So I walk up and I can see why I passed it so many times. It looks nothing like a western hospital. There's no place for the ambulance to park, there's no ramp for a wheelchair, there's no ginormous cross to advertise that this building is, in fact, a hospital. In little tiny words on the doors it says "BLCU Hospital."
I go inside and it's closed. I mean, it is Sunday but the whole thing looks shut down. The pharmacy is on the first floor, right when you walk in, so I look through the windows trying to see if I can see if they even carry bandages. I decide to come back Monday after Chinese class (aka, today).
So I go in after class and the place is bustling so I go over to the pharmacy and (very badly) ask if they have bandages- pointing to the bandage I have and also taking it off to show them the wound. They direct me across the hall/other side of building to the cashiers. I manage to make out she wants to know where I'm a student and thank god I have my student ID booklet on me. I giver her that and show her my wound and say I want bandages which she cuts off with an "I know, I know" sorta reply. She gives me this slip of paper and keeps saying three something. I figure she's saying I'm a third year student so I'm like "Dui (correct)" even though I'm not. I'm just trying to move the process along. Luckily, there's a Chinese student waiting behind me who speaks some English and informs me I have to pay 3 kuai (dollars). So I pay it and the cashier instructs me to do something, what I don't have a clue. She's speaking too fast for me to even grab a word. I say I don't understand and she sighs in that way that says she doesn't have time for me and my lack of language skills. The student translates and says I'm being sent to surgery (?!?) which is on the second floor.
Surgery!? Are you serious?!
I go upstairs anyway and think "Well, they do have to bandage stuff up there so... maybe they're going to give me the bandages I already paid for." There are two rooms labelled "surgery" that appear to be consultation offices. I go into one where the man directs me to sit as he looks at the slip and asks for my Chinese name. I tell him and show him the wound and point to it which makes him nod a lot. He then gives me another piece of paper and directs me to the first floor.
So now I'm thinking "of course! They wanted me to get a prescription... go figure." I wait in line at the pharmacy (which by the way, "line" is a foreign concept here) and actually ram my paper in front of an old lady because I was there before her. He directs me across the hall/other side of building again to the cashiers! So I walk over there and hand them my slip of paper, totally confused and inform me I now owe 12 kuai! I pay the money and she stamps my paper which reads "Outpatient Invoice" and returns it. I go over to the pharmacy and the guy sees me and yells at me to go to the second floor again.
This is when I call Marketus.
I tell him everything I've done and he tells me to go where they first sent me. So I wait in front of the surgery room until I see the doctor again and hand him my invoice. He calls me in and I follow him to a little patient room. The nurse instructs me to sit in a chair and I wait. In my head I'm thinking "all I want are some freakin' bandages" but I was starting to wonder whether or not I was bandaging this thing properly anyway so it might be good to have it looked over. The nurse comes back after, I think, chatting with another patient/friend/whatever and starts to dress my wound. She puts on a mask and puts about four different types of stuff on it. None burn nearly as bad as the alcohol swabs Cheyenne used when we first bandaged it which surprises me. Then she puts this cloth that's been marinating (that's the best way I can describe it) in this yellow liquid and sets it on top of the part of the wound that hasn't scabbed over yet. As she's doing this the doctor comes in and asks in broken English what happened.
I say "I fell" and make the motion as best as I can while sitting down.
"bicycle? orr-"
I cut him off and say "No, just walking"
"Walk?" He's clearly stunned as seems to be the nurse as she applies stuff to my face as well. "Where?"
At first, I think he's asking where it happened and then I realize he's asking my nationality. "Mei Guo (America)."
The nurse says something and he laughs a little. He sees me watching and says "She thinks you look [totally expecting him to say French] Russian."
"Ohhh? Really??" Russia's close to Poland and Lithuania... certainly closer than France which is what I usually get.
They talk a little more and she says "Ok!"
I have a nice clean bandage on my shoulder with that bit of yellow whatever showing through. I have real gauze tape instead of the band aids I was using before. My shoulder doesn't hurt when I move it now which makes me think this time I won't pull off the new scab when I pull off the bandage. I tell them both thanks and he says "Come Wednesday." And that's when I realize they aren't going to give me bandages but bandage the wound for me again in two days. As long as I don't have to pay again this is ten times better than what I originally had in mind.
And that was my experience at the school hospital.
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