Shanghai-ed in Shenzhen

From the couch of Allie....

Last weekend we went to visit my friend Chun in Shenzhen.  I met Chun when she was working with one of the researchers at UK and she came to the clinic to observe some testing.  Chun is a pediatrician who specializes in Newborn Hearing Screening.  Shenzhen is on the mainland China side of Hong Kong and right on the ocean.  What we thought was going to be a simple visit became a little more interesting when, on the train, Chun called to let me know we would be meeting with the hospital president that afternoon.  Huh? 

It was so great to see Chun when she picked us up from the train station in Shenzhen.  She took us to her hospital and we toured the audiology clinic (I almost started drooling when I saw the audiometer and ABR equipment) and the NICU.  Fun side note, it is the year of the Dragon and here in China everyone wants to have a baby in the year of the dragon because it automatically makes them strong, smart, clever, and I think succcessful.  So the NICU had 103 babies instead of the usual 70.  It was packed!  Other fun side note, they took pictures of us touring each department.  I hope we end up on a billboard :)

Inside the audiology clinic, you can just make out the CPA table behind us

This is us outside the clinic with the director and assistant director and Chun.

After we met with the president of the hospital (for almost 2 hours!) we went back to our hotel and had an elaborate dinner of different kinds of meat and sushi.  

The sushi platter:  Yes that is dry ice on the left hand side of the platter right nexrt to the ice sculpture.

The next day we were going to head to the beach with Chun and her family when we found out that the president and his wife had decided to accompany us to the beach.  hmmm....well anyways it was a wonderful to see the ocean and everyone was so very nice.



This is a random (or extremely timely) metal layer cake sculpture on the beach...why not?!


When I let it slip that it was my birthday, this is what happened. 

They bought us a Chinese cake and ordered special birthday noodles.  In ancient times the entire bowl of noodles was one looooong noodle and to eat it without breaking it meant you would have a long life.  Fortunately, or unfortunately I guess, this bowl of noodles was made up of many different noodles, so I didn't feel the same amount of pressure to keep the noodle from breaking. 

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, we really enjoyed spending time with Chun and her family and colleagues and while it was odd to have absolutely negative control over where we were going or what we were doing, Chris and I had a great time!