The first week of Puebla

Note "A Series of Unfortunate Events" - After experiencing emotional and spiritual ups and downs about a month ago, I have experienced a series of unfortunate events in recent days, mostly physical. Incident 1: Monday was my last day in Oaxaca. I went for a run in the morning. When I passed a quiet neighborhood, a big dog was in the middle of the road. I tried to run around it, but I didn’t expect the big dog to run towards me. Nibbled on my crotch. Luckily, I wore shorts over my running trousers, and luckily it bit the thickest elastic in the pants I was wearing. I felt a sharp pain at that time. I stopped and turned down my pants to see that it was only a skin trauma, and the skin was not broken or bleeding. If it only wears a pair of pants or only shorts, or if it bites other parts, it will lose a piece of meat no matter what. Now that I think about it, I am afraid, because I don’t know if it is a stray dog on the street or someone’s free-range dog. If it is bitten, I will definitely go to the doctor to check for various infectious diseases. I have never been a dog person, and now I am one step closer to a dog hater. Five days have passed, and there are still bruises on my crotch.

Event 2: After running back, I packed my luggage and went to the big market for the last stroll. As a result, the time was not optimistic, and I went too far. I hurried back to get my luggage and took a taxi to the long-distance station. The time was very tight. The driver knew that I had to catch the 12 o'clock car, so he accelerated all the way and ran the red light. Five minutes had passed when we arrived at the station, but fortunately, long-distance buses generally do not leave on time, and Mexico is even less punctual. I quickly showed the driver the electronic ticket I had screenshotted, and prepared to get on the bus. The strange thing is that the ticket number does not match the seat number on the driver's list. The driver asked me to ask the ticket sales staff. The staff couldn't find my ticket either. The problem was that the date and time were correct, and the credit card had been charged. I wondered why there was a problem. The staff called the company to check, and then said that the ticket was cancelled, so I just watched the driver drive away. After a few minutes, I suddenly understood what was going on. When I bought the ticket online, I said it was wrong for the first time, so I bought it again before I received the e-ticket. Later, I checked my bank account and found that I had been debited twice, so I called the bank and asked them to refund the money for the first unsuccessful transaction. It is probably because the bank canceled the ticket that I booked successfully, so the e-ticket I took a screenshot of at that time is no longer valid. The ticket sales staff told me: Don't book tickets online from them in the future, the website often makes mistakes, and it is more reliable to buy tickets in person. Hey, after thinking clearly and recognizing the facts, what should I do now? Except for the bus at 12 o'clock in the noon, the bus of this company only runs at 12 o'clock in the evening. I don't want to take the night train as a last resort, and I have already booked an airbnb in the next city, Puebla, that night. At this time, I saw a bus from another company parked across the road, and it was written on the front that it was going to Mexico City. So I ran across the road and asked if there were any vacant seats. Fortunately, I was told that there were two more seats in the last row, just pay and get on the bus. The car was 20 minutes late and didn't leave until there was no room for me and another person to board. This is the first time I am thankful for the lack of punctuality in Latin American culture.

