Doug's Chinese co-workers must really like him or admire his opinion.  They're always asking him to give them or their children (it turned out that the baby boy's parents finally decided on Elliott) English names.  Doug sometimes comes to me for help on these matters, and I really enjoy the task of trying to match an English name to someone's personality.  Doug has named a few people on his own....most recently, Michael and his girlfriend, Sharon.  Michael because the guy likes basketball, and Sharon because her Chinese name sounds a bit like Sharon.  Most recently, there was an interesting turn of events in the name giving game.  One of his co-workers already had an English name that she has used for years, but she doesn't care for it anymore.  Her name is Jane.  She asked Doug to choose a new one for her.  Imagine that....you don't care for your name, so you ask some guy from another country to choose a new one for you.  Doug handed the task over to me.  I submitted a list of 4 names (I like to give them choices), and I cut and pasted their meanings belows in an e-mail to Doug.  Of course, a few of the names were names that I had chosen for my boys when they all were in utero.  Then they had to be scrapped when I had boys, because I couldn't give them girl's names.  Jane is now Charlotte.  So if you ever travel to Tianjin and meet an Elliott or a Charlotte, chances are that I named them.  I don't think those names are in wide circulation around here.  It's one of the funner things about living in China, choosing names for people.  Heck, I would have had 20 kids just to name them all, it's so much fun.  But it probably wouldn't be fun to look after 20 kids.

Shortly after I moved to Tianjin, I heard that a place existed called "The Eye Hospital."  Maybe I have too vivid an imagination, but whenever I heard that string of words, I'd conjure up horrid images in my mind of what was going on inside those walls.  We drove by it once, and I shuddered (kind of like when my dad used to pull his false teeth out when I was little - I thought it turned him into a monster).  I hoped that I would never have to visit there for any reason at all.  Nick has been complaining lately that he can't see out of his glasses that well.  I know that he has Johns and Parry blood in him, and that it was highly likely that his prescription had changed again.  None of the kid's eyes had been tested since August of 2006.  I knew I had to find him a vision test.  But where would I find him one that was conducted in English?  I asked around, and the consensus was that I had to bring my children to the Tianjin Eye Hospital.   Yet again, I shuddered.   I got the school nurse to help me.  She is fluent in both English and Chinese.  She phoned the eye hospital and found out their hours for vision tests (only weekday mornings and all day Saturday), wrote out the instructions in both English and Chinese (so that my driver could get me there), and told me that both the optometrists and opticians had good English (which I later found out they didn't).  I would have brought a translator with me had I known.  Anyways, I gave the instructions to my driver and off I went with the kids today.  Doug was busy at an all day golf tournament.  My driver drove us almost an hour away, to the other end of town.  He parked the car in some back alley and we walked forever through car and bike traffic that was horrendous.  We ended up at something that said something about eyes and outpatient clinic.  But the two doctors shook their heads no to my driver, gave him some directions and we then had to walk back to the car.  Off we went again.  He drove around for about ten more minutes, and we finally arrived at the Eye Hospital.  Usually I give my driver a time to pick us up, but this time I asked that he come in with us.  Thank goodness I did.  Mike (our driver) led us to a reception counter where they asked (I think) what we wanted done there.  I pointed to Nick and said, "maiyou kan."  Which I think means, "he can't see."  Then I pointed to the twins and said the same thing.  So we went to a reception counter and paid 8 RMB ($1.07 U.S.).  Then Mike led us upstairs.  He asked around, and then directed us to a little dr.'s office.  Mike asked me for $30 RMB ($4.00 U.S.), he sat us in some chairs while he went and paid that and got a receipt.  I guess that gave us admittance into the little dr.'s office.  So off we went into her little office, to have our eyes tested.  There were many people in there.  It looked like a regular optometrist office in the U.S. or Canada, except for all of the people.  There were people walking in and out with their receipts, disrupting the dr. while she was conducting eye tests.  There were people sitting in there, too.  One woman was sleeping, and had several bags of groceries at her feet.  Another woman was talking on her cell phone.  Finally the doctor tested my 3 boy's visions.  She asked me a few questions in fairly good English.   "How old is he?" How many years has he worn glasses?"  But at the end of each exam, she's ask me, "Do his eyes have fenders?"  I was completely baffled by that, so she wrote out the word "fenders," in English, thinking I would understand better.  Each time she did it, I'd say, "He has healthy eyes, but he needs glasses."  She would nod and accept that answer each time.  I'm now thinking that fenders might mean astigmatism.  Still not sure what eye fenders are.  After visiting with that doctor, we were sent a floor below, where we lined up for a visit with many optometrists, who would test our eyes further.  But that wasn't before we walked by the "Child Eye Pupil Dilating Area," whereby many children were lined up in chairs with their heads thrown back, cotton balls on their eyes, and groaning.  I pointed to these kids, and told my kids, "I'm not letting them do that to you."  So at this 2nd optometrist, she put on these crazy glasses on my kids, whereby she could change the lenses.  She put various lenses in there, then told my kids to walk around and see if they could see and if they were "comfortable."  My kids were walking around then, saying, "I'm the Eye Hospital Zombie," in these crazy glasses.  I didn't have my camera, but I sure wish I did.  There was a bit of English (Chinglish) on various signs, so I thought I would test their new zombie glasses myself.  Philip read the Chinglish correctly from far away, "Eye Exam Nation."  Correct!  Nick read the sign that didn't really need to be there, like, "Air conditioner Room."  (And we need to know that because......?).   I figured maybe these zombie glasses were right, because my kids could read the bad English signs.  Then they wanted to send my children to the "Child Eye Pupil Dilating Area."  I told Mike "Boo hao!" (Not good!)and made some crazy gestures.  So we didn't go there.  Then we got sent off to pick out eyeglasses.  It took awhile, but all of the children picked out frames that they were happy with.  Each pair of glasses cost about 600 RMB ($80 U.S.), which I figured is a bit of a deal compared to North American prices, and will be ready tomorrow.  We left the house at 1 p.m., and got home by 6 p.m.  Yup, it takes forever to get anything done here.  There goes another day!

 

   

I like to make Mexican food.  Cumin is an essential spice for making Mexican food taste right.  It's hard to find here.  However, I was recently surprised at the supermarket when I found a package of cumin.  It was packaged and sold by a company in Beijing.  I read the package tonight, and burst out laughing at the Chinglish on it.  Best Chinglish I've seen so far.  I have to type it out here for everyone.  Please note that I am typing it completely as it appears on the packaging.  I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't turn out that well.  The writing was too small.  So, here it is:

 

Name:  Cumin powder

Made up materials:  cumin power particles

Edible illmination:  mainly used in the machining of beef and mutton.  It can also be mixed with other seasoning to bloat barbecued food.

Manufacturer:  Beijing Victor Industry and Trad co., Ltd.

 

Thank you to Beijing Victory Industry and Trad co., Ltd. for giving me such a good laugh!  Made with power particles by a trad company!  Machining of beef and mutton?  Bloat barbecued food?  I thought it was used mostly in Mexican food.  I'm so excited to learn that cumin has so many other uses that I never knew of.  I need to find out what an illmination is, though.