Ding Dong, Falun Gong

The Falun Gong have infiltrated Athens. They are everywhere. The obvious ones are Chinese but they have also recruited some white faced anglo types to trick white faced anglo types like me. They are capitalizing on the fact that EVERYONE is handing something out to read in Athens. Maps, Olympic information, club information, etc. I accidentally accepted something from one of the Chinese last week that was a colorful brochure and a flyer. I promptly threw it away. But the Falun Gong are smart. They have people stationed at the garbage cans too and they periodically go through the trash taking their one million flyers back out and rehanding them out. So, by the time they get to someone like me, they've been in the trash hundreds of times. So at least I learned to avoid anyone of Asian descent handing material out. But when the pale white girl with a smile handed me something, I thought it might be an invitation to a free classical music concert. Turns out, she was a member. She probably accepted a flyer herself several years ago while on holiday and the rest was history. While I was waiting for the Metro last night, I spotted a group of Chinese, one of whom was carrying a metal folding chair. As soon as they got to the bottom of the stairs, she unfolds the chair and sits there at the edge, waiting for the train. Sister, they've got benches here. You don't have to bring a chair with you to the train. What's more, they do make lighter chairs if you really feel the need to carry a chair with you. So, I watched them closely and noticed they were looking at people. Then I saw the flyers. Of course, the Falun Gong. I went to the opposite end of the train when it arrived, but the only 4 seats available were right beside me. 3 of them were engaged in conversation but the 4th seemed intent on casually slipping me the damn flyer. The woman did not speak much english so you know what I had to do. I had to share my true feelings with her. She handed me the flyer and I put my hand up. She persisted. Finally I said, "I don't really object to whatever it is you're doing, I"m just sick of you handing me this shit over and over when I told you once I don't want it." She still had a smile on her face and said "sank you, sank you". I let her keep the flyer.

Yesterday was Day 2 of work. The schedule was very similar to Day 1, except I figured out how to get regular filtered American coffee, so I took 5 coffee breaks instead of 1. Yesterday was the preliminary men's basketball and, based on what I saw, almost every team could have beat USA. The team arrived (I was stationed at Lurking Position 3) when the US team arrived, all wearing sun glasses (hey, they took a bus-I can't believe it was that bright on the bus) and headphones listening to music. They all swaggered in, everyone one of them (damn they are huge.) and went to their locker room where I tried to follow them in but was promptly stopped, even though I displayed my medical arm band. Then the coaches made them clear the halls where they would be walking and warming up. puhhleeze. What, we don't want to disturb the legendary focus they displayed at the game last night? Anyways, my shift ended before the game started but I hung around and watched. I sat in the front row behind one of the goals with my homies from Angola. A lot of the other men's teams were watching and the only free seat was amongst some of the largest black men I've ever seen. There was an Angolan guy behind me with his legs draped over the seat next to me. His feet were twice the size of the seat next to me. Maybe he was 2 rows back, I couldn't really tell.

Dr. Dory has eased up a bit since he had to wear athletic shoes instead of the faux-euro sandals he had on the first day, which I think made him more cocky. I found out he is 31 yrs old and he likes to cuss, which really impresses the ladies, especially the Greek ones he was hitting on with his expansive 10 word Greek vocabulary.

Oh, the work. Right. We actually had a patient yesterday, but not an athlete, a referee. It was one of the referees from the women's games the day before. She was from Korea and spoke NO English. Luckily she had a Japanese translator with her. She spoke a few words of English. But only enough to tell us her foot hurt and then she left. So, the Greek doctor examined her and diagnosed plantar fasciitis. Then he told her a bunch of things in English, which was undoubtedly very helpful for her. He wrapped her foot with some type of Ace wrap and gave her 2 Tylenol. She came back a few hours later with a Chinese guy who spoke some English and told us the woman was afraid her foot would give out during a subsequent game and that she wanted physical therapy. Physical Therapy? You have got to be kidding. The Greek doctor was reluctant and started to tell the Chinese guy that the woman had a condition that she was born with called valgus and this was going to happen, blah blah blah. I think he lost the guy at "valgus". I said we ought to give her some PT, as long as we had a PT there. So we did. Basically the woman got a pretty darn good foot massage from the physical therapist, which I'm sure cured her condition. We'll see. Watch a women's basketball match and look for a small severe Korean woman. If she's limping, it's not my fault.