Incident 3: I arrived in Puebla after taking a bus for more than five hours. After getting off the bus, I had to take a bus to the airbnb in the city center. I got on the bus and asked the driver if he had arrived at a certain station in the city center. The driver couldn’t tell, but he sat in the second row. The uncle said: You get on the bus, and I will tell you where to get off and transfer later, because I also want to get off at that station. After a few stops, the uncle asked me to get off with him. The uncle was very enthusiastic and took me across the road to take the Metrobus. Because I had to swipe my card, he swiped his card to let me in. I forced him to accept the fare, and then told me where to get off. Before I leave, I have to take a photo with me. Asians are rare here. When waiting for the bus, in order to make sure that the bus was right, I asked a girl next to me. This girl is also very warm-hearted, saying that she got off the bus before me, but when she got up, she would show me the route and explain where I should get off. Before she got off the bus, she told me again that there were still four stops before I could get off. From less than an hour to Puebla, I felt the kindness and enthusiasm of the people here (most Mexicans in other places before were also very kind and enthusiastic). So far, Unfortunate Event Three has not yet begun. After I got off the car, I walked for 10 minutes to the location shown on the airbnb map. There were several shoe stores, and there were no residents at all. When I came to Mexico at the end of August, I didn’t buy the Internet data of the phone card, because I didn’t want to go out and watch my mobile phone online. Now I can’t find airbnb and need to contact the head of the household. How can I contact the owner if I don’t have the internet? Fortunately, I wrote down the password of her home's wireless network before. Although I couldn't find the gate, she could connect to the wireless network at her home. After connecting to the Internet, I found several unread messages and missed calls. The head of the household said that because I was an hour late, the second head of the household who helped her manage the airbnb and lived there waited for me for an hour. people. So I called the second head of the household several times, and it took him ten minutes to answer, saying that he had gone to the supermarket to buy something for Christmas and would not be back until an hour later. I have been here for six hours with heavy luggage on my back, exhausted physically and mentally. It's beyond my control to be late in the traffic jam. I have already booked a room for tonight. Can't he wait for the guests to arrive before going shopping? ! Five or six days to Christmas! I got angry when I thought about it, but he hung up the phone. I didn't answer the call for half a day, and when I called back later, I said that if you don't come back in an hour, you can change it to me tomorrow, I can't wait that long, I plan to find a nearby hotel and forget it. Then he changed his words and said that he would come back and open the door for me in 15 minutes. My first reaction was that the 15 minutes the Mexican said was at least half an hour. Hey, just wait, I hung up the phone, I saw a shoe store next to me had a seat, so I went in and sat there and waited. Unexpectedly, 20 minutes later, the second head of the household came back. He took me to the airbnb, which turned out to be at the corner of the street. The location displayed on the map was not accurate at all. After he took me into the house, he saw two cats. Then he started chatting with me. I was tired of waiting for him, and I didn't want to talk anymore, so I wanted to go into the house to rest. As a result, he opened the door of his room, and a big dog came out. I was bitten by a big dog just this morning, and when I saw the big dog, I immediately became nervous, and hurried into the room and closed the door. The next morning I saw the second head of the household and his boyfriend, because I was going to go out and come back at night, but I will not stay here tonight, so I have to store my luggage here. The hotel where I stayed before, the youth hostel, etc., never charged a fee for luggage storage, and there is a charge here. I seldom use airbnb. It is convenient to book a hotel directly in the future. The trouble is dead.

Incident 4: On Tuesday, I went to Cholula, a small town less than an hour away, with my friends for a day, and my left ankle started to hurt in the afternoon. When I returned to airbnb to pick up my luggage, I felt limping. It is estimated that I came to Puebla with a big backpack last night and stood a little too much, and it was caused by walking in the small town for a day. Or maybe it was sprained after being bitten by a dog while running yesterday? But I'm not sure what caused it at all, because I have hiked a lot more than this before, which is very inexplicable. It's been three days since I applied the ointment, and it's still not completely healed. I basically stay at home every day, and I can't exercise or go out too much, which is very depressed.

Incident 5: On Wednesday, I moved to a long-term rental house. I bought vegetables from the local market at three or four in the afternoon and took a shower. After that, I felt chills all over my body and weakness in my limbs, which were symptoms before fever. Sure enough, his skin became hot within a short while, and the sheets were weak, so he lay down on the mattress and slept for an hour, and at least he woke up with some strength. We had the most online classes on Wednesday night, and it was too late to cancel the class now, so I got up and prepared to take online classes. But when I was teaching Chinese, when I saw my students, it was as if they had been beaten with chicken blood, and I completely forgot about the fever. I went to three consecutive classes for nearly three hours, and immediately felt weak again after I finished. It took me a long time to lay the sheets, and I fell asleep on the bed. Thankfully, I woke up the next morning with no fever and was completely back to normal. I thought that most of my family and friends in China had a new crown fever, so I joined together. I got it in July, and the fever went away in less than a day, which is also very inexplicable. It is estimated that it is caused by the exhaustion of the journey, the constant change of places to live, and the large temperature difference between morning and evening in the new city. Fortunately, the fever subsided so quickly without taking medicine. It was only later that I remembered that I seemed to have antipyretics.

