Popular Science Knowledge

Bacteria are the smallest living things. They are simple organisms that consist of one cell. They exist almost everywhere. They are in the air, water, and soil, as well as in the body of all living creatures. There are thousands of kinds of bacteria. Most of them are harmless to human beings, but some cause diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.

Viruses are also microscopic organisms, but viruses live in the cell of other living things. By themselves, they are lifeless particle that cannot reproduce, but inside a living cell they become active and can multiply hundred of times. Viruses cause many diseases. They infect human beings with such illness as influenza, the common cold, measles, and AIDS(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).Viruses are tiny. The virus that causes AIDS is so small that 203 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Today health official are expressing great concern about our health in the future. They feel that today there is an epidemic of infectious condition that are difficult or impossible to treat, such as AIDS.

In addition to this concern about new life-threatening viral infections, health official have discovered that bacterial infections that were once easily handled by antibiotics now pose a serious threat to our health. Many common bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics and are evolving into form that are unaffected by all known medications. In a world where antibiotics don't work, the simplest infections are capable of escalating into fatal illness. Every year more people are dying of infections that resist every drug doctors try. The potential ineffectiveness of antibiotics is a frightening prospect.

Unfair charge

I received a few informal bills from insurance company. I was shocked by the price of Provider's Charges. I didn't know the price was so high for people to see a doctor, even though I knew it should be high. It was beyond my imagination. It cost me $587, and I need pay $205 for the first time to see the doctor. And the second time, it would cost me more than that I guess. Because I had already received the first list which cost me $411. In addition, the doctor didn't give me any advice and treatment.

I didn't mean to offend them. I just really couldn't understand the way doctors act. Probably I am wrong, but I think the way American doctors act is not the way to help people. That's more like the way to earn money--a profit-seeking business. The purpose of doctor should be trying their best to help patients, not only to take the exam course and earn money. I'm not clear about the standard of charging for seeing a doctor in US. I think it's nonsensical policy, and it doesn't correspond with the way that is taken by humanism. In China, people only need to wait a few hours to get their lab result and in the same day they can be treated. No matter you go to the emergency room or go to the clinic room to see the doctor. Sometimes a doctor may see more than sixty patients a day. They still can manage everything well. In addition, people don't need to make an appointment to see a doctor. Whereas in America, people need to make twice or more times appointments to finish this simple course--take a physical exam and a few lab exams, get the results and get the treatment or suggestion. It's unbelievable. If I know this first, I wouldn't go to see the doctor. I was a doctor before, so I know how to cure illnesses. I also know some treatments for some diseases, of course I need some lab result to help to diagnose. I am disappointed in American doctors. It's unfair. Whatever how much unsatisfied people are, people need doctor and need hospital, even though the cost is high. It is sort of sad.

Pleasantly surprising news.

Remember I made Jin apply TAMU ? There is pleasantly surprising news. He got the offer letter from there. At first, I just wanted him do this for me, basically I couldn't see any hope at that moment. However, I really wanted him to have a try. He tried his best, and now he really made it. I am so happy that we can leave the cold weather far away, but I feel sad because I couldn't see my friends frequently. I am not sure about that. Am I right? or I am wrong. I don't know, I even don't want to know what will go on for now. I hope everything will be fine in the future.

I hate sick.

I missed my Nutrition class yesterday because I was sick. I didn't know how I got sick, but I was really did my best to keep away from cold. However I still didn't avoid being sick. What a pity!:-( If I could get a chance to leave here, I would definitely leave here. But I will be reluctant to leave my friends. Please don't mind, I just want to complain a little bit. :-p I hate sick. This place always makes me sick and uncomfortable. I need workout to keep myself strong and healthy. Spring, please comes a little earlier this year! People in Grand Forks really miss you, especially me!!!

How to get along with people ?

I received an E-mail from a Chinese friend today. She is working as a nurse in a hospital now. She asked me about how to get along with people. She felt it was hard to have a good relationship with her colleagues. I felt sorry about her unfortunate experience, but that's a pretty complicated question.

Harsh truth of life - you can’t please everybody. But since people are social creatures (unless you’re a total scrooge), you just have to learn how to get along with them. Actually, I am not quite sure about this either, but I care about my friends. I won't do anything to hurt my friends; I'm nice to them. And I just do the things that I think they are correct. Of course, since we are not in the same environment, I can't give her much advice. I found ten commandments of how to get along with people from this website http://www.workplaceissues.com/pmtenc.htm
Hopefully it will help her.

