Shilin Night Market



Shilin Night Market

Today was my first day at Cheng Hsin General Hospital. I was on the OB floor with another girl in my group. Today was a lot slower than a lot of other days because of the Chinese New Year. A lot of women will plan to have inductions to have their babies during the Year of the Dragon so before the new year started to the Year of the Snake. The year of the dragon is considered to be very prestigious and a lot of families will want their children to be born during that year. OB here was very different than back home but there are also a lot of similarities. Here there are a lot of different rooms for sep of the labor process. This culture is very pro-breastfeeding which is very good for their babies, and I know back in the US this is something that is continued to be worked upon!  We experienced the asian culture regarding childbirth and it was very different from back home. In Chinese culture, women take 1-2 months off after childbirth and stay home from work. It's called "doing the month" and typically another family member helps take care of the baby.

So many scarves at the Night Market. I'm in love.

Tonight I was served dinner in a toilet. Haha, we went out to eat at place called The Modern Toilet and nearly everything in the entire place was somehow related to toilets. All of our seats were toilets with various toilet seat covers, mine had fish on it. I ordered a vegetarian "hot pot" which was served in a toilet and was made of broth, vegetables, and rice. Then we were served ice cream in a "squaty potty". After dinner Marlaina, Sarah and I went with our hosts Peter and Aiko and they showed us around the night market. the shopping at the night market is so great that I am already planning what I am going to buy next time:) The clothes are very cheap and when you have hosts with you that speak Chinese, they're able to help you barter. We walked through the food court and there was a wide array of smells. One of our hosts bought a freshly squeeze orange and lemon juice and it tasted really good (I want to buy one next time). Some of the smells I had never smelt before, look up "Stinky Tofu" and that's one of the scents at the night market.


My toilet dinner experience

Our group at Shilin Night market

Tomorrow I am going to be in the ED (Emergency Department) at Cheng Hsin Hospital and I am on the same unit with Kyleigh.