Running with Nike+

Today I did my first run using the quite remarkable Nike+.  For those who don't know, Nike+ is a system of planning, tracking, and measuring runs while listening to your favourite -- or most motivational -- music.  To do this you need to buy a few things first:

• An iPod Nano and Nike+ Sports Kit (which consists of an oval-shaped sensor and a rectangular receiver that connects to the iPod)

Alternatively, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch you only need to buy the sensor -- which is half the price on its own

Also, to make full use of Nike+ you can sign up to the Nike running website where you have the option to choose training programs, make a calorie/distance/speed goal, or compete with friends on the site.  I am currently trying a program that will train me to run a 5 km marathon within 3 months.

So far so good, but Nike still wants you to purchase more of its gear before you can actually hit the concrete:  a pair of Nike+ shoes please.  The only reason you need a special pair of trainers is because Nike (or someone in a sweatshop in China) have carved out a small oval-shaped hole in the left shoe under the innersole where the sensor sits (see below).

Of course, a quick look on Amazon will show you that if you already have a favourite pair of running shoes there are numerous pouches and holders that will adapt your shoes for the sensor.

Now you've got the gear, got the shoes, and signed up to the site.  Ready to go?  Not quite.  I personally find that the earphones supplied with iPods can fall out quite easily (as tested when running for buses, trains, planes, etc).  A good pair of speciality running earphones are probably in order.  I went for a pair of Sennheiser PMX 80 Sport headphones.  They loop around your ears and behind your head so they don't move at all when running.  After my first run today I can tell you they work perfectly, completely solid, no jittering, and crisp clear audio.

....and they're nice and yellow

 Surely there's nothing else to buy?  Well, maybe one more thing.  You need somewhere to put the iPod as you're bounding around the streets.  Placing it in a pocket could be OK, but the iPod is so small it could easily fall out if you don't have a zip.  The solution is either to hold it or buy an arm strap:

Can be bought for just a few £'s from eBay or Amazon

And that's it -- well, apart from the actual running!  As I mentioned earlier, today was my very first session using all of this newly bought technology.  I certainly felt like a runner, and I kind of looked like a runner, but after a few minutes on the road I literally thought I was going to die.  I just about managed to finish my target of 1.7 km, but I have no idea how I'm going to do the 3.2 km that's waiting for me on Saturday.  I did find the option of a "power song" (where you press the centre button on the iPod and it plays your most motivational song) helped for a short time when I started to lose power, and the inner-geek in me finds some motivation in uploading runs and keeping track of my progress.  Overall I am very impressed with how it works, and once it's all running, how easy it is to use. 

Here's hoping I'll still be alive to do 5 km in 3 months....

P.S.  Although it may look like it, I am not an employee of Nike or Amazon!!

I've Joined a Gym!

There really aren't any gymnastics involved

I shocked myself at the weekend and became a member of a local gym. The reason for my lack of blog posts is actually due to this. I seem to have replaced my blog-time with sport-time. I will try and modify my schedule for this as I do not want to let my blog slip through my fingers.

For a few weeks I had been considering starting some exercise again. I'd begun to feel quite unhealthy, and certainly not fit by any means. It has been quite a while since I last did regular exercise, about two years in fact. On Friday, with Kimi's help, we found a gym called BySun that is walking distance from my home. We took a short tour of the centre and even met one of my students who jumped out from behind one of the machines and scared me to death. The centre was identical to a western gym, even the machines had been imported from America. Kimi used her powers of bargaining and managed to get the fee down to a very reasonable price: 1,250RMB for 6 months.

The following day I went on my own to do my first work-out. I was even given my own personal trainer who made a plan for me and showed me how to use the machines properly. I understood very little of the Chinese, but mostly body language was used to great effect. I had no idea how wrongly I had previously been using the machines when I last attended a gym at university. The plan means I have to work on my chest, stomach and back. After doing this I am free to use any of the aerobic machines like the treadmills or bicycles. I spent just over an hour of lifting and running, surprisingly it felt great. That was until the following day when I couldn't move at all.

The staff all seem very smiley and friendly, and when I go in the morning there is barely anybody there. Yesterday there was me, two beef-cake men, two receptionists, and the cleaners -- perfect. Now I just need to make a playlist of upbeat songs for my iPod to drown out the constant dance music and ballads that blast out of the speakers (even after three days I've noticed the same handful of songs are just played on rotation).

Results

"For International Traveller", I wonder who he is?

Yesterday I received the results from my medical test. I think I'm in the clear after reading that I have "no quarrantinable disease, infectious disease under surveillance or any other disease which is highly dangerous to the public". This means I can renew my work permit and stay in China for another year. I have also been given two souvenirs from the trip: a certificate of health (see above), and the X-Ray of my chest.