In fact, thinking about it now, this series of unfortunate events is not so unfortunate, after all, it is not the worst case. Fortunately, I was not bitten by a dog to the point of going to the hospital. I did not take the bus to Puebla. The second head of the airbnb was a punctual Mexican and didn’t make me wait so long. Although my ankle was sprained At least I was able to walk around, not to the point where I needed a plaster cast and crutches to walk. During the journey and in life, there will always be things that don’t go well, and things that go wrong. When something happens, only trying to solve the problem will help, and complaining is useless. On the positive side, the results are actually not that bad. Let's hope this series of unfortunate events ends here.

Before coming to Puebla, I contacted the little brother I met when I was taking a salsa dance class in San Cristóbal. Coincidentally, I didn’t have time to chat during the salsa class before. I only know that he is from Mexico City, and he has learned some Chinese at the Confucius Institute in Mexico City. Other than that, I don't know much about him. In the last week before leaving San Cristóbal, I went to the salsa class on Tuesday, and found that the dance teacher canceled the class for the second time without informing everyone. We happened to meet outside the classroom and learned that his class on Thursday was coming. It's over, I also left on Friday, so the two of us just strolled and chatted on the street anyway. He studied history as an undergraduate, and now he is a graduate student in anthropology in San Cristóbal. He goes to the Mexico-Guatemala border every weekend to interview indigenous people and make documentaries. I told him that I would go to Oaxaca and Puebla later, and I learned that he would go back to Cholula (a small town near Puebla) to meet his family before Christmas break. He said that if I came to Puebla at that time, he could take me around Cholula. I didn't expect that I would be here just before Christmas.

On Tuesday morning, I took a bus from Puebla to Cholula to meet him. There are so many churches here that you can see a church every few streets, and they are all beautiful. We climbed up a hill with a cathedral on it. During the climb, you can see most of the pyramid ruins that are blocked next to you without buying a ticket. When I got to the top, I saw the panorama of the city and the not-so-clear volcano in the distance. My friend said that because it is not far from Mexico City, the air pollution is a bit serious, and the volcano can be seen clearly when the sky is clear and pollution-free. When I got to the top, I learned that the entire pyramid ruins are under my feet, and it is the largest pyramid in the world, bigger than Egypt. A friend said that in the 16th century, the Spanish colonists launched a massacre in Cholula, claiming that the local nobles were going to rebel, so his army brutally killed 6,000 unarmed local nobles, leaders, missionaries and ordinary people within two hours , and then raped and looted, and blood flowed like rivers. On the other side of the church, my friend pointed to a few skyscrapers in the distance, saying that those were private buildings built by rich people, and the gap between rich and poor here is very serious.

After that, we went to the local market for dinner. As soon as we arrived at the breakfast area, the row of aunts were so loud that they wanted to drag us in to eat their food. After that, I went all the way to the small town of Tonantzintla in the south to see their famous church. The church is Aboriginal Baroque and was built in four different stages from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Like the Chamula church where the chicken was sacrificed and killed in Chiapas state, photography is not allowed inside. After entering, the walls inside are full of heads of different sizes, most of which are dark-skinned angels from the pre-Hispanic colonial period. It's kind of weird to sit there and watch for a long time. Chatting with him, I learned that his father is from Guatemala, and his father moved to Mexico when he was very young during the country's political turmoil. Fucking Cholula. After graduating from his undergraduate degree, he worked in a certain archive and library in Mexico, managing literature files. He says he doesn't like his hometown of Mexico City: the air is polluted, the traffic is heavy, life is stressful, and he doesn't want to live with his parents. So he moved to Cholula a few years ago to live with his aunt. He rides his bike everywhere here. He even often regards cycling as a sport. It takes six or seven hours to ride more than 120 kilometers from here to Mexico City. He said that after graduating from graduate school next year, he has not yet decided what to do. He may immigrate to Canada, where he has his family, or continue his Ph.D. research on the Mayan aborigines in Guatemala and Mexico.

