Thursday afternoon friends we met last summer came to visit with us for a while. They are husband and wife and both are former English teachers; therefore our conversations were easy and lively. We had a great time of sharing and of deepening our friendships. In the course of talking to these friends, we told them about some physical ailments we’d had since arriving. They have a friend who is a doctor and who was willing to make a house call. Jean has had swollen feet and ankles since our arrival. Because her shoes are tight, she’s had some blisters to deal with. She learned that it’s nothing serious, just a slightly irregular heartbeat with a bit of poor circulation. Below is a picture of Jean being examined by the doctor in our living room.

Yvonne has had the same problem with her feet that Jean has had, also with subsequent blisters from tight shoes. One foot is now almost back to normal, but the other one is still quite swollen. He determined that her heart is just fine, but that she has poor circulation in her one leg. Below is a picture of Yvonne talking to the doctor.

I had cold-like symptoms develop this week (probably I took a chill the other night when the temperature dipped to near 85 degrees). He checked me out and confirmed what I had been suspecting - a sinus infection. My picture is below.

Becka, who is apparently the picture of health, did not have to consult the doctor, and hence she will not be featured in this blog entry, though she can be seen sitting beside “invalid Jean”. The doctor has prescribed a different Chinese medication for each of us to take and will come by with the medications Friday evening. He said the ladies’ stuff will not taste bad, but mine, unfortunately, will be disgusting. Great! But it *will* be nice to feel better. During the course of the consultations at which *everyone* was present, we learned far more about each other than we wanted to know through the doctor’s probing questions.

After our nice consultations with the doctor, our friends treated us to a meal in a restaurant that features food from where they are from in the northern part of the country. Below you will find a picture of the things we enjoyed and a picture of Jean and Yvonne using Chinese silverware.