As I thought would be the case, my blood pressure was a little high -- but not too bad -- and my pulse was also over 100BPM. You can see how ingrained the fear of hospitals is wedged into my subconscious mind. I blame it on a visit to a hospital when I was 10 years old. While at my grandma's house I fell onto one of those metal draught excluders that are placed underneath doors which lead to the outside. I had cut my leg wide open. Thankfully my grandma used to be a nurse and she knew exactly what to do. We rushed to the nearest hospital and saw a doctor (whose name I still remember: Jim Smalley). He had to stitch me up, but this meant applying anaesthetic -- which had to go directly into the wound, with injections, six times. I can still recall the pain to this day, it was horrendous. Fourteen stitches later and I was out of the hospital with a kind of relief I have never experienced since.

Although I am no psychologist or psychiatrist, I am sure this has played a huge part in my completely uncontrollable fear of hospitals to this day. Anyway, I am officially disease-free, so I should be happy.

I promise to have no more hospital-related blog posts for -- hopefully -- a long time. It makes me feel a little queasy.

Medical Check

I have been working at Web for one year, something which really leaves me in disbelief. I cannot comprehend how quickly the year has gone. To celebrate this, I have to take a medical test. This is because my working (Z) visa is about to expire. Web will renew it for me, but before they can I have to pass the test. This is the law unfortunately. These are the people who have to take it:

• Foreigners staying in China for an extended period of time (strangely enough, if you want to stay for 6 months you don't need it, but if it is for one year or more, then you must have it).
• Chinese people leaving the country for holiday or immigration.
• Chinese people coming back to the country after living abroad.

This morning at 9pm, Nancy (who works in the human resources department at Web) took me to Wenzhou's medical centre, a bleak looking building with awful Chinglish written on every single sign. The sound of a child crying echoed through the corridor when we entered -- not a great start. We enter a lounge/waiting room and pick up an application form, I try to forget that China's health care system is graded lower than Iraq's. I filled out the short form saying who I am and why I am here, I applied one of my passport photographs (see below) to the form -- but had to get another one taken for another mysterious purpose -- and Nancy paid a whopping 350 RMB (£35) for the tests to begin.

The passport photo I had to have taken for the test (only added because I don't have any another other relevant photographs, and I pledged to add at least one picture per blog post)

In all honesty I hate, absolutely hate this kind of thing. The second I step foot in a hospital I can feel my heart racing and my blood pressure boiling. I think I have inherited it from my mum who is exactly the same. I know the logical reasons for not being worried, but somehow, somewhere in my mind, I allow all logic to be bypassed and worry anyway.

First was the blood test. It was like approaching a box office and buying a ticket for a show, but instead of getting a ticket I got a jab. I had to slide my arm in the space under the perspex glass, a grumpy middle-aged woman tied my arm (just like how heroin users do it in films) and extracted the blood -- and quite a lot of it too.

One thing I had been taught to look out for in China was the syringe. For anybody who has to take the test here, make sure you witness the nurse unwrapping the needle in front of your eyes. If you don't see that then refuse. The reusing of needles does take place in some places, luckily not in Wenzhou.

Second was the urine test. This one slipped my mind, and I had totally forgotten to drink copious amounts of water after getting up in the morning. I didn't need to go at all, so we asked to delay that test until the end.

Third, X-ray. I was taken up a short flight of stairs into a corridor, each room I knew I had to visit. We entered the X-ray room, this time a grumpy man told me to take off my shirt. I pushed myself against a metal slab and the picture was taken. Next....

Fourth, Eye and Lymph node test. The first time I did this test in Hangzhou I forgot to bring my glasses which was difficult to explain when I couldn't speak a word of Chinese. I remembered them this time. An elderly grumpy woman felt my face and throat and opened a page of a colour-blind test book. Then I was signalled to sit on a chair across from elderly grumpy woman and read the large-to-small up, down, left, right directions.

Fifth, ECG. I lied down, had a lot of scary-looking electrodes placed all over my body, and saw a print out of some complicated-looking results emerge from a printer. At this point I asked myself what the point of all this was. I can hardly spread a heart condition to the population of China can I? If anybody knows I would love to know.

Sixth, heart and lung test (I think). A man who looked to be in his mid to late seventies stuck a stethoscope on my heart and moved it around my lungs. Not a word spoken. I wondered if he thought I had a heart condition from the rate it was probably going. Even extended time in the hospital doesn't calm me down, only when I leave will it go back to normal.

Seventh, (will it ever end?) Ultrasound. Not only for expecting mothers, but also for foreigners coming to China. It was getting boring now, but yet another grumpy woman asked me to pull up my shirt as she applied the cold gooey substance to my abdomen. On the monitor I could see some of my organs, although the picture quality was terrible. The nurse threw a couple of pieces of tissue on my stomach and I cleaned off the liquid.