After walking too much, my ankles started to hurt, so we went back to the city by car and went to the market to eat the moles in Puebla. The moles here are different from those in Oaxaca. It is said that these two states have always had moles or moles. In the food war, everyone said that the mole in their own state was the best. I also found that similar to China, the regional foods in different states here are very different. For example, people in Puebla can eat spicy food very well. Chiapas and Oaxaca did not have any spicy food before. I think I can still eat spicy food, but here are two consecutive meals of chili peppers, probably the most spicy food I have eaten in Mexico so many times. My friend is much more spicy than I can eat. He taught me how the locals eat tortillas: put chile de árbol red peppers on tortillas, sprinkle some salt, roll them up as a staple food and eat them with mole. I ate one just like him, it was so spicy to me, just one try is enough. I didn't remember that the same chili was so spicy when I ate it elsewhere. My friend then rolled several times, as if nothing happened. After eating, I went to the vicinity of the university town. There is a place called container city, which is an area built by many large iron containers, and it is full of restaurants and bars. I also learned that the students who can afford this private university are extremely rich, because the tuition fees are super expensive and can catch up with the tuition fees of American universities. No wonder it feels so different here, the restaurants, the street decorations, the whole atmosphere is very Western.

I returned to Puebla from Cholula on Tuesday, picked up my luggage from airbnb and went to a sofa owner’s house, planning to live temporarily for two or three days, and find a long-term rental during the period. His home was only two blocks from the downtown park, but he found that the city was much larger than Oaxaca, and a block was much longer than it used to be elsewhere. There are three rooms in his house: one for rent, one for his own living, and one for sofa guests. He had another friend here when I got to his house. It was a little Spanish girl whom I met on the sofa three years ago. She was an exchange student at a university in a nearby state, and returned to Spain on Christmas Eve after the semester ended. I had an online class on Tuesday night, but found that his wifi was too slow and stuck. He said that the Internet in the old houses in the city center was not very good. He kindly helped me and asked his tenants if he could use his hotspot. The network was changed to be faster, but it was still a bit stuck. After the online class , I want to change the land, how can I work if the Internet is not working. So I found an airbnb 20 minutes away from the city center. The owner of the house is also an online worker. After confirming that the internet speed is fine, I plan to move there the next day.

Afterwards, the sofa owner asked his friend if I wanted to go out for a drink together, because I was very tired after class at night, and I didn't go out with them and didn't chat much, so I fell asleep, feeling a little bit sorry. After the work meeting the next morning, I went out to chat with him, and saw another friend of his fell asleep on the sofa in the living room. He probably drank too much last night. I went out with the sofa owner and took a walk around. His mother is from Puebla, and his father is from the nearby state of Veracruz, so he lived in each place for a few years and moved on both sides when he was a child. He has been a teacher for over 20 years and now teaches philosophy and ethics in high schools. After we went out, we saw a rental advertisement for women only on the street opposite his house, so we sent a message to contact. Passing by a churros Mexican fried dough stick shop, he bought some for me to try, saying that there is usually a long queue here, but now it is rare for no one to wait. The streets next to his house are colorful and beautiful. There are stalls selling many handicrafts on the street. I also learned that their local specialty talavera is a combination of Mexican and Spanish styles. It is a faience (faience) or tin glazed pottery with a typical white base glaze. Most of this pottery was decorated only in blue, but other colors were also used. I entered a pottery shop, and there were many ceramic portraits of the skeleton girl Catrina, which were exquisite. On the way back, I went to the pharmacy to buy ointment for my sprain, and when I got back, the sofa owner gave me another painkiller.

