Learning new things
For instance: bikes run a lot better when the tires are full of air...
Also:
Valve stems are different in Japan (As I have a Canadian bike with a "normal" (to me at least) Valve stem... I have discovered that the pumps at school are totally different...)
And... (drum roll please), when I landed here a year ago my blood pressure was 199 over 98 (one point below the high blood pressure limit). I just went to get my health check and on top of finding out that I have lost 4 kilos in the last month (8 lbs), I found my blood pressure to be 136 over 90, which is perfectly fine.
Of course, the doctor kept saying I was in excellent health for a man my age, and I couldn't figure out why he kept saying that... then I looked at my chest x-ray which said I was 47 years old...
"There's a problem here" I said, pointing to the x-ray, "I was born in Showa 47... I'm not 47 years old..." (I'd like to mention that all of this information was in Japanese, and I read it, discerned there was a problem, and brought it up to the smiling doctor who had been, up until then, deciding how I had managed to keep my youthful appearance all of these years...)
This produced a flurry of looking through charts and stuff for the doctor and the two nice nurses to realize that I'm really 34...
"Oh!" says the doctor, "Well then, you are in okay health for a man your age..."
Then he goes on to talk about my sbolgfijgavs. (I'm astonished I'm getting this much, really we are talking in Japanese, after all...) and he says that my asdlfkvadv levels were a little high which indicates my sbolgfijgavs might be having trouble...
so I panic... what is a sbolgfijgavs? I ask...
sbolgfijgavs... um....sbolgfijgavs.... kid...ney?
Kidneys?!?! I've never had a single problem with my kidneys... ever! What could possibly be wrong with my kidneys...
"Well, as I said your a;lkbvmac levels were a little high... of course, if you have been exercising a lot recently..."
"I ride my bike 20 kilometers a day." I say, still panicked (I'm glad he's not checking my blood pressure now...).
"Oh... really?" He says, pointedly looking at my midsection... yeah, I know, I look like a beached whale... but I'm less of one now... smaller, really.... more like an orca... "Well that would explain it."
"So my... kidneys... are..."
"Oh yeah, they are fine."
Okay... well now he can check my blood pressure, mostly because at this point it's probably 0 over 0...
---Orca...
posted by Aabh @ 9:39 PM
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