I am so lucky that I have a few friends here. And all my friends are very nice to me. :-)

Work to live or Live to work

I am not good at writing in English. Even though I wrote something, I always kept writing like a routine. It is sort of funny. Probably some day, when I read my blog, I would find it's nonsense. Anyway, I want to keep doing it. :-) Please do not laugh at me. :-p

We talked about a topic last week----Work to live or live to work.

This is a pretty common topic in our daily lives. I believe that most of us may say we work to live, but lots of us probably don't have time to give ourselves relaxing time or have many excuses to give up spending holidays. That's not the way "work to live" like, that's pretty like "live to work" . People just like a machine for working. I am sure that everyone has a maximum limit. If limit is overtaken, people would extremely fatigued. So people need time to relax. Just give yourselves a few days without stress, without work, without noisy things.

According to the estimated number of vacation days Americans failed to take in Philadelphia in 2007 , we know that 438 million unused vacation days are worth about $60 billion. About 75 percent of the work force gets paid vacation---an average of 14 days, plus whatever holidays employers grant under labor agreements or by fiat. Psychologists, demographers and others say we pass over time off for many reasons-----everything from an entrenched Puritan work ethic, to fear of being seen as reckless slackers relaxing while the economy burns, to simply squirreling away time for days when we're stuck at home awaiting a repair call. That's true, I agree, and most of people agree.

In addition, Real relaxing can reduce the number of dying of heart attacks. People want to get a good live condition, then working hard. However, many of them less think about their bodies. They are doing a wrong way to achieve their real aims, live to work rather than work to live. Everyone only has one body, if it works out, it could not work well any more. Therefore, please do not ignore your body, and try to work for a better living status.

Normality

My life is kind of smooth and no big waves these days. It was as usual as before.
This Thursday was Valentine's Day. I made a special dinner for this day. We had a great Valentine's Day.
On Friday, Anna lead us to go to Urban girl to buy beads after class. Because this store was moving away, there was a big sale. Due to the time, I didn't buy anything at noon. I went there again with our dance team after rehearsing that afternoon. I bought three strings of beads. They are beautiful and I like them. Actually, there are many stores which sell beads in China, but it's only a few here. In addition, I found that when the stores are on sale, the price is pretty lower than it in China. This is good for us. :-) I like good things at low price.
It was flurries on Saturday, but it was warm. We went to Alerus Center to perform on Saturday evening. After a few times' rehearsals, eventually we had a good ending at Alerus Center. Although a few mistakes were made by us during performing, it didn't create a very bad impression. That was not bad.:-)When the feast of nations was over, Rona and Jeff came to our apartment to play Majon until 12:30am. We had lots of fun at that night.
The weather was very bad today. It was windy, and the temperature was pretty low. I slept in until 10:30am. I didn't want to do anything except lying on the bed and watching movies.

Last Weekend

We went to International Center for dress rehearsal last Friday. Everything went well, except one male dancer was absent due to injury. I had mentioned before----JJ, Yingxin and I were practicing a dance that we are going to perform this Saturday. I am not sure if we can follow what the dance was rehearsed before, because one of the male dancers got his ankle hurt. However, we will perform as well. Some sections probably would be changed later. Hopefully, he will be better in a few days.

CSSA organized a party for Chinese New Year last Saturday at International Center. We attended that party and met a lot of new people there. Of course, we had a great dinner that night. After dinner, we went to JJ and Zhe's apartment to celebrate JJ's birthday. We were planning to go to Gilly's, but my parents-in-law went to my parents house, and they wanted to talk to us online, therefore, we didn't go to the bar. We went back our apartment and had a good conversation with our parents.

Yesterday, JJ, Yingxin, Zhe and Jeff came to our apartment to make dumplings. We really had much fun while preparing food. JJ missed the making process, because she had to finish homework before midnight. All of us are Chinese except Jeff. He tried his best to learn to make dumplings. Although those dumplings he made were not looked good, sort of ugly, they were still tasty. Ha ha…… Of course, they had the same tastes, because they had the same stuffing. :-) Jeff did a good job, even some Chinese couldn't do that. After dinner, we played Mahjong. It was really a wonderful day!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese new year. I almost forgot this important day today. Thanks to my classmate to remind me. When I was back from class, it was around 11:50 am. I had missed the Chinese new year's Eve, but fortunately, Hongchun had already made a phone call to our parents. Otherwise, I will regret forgetting this critical day. That's not only because of the day but also because our parents were waiting for us to give them a call on this Eve. My husband and I are abroad now, we couldn't go home and spend this family reunion time with our parents. That makes me quite homesick. I miss our family very much. I yearn for that the next reunion time which also works for us can come soon.