At noon, I was going to move to another airbnb farther away, but at this moment the landlord of the rented house across the street sent me a message back, saying that I could go and have a look, so I crossed the road to see the house. When the landlord saw me, the first thing she said was, are you from Orange County, Southern California, USA? I wondered how she knew where I lived before. She said that her sister lived there, and it was the same area code as my Whatsapp phone number. Ha, what a coincidence. Her house is on the third floor with six rooms, but now only she, her son, and her sister who came back from the United States temporarily to visit her mother for Christmas live here, and the other three rooms are empty. Because she only rented to female college students before, and usually rented for one year. Now no one is here during the Christmas holidays, so it can be rented short-term. When I sent a text message before, I asked about the price of renting for one week. After chatting with me for a few words, I asked how much it would be if I rented for two weeks. I actually told me that the price is the same as renting for a week. Although I don’t understand the logic, I do like. Tested the speed of the network, very fast. Although one house has an independent bathroom, it is very dark, and the other does not have a bathroom, but it is sunny and too warm. So I chose the one facing the sun without any hesitation. Anyway, I was the only one who used the toilet outside recently. There are three kittens in her family. I still like cats. Fortunately, there are no dogs. The hostess is very enthusiastic and patient. I said that I can't cancel my airbnb tonight, and I can move in in the afternoon after I confirm with the host that I can change it for another day. After changing airbnb to January, I sent a message to confirm with the hostess, she said that she would clean the room, and I could move in in two or three hours. So I went to a nearby market for lunch and grocery shopping. When I came back, I took cash to pay the rent, and then I took the luggage from the sofa owner and moved in. The scenery outside the window in the evening is beautiful. It is quite lucky to be able to find a long-term rental house so quickly.

The downstairs floor of the rented house is a small cafe that sells food, and there is also a small shop that sells traditional desserts from all over Mexico. Later, I learned from the owner that it is open from 1 pm to 11 pm every day, and there are live music performances from Thursday to Saturday nights. Fortunately, it is not the kind of loud bar music. It is more melodious and light music, but the sound is a bit son big. The first night I went to bed with earplugs and could still hear a little music. After two days, I got used to it, and it was like listening to a concert for free.

The next morning, I chatted with the landlord's eldest sister in the living room. She is a very talkative type. I don't need to talk to her and she can talk all the time by herself. It just so happened that I could improve my poor listening ability. The entire building belongs to her family. Her mother lives upstairs, her two sisters live on the first and second floors, and the first floor is rented out by merchants. The eldest sister of the landlord is in her early 50s, and her son is 13 years old. It is rare to have children at her age in Mexico. She was married before, her father cheated and left when her son was 8 years old, and she already had three children with that other woman. She complained to me about her ex-husband and how difficult it was for her to raise children by herself, but she is much happier now than when she was married. She said one of the reasons she rents out only women is to teach her son to be polite, to respect women, and to learn from women such virtues as kindness. All three cats in her family were adopted from the street. Her mother was nearly 90 years old and had been seriously ill for many years. Her sister, who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, often visits her mother on both sides, and she doesn't know how long she can survive.

While cooking in the kitchen in the afternoon, the landlord's son finally came out of his room. He was very polite, took the initiative to say hello and chat with me. He said he particularly enjoys playing computer games and that his playing has helped him improve his English. After that, he started chatting with me in English. I was amazed at his English proficiency, he has a large vocabulary, and he is very thoughtful, a very smart kid. Later, I learned from his mother that he started going to a bilingual school in the second grade, no wonder his English is so good.

The architecture of the city of Puebla is really beautiful. Walking on the street feels like being in Europe, with a strong colonial color. In time for Christmas again, Puebla is even more beautiful in the night.

Christmas light show, so beautiful. At the gate of the government building, I saw a group of people taking pictures around a man, so I asked the staff next to me if this is a celebrity? It turned out to be the re-elected mayor of Puebla. Looks pretty young, 50 years old. He is said to be the first mayor of Puebla to be re-elected because of his popularity. The staff said that he is very close to the people and does not need security or anything. In Oaxaca before, when the mayor gave a speech at the center, the streets and alleys were full of security guards. The mayor was about to go back to the government building after taking photos with many citizens, when the staff stopped him and asked us to take a photo.

Because of a foot injury, I basically stayed at home on Thursday and Friday and worked online. I was so sick on Friday night that I made an appointment with a 22-year-old girl in the city center on the sofa guest software. I found a restaurant to sit and chat while eating. She is now a senior, majoring in English and French, and she has also learned some basic German and Italian. She now works as an intern at the visitor's office in a government building, three days a week. In addition to helping tourists answer questions, recommending local places to tourists, and also serving as tour guides for government buildings. She also recommended me some local restaurants, museums, exhibitions, etc. by the way. We chatted about foreign language learning and exchanged some experience and software for learning foreign languages. The little girl is very cute, and she speaks and behaves a bit young, but she feels more mature than her peers, and she shows great interest in other cultures and languages. Think about it, when I was in my senior year, I probably would not have met and chatted with a 30-something older sister I met online. Ha ha.

