Well I put it off before our trip to the Philippines but it had to be done: I had my tooth pulled when I got back and it was everything you pray it could never be. The total cost was quite reasonable; I payed 480 RMB (about $80) for the tooth extraction, mold and temporary fake tooth. Let me just start off by saying that anesthetics they use here might as well be children’s aspirin… They don’t give you a shot that lasts for the duration, they give you a shot until you need another shot (which is usually pretty quick). My tooth in particular was a cock knocker… it came out in several parts. It was also infected; the root canal I had done years ago failed and the tooth eroded from the inside out. The anesthetics hurt more than the pain it prevented (granted, I have a pretty low tolerance for pain… also known as pussyitis). The worst part of the tooth was at the apex where the pain was the highest, the infection was the most sensitive and it was the hardest to get to. About two hours, seven shots and a vampire’s ransom in blood later; the tooth was out. I will have to wait two months for a tooth implant… The clinic quoted me at around $450 for it, which is laughably cheap compared to Clifford hospital here in Guangzhou which quoted me at about $2200 minimum. The difference is obviously the quality of care, cleanliness and English speaking dentists. My work arranged for me to see a Chinese dentist with a translator so I had it done for much cheaper than it would have been at the hospital. The same goes for any future work; you will pay the “white foreigner” price if you go to a hospital like Clifford as opposed to a local clinic. I plan on shopping around though; $450 seems too cheap when it comes to something serious as a tooth implant.
Lauren and a group of our co-workers went shopping for water-guns (we had a big water fight at the school with the kids) this week when a gaggle of cops approached them; because of where they were in China (as opposed to the area we work – Agile Gardens) the cops asked for their visa information and passport… Now most people would call this racial profiling in that they were asking for identification from the only white people…. and most people would be correct. Some of the teachers had their passport and were free to go; others, like Lauren and a couple other teachers were not so lucky. I had to take an hour taxi ride out to this police station in the middle of buttfuck nowhere (not really, it’s called Haizhu Square) to get their passports to them so they could go… as it turns out the paperwork they already had (a copy of their visa information) was enough and they let them go simultaneously as we arrived with the passports… They were detained a total of two hours…so that was pretty sweet.
In other news I was recently offered a second job with a sister company of CIEO to teach sports classes in the afternoon. It’s actually a great gig in that it basically doubles my pay but I only work an extra 1.5 hours a day. All in all I work around 20-25 hours a week and I get paid, well… let’s just say ‘way too much.’ Compared to what I was paid back in the States in the same line of work; it makes you wonder if it’s worth going back…
As mentioned above, last week we had a huge water fight at the school; it was a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures.
Two Farts in the Wind 