Eighth, blood pressure and height. Grumpy young woman (do they all hate their job or are they attempting to come across as professional?) sat me down on a chair and did the usual blood pressure thing. First time it was too high, she asked me to go out, take a rest and come back. I told her it would be a waste of time, unless you can ship Paul Mckenna over to relax me, then nothing will change. She did it again, and somehow it was better, but still a little higher than normal.

Ninth, urine test part two. I still didn't feel the need to do anything, so I drank a lot of water and had a nice chat with Nancy for a while. Nature called in the end, and I went to what was a very unsanitary toilet. I am glad I didn't need to go before doing the tests otherwise I might have backed out. The cup was filled and taken to another box office counter.

Finally I received a gift from the clinic: a free breakfast. The bag contained a carton of milk and six small bread buns.

Are such detailed tests really needed just for a laowai to live and work in China? From the posters pinned up on the walls it is obvious that Aids is the biggest concern of all for the Chinese government, but what about the rest? Is it relevant to have an ultrasound test? What could possibly be found from an X-ray to cause my visa application to be rejected?

On a positive note, if I do have any problems that need attention, doing these tests on a yearly basis should find them, possibly saving my life. Having a full-body test for this reason should almost be compulsory for everybody -- but something tells me this isn't why the government has put this policy into action. Very confusing, but very glad it's over.

Cold

The temperature dropped quite dramatically in Wenzhou a few days ago (at last). Not long after, I began to see a few students sneezing and moping around the training centre. As soon as I saw this I thought, "Oh great, it's going to be me next". Lo and behold, yesterday I caught a cold. I took my first class with no problems, then the second came. As I was talking to a student I began to feel dizzy and quite spaced out. This feeling lasted all day until I sank in bed and slept for ten hours. When I woke up this morning I still felt pretty hazy.  Working from 1pm - 9pm today hasn't improved matters either.

My saviour in this time of high temperature, blocked nose, and general drowsiness is Chinese medicine. The one I am taking is a herbal powder that you mix with hot water and drink like a tea. It smells quite aromatic and tastes sweet, not at all unpleasant. In fact, I enjoy drinking it very much. I have almost finished a whole box of sachets now, and find that the symptoms of a cold haven't even properly come to surface yet. I feel like they are waiting in the wings, ready to come out soon. I just hope my Chinese medicine is keeping them locked up until I am recovered. The only thing I am really suffering from is a complete lack of energy.

The medicine I am currently taking

I am so happy I have a day off tomorrow, I will try and make the most of it by spending as much time as I can in bed.

Halloween, Health, and Huh?

I am writing this entry in my office at work because I've just been handed the rare gift of a cancelled class. For the past twenty minutes I've been scouring the internet on Tao Bao --an eBay style website -- trying to find the clothing for my Halloween costume, all to no avail. I can't write Chinese which is obviously a huge hindrance with this kind of thing.

My manager has asked me to host the party on Friday, which will consist of telling a group of people in a bar where Halloween came from and why we celebrate it. Then, with a tutor, Candy, we will introduce each game that will be played. Games include: mummy wrapping (who can wrap a person with toilet roll the quickest), magic box (students will put their hands in a box and guess what they are touching), and the only traditional game of the lot, bobbing for apples. It should be fun I hope. Just need to find my costume now.

Yesterday I began trying to do some exercise again. Since I came to China it has been difficult to join a gym due to the money I never seem to have spare. For quite a few months I have been using my Nintendo Wii as a convenient way of exercising -- and it really works. I don't have Wii Fit yet (although I would love to get hold of it) because the console is region locked, so buying a copy in China would be a waste of time. Instead I have been playing the only game that came bundled with the machine: Wii Sport. For anybody who doesn't know, you have to physically move the controller in real-life to make a change in the game. For the Wii Sport game you have the option of playing Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Golf, and Boxing. By far the most physically challenging is the boxing. Each morning I have been playing the boxing for twenty minutes or so, and by the end I am quite exhausted. The game has become so hard I now spend each round dodging punches, which is much harder than you would expect.

However, since I bought the guitar a few weeks ago, the time spent on exercising has been spent on practising instead. Yesterday I decided to switch the Wii back on and try to get into a better routine (I think getting to sleep and waking up earlier would be a good start). Now, as I am writing this, my arms are aching like I've never even considered doing exercise before. It always amazes me how quickly the body can revert once you stop using it.

My "Mii" on the left in the blue, I ingeniously called him Chriis.

On a different topic, in my previous class at Web, we were asking questions which somehow got around to the t-shirt I was wearing. I told them it was bought in England, and they thought it was probably made in China, possibly even Wenzhou. I looked on the tag but there was no sign of the country of origin. Then, to my amazement, one of the women in the room said, "Why don't you take it off and you can have a really close look then?". I sat there stunned as she smiled back at me.