On Christmas Eve, the hostess started preparing Christmas Eve dishes during the day, and she was responsible for making the traditional Christmas chipotle relleno here. Soak the dried chile chipotle peppers in a large pot of water with brown sugar and spices one night in advance, and boil them the next day until they are soft. Slices of cheese, then coated with flour and egg wash and fried. Because their whole family has high blood lipids, they picked out the egg yolks and only used egg whites.

The uncle from Puebla, who was a neighbor in San Cristóbal before, just came back today to spend Christmas with his family. He invited me to spend Christmas with him. I am looking forward to it. As a result, a message came after 6 o'clock in the evening saying that their Christmas party was cancelled, because many of his family members began to have symptoms of cold and cough. So I asked my other friend who had invited me to Christmas if she could go, but I guess she was preparing dinner with her family and not looking at her phone. In the end, I had the cheek to call the eldest sister of the landlord, and said that I couldn't go to my friend's house, and could I live with their family. She said no problem, just go upstairs to his mother's house in a while, they are all upstairs preparing food now. After more than half an hour, the landlady came down and sat in the kitchen drinking beer. She said that she and her two sisters had some disagreements. Her sister said something that made her very sad. She didn't say anything about the situation. Do your best to comfort her.

After a while we went upstairs together. Her eldest sister, second sister and her eldest sister's son are also on it. When we sat on the sofa and chatted, I saw her seriously ill mother lying on the hospital bed in the bedroom, and her second sister who came back from the United States was sitting on the bedside and snuggling up to her mother, feeling very sad. Her eldest sister's son is 21 and in his third year studying biotechnology. After a while her second sister came out of the house, and I noticed that her eye circles were red. She asked me if I was religious, and then told me that they would sing some Catholic songs in a while, and I didn't need to join in. Her sister (my landlord's eldest sister) will not join them either, because she is the only one in his family who believes in Christianity. Now I understand why the landlady was drinking in the kitchen. After a while, they put her mother in a wheelchair and rolled them out to celebrate Christmas. Her eldest sister's son was about to push her over to say hello to me, but she seemed to only listen to me and had lost the ability to speak. After they finished singing together, they pushed her back to the hospital bed. We started getting our plates ready to eat. My landlord's eldest sister made chipotle relleno and ponche fruit hot drinks, her eldest sister made bacalao fish, and her second sister made pasta. After filling up their own plates of food, everyone sat down in the dining room and ate.

At the beginning, the atmosphere was a little stiff. I don't know if it was because of me as an outsider, or because of their differences in religious beliefs. But after a while after eating, everyone started talking. The son of the landlord’s eldest sister asked me if I sometimes think about death, and then said that there will be meteorites hitting the earth anyway, and it’s useless to think so much about the future now, it’s better to live in the present. A little surprised by the idea of a 13-year-old kid. From their chat, I learned that although the landlord’s ex-husband was born and raised in Mexico, his parents are Slovenians. Her second sister's husband is German. Later, when they talked about geography, politics, capitalism and other issues, they started to have some small arguments. When talking about communism, turn around and ask me, is China a communist society? So how did you leave your country? Haha, the co-authors all think that people from communist countries cannot go abroad. They also asked me questions about Taiwan and Hong Kong. After that, I finally turned to some lighter topics: zodiac signs. I asked each of them their date of birth, and checked their zodiac signs. They found that each of them had different zodiac signs, which they found very interesting. Later, I learned that her second sister is a marathon fanatic. She has run marathons for many years in a row. Recently, she runs twice a year on average when she gets older. I will go to Tokyo to run a marathon in February next year, so I asked for my advice on traveling to Japan and Singapore. Seeing that the adults are all drinking red wine, the landlady's son is curious to try it, and his mother actually poured him some. It was really the first time he drank it, and he drank it all at once like drinking water. After drinking it, his expression was distorted. I think he was about to cry. He said it was too bad to drink. If only you grew up thinking the same way! The next day, I learned from the landlady that her elder brother-in-law was robbed and shot to death because of alcohol addiction one night more than 10 years ago. No wonder her elder sister said that, it sounded a bit sad.

