Checking in with my next door neighbors

Checked in at the hospital on August 18, prepped for 2 days, prior to the scheduled C-section on August 20. They couldn't and wouldn't confirm with us until the actual day itself if we actually had a room... room booking was only allowed strictly a week before the planned check-in date, such that we went there 8 days before the check-in date, in the afternoon, but they turned us away and asked us to come back the next morning. When they mean a week before, they really mean 7 days. No wonder the Chinese are so good in Math. (8 is definitely not 7, stupid foreigners! I could almost hear their thoughts)

I requested for a shared room with 2 beds, as the private room was preposterously expensive. I would stay for at least a week. It turned out to be an interesting experience.

Worlds apart, while in the same room, in the same hospital, in the same city,  and only actually separated by a thin curtain and nothing more. Two vastly different co-sleepers situated a few meters from my bed.

Neighbor A: The Whiny Cat

Curtains closed, with only the sound of intermittent whining and please for more attention from her obnoxiously loud family of 4 (note that only 2 visitors are allowed each time but they somehow escaped the Chinese hospital SS police), the whiny cat sounds sweet and pretty. Based on her voice she could be a sweet sexy thang (pre- pregnancy and surgery)

Curtains drawn, with the sunlight coming in through the only window in the room, which happens to be on the cat's side, the cat is revealed to be the complete physical opposite of her sweet sexy voice... I am reminded of the saying "Don't judge a woman by her voice" , or more popularly known as, "Don't judge a book by its cover", or something like that.

Decibel level of family members: equivalent to trying to speak up so as to hear the person right next to you at a noisy bar, especially active when neighbor (specifically, I), tries to sleep or rest, along with our newborn son.

Neighbor B: The Independent Supercomputer

5 days later, cat woman has checked out and this other woman checks in...

Curtains closed, the sound of a corporate woman hotshot, talking animatedly on her mobile phone, giving a blow by blow account of her ordeal. Barely 3 hours after her cesarean operation, she recites the exact time and details down to the second decimal place. " Yes, hi how are you? Yes, it went well, I went in at 6:08, the doctor administered anesthesia and it went effect after about 10- 15 minutes, then 20 minutes later I was done. Yes, a baby boy. Thank you! He was born at 6:28 am, weighing 2824.58 grams, that is about (barely pauses for more than 5 seconds) ... 6.23 pounds. Yes, everything is ok, thank you, just resting..." and so she went on for another 10 minutes or so on the phone, seemingly oblivious of the fact that she had just been butchered up on the cutting table an hour or two ago.

I am amazed at how vastly different these two women are.

Gosh, I think to myself. She is better at math under sedatives than I am sober. Sometimes, I wonder if I really have some Chinese blood in me, these math skills would have come handy to impress my next door neighbor anytime.