Watch your Health on TV

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America is a funny place with two pretty huge obsessions - one is TV and the other is health. Today I went to two different doctors to get "regular check-ups" something that especially my family gets done a lot, just in case. Afterwards I bought a pack of pills, two creams, and floss. It used to kind of be a joke in our household that everything caused cancer, cause that's what everything seemed to talk about. You eat the wrong foods, use the wrong kind of computer, do whatever, you've ultimately got cancer. Although the truth is the only thing that means is that they have no idea what causes cancer. Unlike the Chinese and other Asians who never go to any kind of doctor unless they're in pain and don't try and take any sort of medicine. (The doctor warned me today not to go to Chinese doctor for certain contraceptives as only the Chinese can take them out of you and no one else can.) Americans are totally the opposite and I realize that to be an American and not be on medicine is almost an oxymoron unless you're one of those people that refuses to ever take any medicine no matter what's wrong with you. Earlier this evening my parents were in two separate parts of the house watching two different channels on TV - not an uncommon occurrence. My mom goes to sleep watching the TV every night and there are people who watch TV while doing their homework in my sister's apartment (honestly I have no idea how they do it, the TV would distract me WAY too much for me to be able to get anything else done).

I've also found those "I'm cool .... wow, look at that American" people here too, except they're a bit different. In Asia you see all these people walking towards you who are trying to be all hip and cool and then you walk by them and they've got their jaws dropped to the ground because you're a foreigner and they've "never seen a foreigner" before. In the US it seems you've got a bunch of people who are really in awe of people who travel a lot. You'll be talking to someone and all of a sudden you mention to them you've been to X country and their jaws are on the ground just like the cool Asians. I was in the Outdoor Provision place today trying to talk to a guy about First Aid Kits and we were talking about leeches and how to get rid of them and such. He asked me where I was with leeches and I said "Nepal" his mouth bout dropped to the ground and he got all excited and told the whole shop. Everyone else was pretty much awe-struck too except for one older guy who asked me where I'd been in Nepal and told me he'd been trekking there a long time ago.

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