After posting the photo of being bitten by a dog, many friends strongly suggested that I get a rabies vaccine, so I went to the hospital to see a doctor for peace of mind. I originally wanted to ask a local friend to go with me, for fear that I might not understand some things. But eight in the morning was too early, so I went by myself. The hospital is very close to where I live, and it takes only 10 minutes to walk there. When I arrived at the entrance of the hospital, I saw more than a dozen people queuing up, all holding various paper documents in their hands. I first asked the security guard if a tourist like me who doesn't live here often can see a doctor here, and I also asked him if he can get a rabies vaccine here. He didn't know much, so he took me directly to a small office at the back of the hospital building and asked a doctor. After hearing about my being bitten by a dog and seeing my photos, the doctor assured me that I did not need to be vaccinated against rabies. She said: "First of all, being infected with rabies can only be caused by the saliva of a rabid animal entering the skin wound. You wear two pairs of pants, and the pants are not torn. It may be a direct infection. Most of your skin is traumatized and bruised, and the little scar is not directly bitten out by the teeth marks, but caused by the pressure during the bite and the friction of the pants, so don’t worry.” She also showed me the scars on her arm recently bitten by her dog and explained to me. I asked her if my fever on Wednesday night might be a symptom of rabies. She said that the fever should be caused by other reasons such as a large temperature difference, because the symptoms will not appear so quickly. She also said that although you can often see stray dogs on the streets of Mexico, these stray dogs are actually active in a few blocks, and the residents living in those blocks usually take care of them (feeding, sleeping in the yard, etc.) , Sometimes a person will take a stray dog for rabies vaccination, and then other people may also take it for rabies vaccination when they see it, so many stray dogs may have been vaccinated many times, which is better than domestic dogs. More inoculated. She also said that most states in Mexico have not seen a case of dog-to-human transmission of rabies in the past 10 years. He also said that even if there is a direct bite and scratch, the doctor will not immediately advise them to get rabies vaccine. Because after a dog bites a person, if it does not die within 10 days, it means that the dog does not carry the rabies virus, and in this case, the person does not need to be vaccinated against rabies. I said that the dog that bit me was in the previous city, how do I know if it is dead or not after 10 days? She said someone would report it to the file. After listening to it, although I felt a lot more at ease, I still had doubts and was somewhat worried. I asked her what documents I would need if I wanted to see a doctor and get vaccinated. She said, do you live in this area now? If you live near here, you need to ask your landlord to give you a proof of water and electricity charges (without your name) and a copy of your passport. So I went back to the landlord and asked for a certificate. I went to make a copy, and went back to the hospital with a copy of my passport.

After returning to the hospital, I went directly to the previous small office to find the doctor E just now. She came out with another doctor M and said that she would take me for a consultation. I don't know if it's because I'm a foreigner, but the two of them took me directly past the security guards to the hospital without queuing. While waiting for the doctor, doctor M had already heard about my situation from doctor E, and doctor M told me again what doctor E had explained to me before, and also showed me the scratch marks on her arm from being scratched by a cat and her The photos of other patients being bitten by dogs in the mobile phone came to comfort my restless heart. She also told me that Doctor E is the person in charge of rabies in the entire city of Puebla and its surrounding areas. The two of them have worked in this hospital for nine years, and they have also worked in other hospitals for nearly 10 years. They also have their own veterinary clinic, responsible for vaccinating cats and dogs and other animals, so they are very experienced and know the situation of rabies prevention and treatment in Mexico very well. I came back this time with the two pairs of pants I was wearing when I was bitten. Doctor M looked at them and said that your pants are not torn, let alone worry. She said that dogs have a chasing nature, and if you see this kind of stray dog while running on the street, stop and walk over. Then she jokingly said: "You will definitely die, but definitely not because of this rabies." She also said: "The doctor you will see later is a general practitioner, and may explain to you about your previous fever. Reasons and so on." I thought to myself that two doctors who specialize in the prevention and treatment of rabies explained so much to me, and the general doctor probably just went through the motions later, and what I told me must be similar to what they just explained to me. I guess I don't know as much as they do, and I'm not as professional as them. When I was hesitating whether to see a general doctor, doctor E came over and said that other doctors were either not in or just seeing a doctor, and I had to wait for an hour or two. After these two doctors told me that there was no need for rabies vaccination, I felt that there was really no need to wait for a general doctor. They also said: "If you are still worried and insist on getting vaccinated, we will definitely not stop you, and we can arrange for you to get vaccinated immediately. But from our professional point of view, it is really unnecessary." Listen Afterwards, I felt that it was unnecessary, so we prepared to leave the hospital building together.

