I forgot to tell you that it's actually the halfway mark through my trip! We've officially been here for 18 days and have 18 days left....I'm so bummed! These past few days at clinical have been a blast and I’ve had a lot of fun experiences. On Tuesday when we showed up at clinical the “handsome” boy that I blogged about earlier was still there! He completely came out of his shell that day. The day before he was shy and would just smile at us and get nervous but Tuesday he started flirting with us and joking around with us and all of the nurses. He would catch our eye and wink at us, or give us a thumbs up, or laugh at us when the other nurses were talking about us in Chinese. He completely took advantage of having American nursing students there ha ha We loved it and we tried to communicate with him as much as we could but he really couldn’t speak any English other than maybe 4 or 5 words. 
I felt so bad that he had to just sit there all day long in the ICU surrounded by unconscious old people. So I brainstormed some things that we could do with him so I played paper rock scissors with him and Tic Tac Toe! Ha ha It was a lot of fun. At one point I had to leave to take some pictures with some of the interns at the hospital so he asked to borrow Sophia’s translation book. When we got back he was hunched over trying to learn new English words! 
He proudly pronounced them all for us! It was adorable. It was then time for him to be transferred to the “general Ward” because he was stable. He was so sad to leave! Lol All of the nurses knew that he loved us so they let me transfer him up to the floor and say goodbye, they even asked me if I would go back and visit him....so I planned on it.
I felt so bad that he had to just sit there all day long in the ICU surrounded by unconscious old people. So I brainstormed some things that we could do with him so I played paper rock scissors with him and Tic Tac Toe! Ha ha It was a lot of fun. At one point I had to leave to take some pictures with some of the interns at the hospital so he asked to borrow Sophia’s translation book. When we got back he was hunched over trying to learn new English words! He proudly pronounced them all for us! It was adorable. It was then time for him to be transferred to the “general Ward” because he was stable. He was so sad to leave! Lol All of the nurses knew that he loved us so they let me transfer him up to the floor and say goodbye, they even asked me if I would go back and visit him....so I planned on it. On all of the computers at the hospital everything is dated as year 99. So the all of the dates are listed as like May, 17, 99 or 5/17/99. I was So confused and could not figure it out so I finally asked someone. I guess it’s because it has been 99 years since the day of Taiwan’s independence. So whenever they write dates, the year goes by how long it has been since the day of Independence. Not like us in the U.S. I thought that was so weird!
At lunch one of the nurses offered to buy us all some juice (the juice is amazing here, made from fresh fruit right in front of you). I kept ordering Pineapple juice, but my nurse kept ignoring me and would avoid it….I couldn’t figure out why….but then it hit me! Here in Taiwan, the word in Chinese for Pineapple sounds like “having lots of good fortune” in Chinese. So it is said that if you bring pineapple into the unit that you will get lots and lots of patients! They NEVER order or serve pineapple at the hospital! I knew this but i just didn't think about it. I ordered it anyway and it was a joke throughout the rest of the day between the Doctors and I. They would must put their finger up to their mouths, wink, and say “Shhhhh” everytime they saw me.
When I got back to my apartment from clinical we had a surprise visit from Kevin and Davit! I was so excited. I already miss them a lot. We’ve kept in contact on facebook and they’re so much fun. Davit walked up to me and handed me TONS of pineapple and some licorice candy as a present! Then we just talked for a while and had to say goodbye again. He’s dead set on meeting up with us in Taipei to go out dancing.
Tuesday night was an amazing experience. Gua Baba (an elderly man in the ward here) invited us over for dinner. We thought it was just going to be he and his wife….but EVERYONE showed up. The bishop, the missionaries, stake high council and a lot of members. We all ate dinner (some delicious curry that his wife made) and then sort of had a family home evening. This is Gua Baba with his grandson.
Gua Baba got up and bore his testimony then had each of us read a scripture and bear ours. It was amazing because they all spoke in Mandarin but we spoke in English and the spirit was so strong. It was so refreshing to be with members. They were so gracious! After TONS of curry, fruit, boba drinks and dessert they ordered 4 pizzas from pizza hut for us! Ha ha I can’t believe how much food they give us…..we still had to eat it and I’m pretty sure we were all about to puke after we were done. It was a great night. After the dinner we went out to see Robin Hood at the movie theater. I really liked it. This is Sophia and I with Gua Baba and the bishop. The bishop isn't Taiwanese, he's from Hong Kong. 
Wednesday at clinical was a joke lol. It was an 8 hour shift and we worked for probably a half hour total. In the morning we attended a lecture by one of the doctors and then went with Jim and just hung out with him. Then I guess one of the male nurses overheard me saying how much I loved curry the day before so he brought home-made curry for all of us! It was delicious. Then while eating we were talking about how much we loved Cua Bing so one of the Doctor’s left and showed up 15 minutes later with TONS of Cua Bing for us! Ha ha they just never stop.
After lunch I was about to go visit the “handsome” patient up in the general ward. I asked one of the nurses to teach me some phrases that I could tell him. One of the nurses (Ya Ling) asked if I would like to go on a date with him. I said “no no no, I can’t” but she kept insisting that I go on a date with him. I tried to make her understand that I was on a study abroad and that it wasn’t allowed but she didn’t get it. So finally I told her I couldn’t because I couldn’t communicate with him. She just laughed and said “All you need is body language!” and left to go ask him! Ha ha I luckily got her to stop before she did though…my professor had to tell her I couldn’t. I went to visit him and I brought him some “American” presents (just BYU stuff and pop rocks ha ha). We exchanged contact information…..but then I realized he probably can’t even read English writing….
We then took a tour of the Labor and Delivery Unit….I completely melted when I saw those babies…….I wanted to kidnap one so bad! I would have gotten pictures but we couldn’t…..they were so absolutely adorable though! Tonight we went out with the ICU nurses and physicians. We went to a restaurant called “XM”. It was a hot pot restaurant where you picked whatever you wanted and then dumped it into a hot pot on your table and waited for it to cook. We had a great time.
Afterwards we had a Goodbye party for Jim. We made him a video of all of our inside jokes throughout the trip (it's on facebook) and then did alternative therapies on each other (Ba Guan, Gua Shaw, Massage). I’m so sad that he’s leaving (he has to leave early because he is taking classes to get his Doctorate at the U). We will definitely miss him...and we'll probably get lost a few times without him here....Tomorrow we head off to Hualien till Friday night!
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