Kara told me that once she was going into her living room, and that she turned the light on and one of her lightbulbs burst. It showered the room in little glass slivers, which she spent a half hour picking up. She was really concerned, because her neighbors have kids who play in her living room. "What if they had been there?", she asked me. So I started to get concerned about exploding light bulbs.
A few days later Matthew said that he was replacing a light bulb in their stairwell. He said that he screwed it in and that it flickered twice and then exploded. Fortunately, he didn't get any of it lodged in him, but still!
Second, you have to know that I have spent nearly all of my life living with 8.5 foot ceilings. My 6'4" brother can scrape his knuckles when he stretches. I only need a dining room chair to reach the ceiling in my house.
So-
Monday was an ironic day for me. I went to bed Sunday night without picking the apartment up (which is unlike me). So Monday morning I was puttering around, getting things in order before my class at 10. I took care of my bedroom, the study, and I was headed into the living room.
I turned on the overhead light so I could see. One of my lightbulbs flickered and died. I looked up and it appeared to be swinging within the light fixture. I was a little worried about it exploding or falling or something. So I decided to take the lightbulb down before I had a problem with little bits of glass.
The ceilings here are high - maybe 11 feet. I can't reach the light fixture, even with a chair. But I decided to try to stand on my coffee table and give it a shot. I thought about bringing in a chair, but the coffee table seems pretty sturdy.
So I slid out of my slippers (I didn't want to be slippery) and stood on the coffee table. I moved my foot and leaned trying to reach the lightbulb (I was like three feet away - it was kind of silly to even try). And then - CRACK - a pane of glass in my coffee table broke. I was standing with bare feet in broken glass.
Oh the irony: I was worried about little pieces of glass, and here I am with huge daggers of broken glass. (Here is the glass in a bucket)
My coffee table has two sections: a wooden section and a glass section. The wooden section had this weird little compartment that had rocks under some glass. This is the glass that broke. Here is a photo of that part of the coffee table.
I carefully got down and went to get a towel to stop the bleeding in my foot. I had some deep scratches in by big toe and the sole of my foot. But I had a small gash in my baby toe that was really bleeding. There was a little trail of blood spots around my apartment where I had walked.
The first thing I did was to look online to see what constituted a bad cut, versus just a cut. They said that if the cut was so deep/big that the sides of the wound wouldn't close, that you needed stitches. Well, even though it was bleeding, it was holding itself together. This is good, since I have found out that they don't use anesthetic for stitches here - eek!.
So I called Sara to come over (Kris was in class) and she helped me clean up my foot and put bandaids on. She also helped me clean my floor.
I didn't go to class - Kris put a movie in for the class (it's a listening class, so it's not really a stretch for them to watch movies). I just sat with my foot up and watched a movie.
It actually isn't that bad at all. It was more alarming than anything. I've been favoring my baby toe when I walk and wearing sneakers everywhere. The other cuts are almost healed, and I'm keeping my eye out for any signs of infection. But bactine and neosporin are helping me out a lot.
So that was my first, minor medical emergency in China.
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