I was curious to ask them that in China and the United States, if there is a similar situation, the doctor must recommend immediate rabies vaccination. Why is it different here? Doctor M said that the national conditions of each country are different. Most of the stray dogs here live in the environment except for other stray cats and dogs, and there are no other types of animals. In remote areas outside many cities in the United States, dogs may also come into contact with other animals, so they may be more likely to carry the virus. I just walked to the gate of the building and wanted to go out. Later, a doctor chased me and said that she was free now and could consult me. So for peace of mind, we went back again. This Doctor K looks younger, wearing a Christmas sweater and green pants. After entering her consultation room and sitting down, they began to ask me to fill in the form for my personal information. She asked me again how I was bitten by a dog, the specific time and place, and looked at the two pairs of pants I brought. The photos of the wounds, just say that you are fine, it is not considered direct contact, there is no need for rabies vaccination, and the fever has nothing to do with this. Before finally leaving, she said that according to the usual practice, she must give me some doctor's advice: 1. Wash your hands frequently, 2. Change the mask every 24 hours, 3. Don't eat pork. Speaking of this, I was very confused, so I had to interrupt her. I said, do these doctor's orders have anything to do with being bitten by a dog? She said: "Oh, it's okay. It's just a suggestion for the prevention of the new crown epidemic." I asked her why she can't eat pork? She said, "You know, many tourists can't stand some of the meat here, and they will have diarrhea or something." I said I never felt sick eating in all my time in Mexico, don't worry. She said "Oh, that's all right." It was really a formality.

Before I came out of her office, I was very grateful that they took so long and patiently to explain to me and reassure me. I remember that there was a breakfast shop at the entrance of the hospital. I asked them what they liked to eat and invited them to have breakfast. They said: "No, no, you don't need to buy something to thank us. As long as we can help you, you don't worry anymore, and you gain your trust, that is the best way to thank us." When it comes to eating, Doctor K took out A pack of small local desserts was given to each of us. Afterwards, they chatted with me and asked me what I did. They heard that I was still teaching Chinese online. The doctor M said that her niece was interested in learning Chinese, and added my phone number and said to contact me if needed. When I got out of the office, I asked her where to pay the bill. She said that public hospitals like this are free, and individuals without insurance can come to receive medical services for free. Other private clinics charge a fee, but it is not very expensive if you have insurance. When they sent me out, I asked if public free hospitals usually have to wait in long queues and wait for a long time? She said that it is usually like this, the door opens at 8:00 in the morning and the queue usually starts at 7:00, but many people have gone out during the Christmas holiday, so there are not many people these days.

On the way home, I thought a lot. This is my second time to see a doctor in Mexico. In San Cristóbal before, after my Spanish teacher accompanied me for a gynecological examination, I sighed how easy and cheap it is to see a doctor in Mexico. Most people who don’t know Mexico will subjectively think that Mexico is dirty and messy, there are stray dogs everywhere on the street, and if they are bitten, they must be rabies vaccines, including me. After hearing the doctor say that there has been no case of dog-to-human transmission of rabies in the past 10 years, I was very surprised. I am very grateful that these doctors will not recommend unnecessary medical treatment to those who come to see the doctor out of a professional perspective and considering the different national conditions. In the United States, it is more about prevention. If there is a slight problem, various examinations will be recommended and various medicines will be prescribed. This also has a lot to do with the political system of health insurance in the United States. I don't know much about it, so I don't have the right to comment too much.