods) They had an entire row of grains (did I mention that most of the food was organic too?) They had quinoa….I’ve never even had quinoa (though I do know the correct pronunciation thankyouverymuch) but there I was, silently telling myself if I had a store like this to shop at, I’d LEARN to prepare quinoa. They had lentils in every color of the rainbow. They had extremely hard to find black glutenous rice from Thailand (its great for dessert with coconut milk and mango). My inner food snob was going into overdrive and yes, I was being a pouty brat. I walked up and down each row so slowly inspecting each and every item I bet the workers thought I was retarded or illiterate or had never seen food before. It was like they took the best food that every country has to offer (from italy: coffee, olive oil, pasta etc. From France cheese, wine etc. From the USA: Jell-O, Cheerios, Goldfish Crackers, Cool Whip Lite etc.) Oh you guys, I could go on and on and on. This grocery store has been the highlight of my entire trip. Im sure by now you are either sick of hearing about Grocery Store or you are totally with me and you too think it sucks that you don’t live in Hong Kong and can’t shop at Grocery Store.

We had lunch at Luk Yu teahouse which the most famous traditional teahouse remaining in Hong Kong. Its been open since the 1930’s and is known for its old world charm, great teas and authentic dim sum. Truth be told I didn’t get to enjoy it much, Mackenzie was being all surly and whiney and back archy and I was contemplating (sorry Andy) if it was a poor choice to be having lunch with the one family member of the Stomach Flu clan that hadn’t gotten sick yet. You know me- it doesn’t take much to send my vomit radar into overdrive. The tea was excellent, and the sesame rice balls were the best I’d ever had.

Well, seeing how its almost 5:30, I guess its time to go eat again.

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