Worse than Pulling Teeth

Indexing my book was worse than getting teeth pulled. But this picture is not metaphorical. I actually did go to the dentist last week—but fortunately didn’t have any teeth pulled. See below. Photo Credit: Samuel

Hi everyone. I haven't even considered blogging this past week because I've been up to my ears (actually over my head) indexing my book. Indexing, by the way, is way harder than I ever imagined, but it is also fun, in a perverse sort of way, especially when you write a book where you have index entries like "Christianity" just above "chum salmon," or "Locke, John" just above log jams. Talk about mixing the sacred and the profane (I almost got carried away, but stopped short of indexing "God" above "gooseberries"). Anyway, it's done now--just sent off to my editor (I love saying that) today.

Next up: leaving this morning for Xi'an where we are supposed to be meeting my friend Howard, who teaches history at Shaanxi Normal University, for dinner tonight in the Muslim quarter. The only catch: there was a snow-storm here yesterday and flurries still continue this morning. Clyde is almost certain that our flight will be delayed and he's probably right. For being Inner Mongolia, Hohhot is not very prepared for snow--I've never seen a snow-plow or gravel-spreading truck. Without a doubt, we'll have to wait, who knows how long, for our flight. People here are prepared to wait (for everything), and we're trying to adopt that attitude and just relax. We'll let you know how it turns out.

Besides indexing, there are few recent events to report on, but I wanted to mention one. Last week, Tyler told me that Malicha was going to get her teeth cleaned. The kids and I went along because I wanted to get my teeth cleaned--I used some tooth paste that I bought here and within a week I had a dark tea stain on my front tooth (this happened to me once at home when I brushed with Listerine...weird).

Anyway, going to a dentist here in China is not really that much different from home, but there are a few exceptions. First of all, after I had my teeth cleaned I wanted to get the kids' teeth cleaned. Grace lay down on the table (for some reason, she WANTED her teeth cleaned), the dentist examined her mouth and said, "Good, she doesn't need her teeth cleaned." Samuel lay down and the same thing happened. Now, have you ever been to your dentist and they decided NOT to clean your teeth? Crazy. Part of the reason for this, I think, is because kids here do not, as a rule, get regular cleanings. They visit the dentist only when something happens (see my previous posting). Our kids, who thankfully have had regular check-ups their entire lives, probably have great teeth by comparison. You can learn a lot about class and society throughout the world by looking people's teeth. Next book?

Secondly, when I tried to pay for my own teeth cleaning, the dentist waved me off--"Don't worry about it." Has this ever happened to you in the good ole USA? Will it ever happen to you in the USA? Never. (By the way, if I had paid for my teeth-cleaning, it would have been 40 RMB, or under $6.)

Well, need to get going to the airport so that we can wait for our flight--hopefully not for too long.

Will be posting after our return on February 1.

Take care,

Dave