The Lady with the Chisel

We are driving to see the Lady with the Chisel. Aidan is in the back seat lying strips of banana peal side by side. I ask him if he wants to help his father with a Chinese lesson. He says yes. I switch what's playing on the car stereo to an episode of ChinesePod about calling someone tall. Aidan is not super interested and he asks for another lesson. It seems these ChinesePod lessons, at the level I listen too, actually help his english a bit as they talk more english on the show than Chinese.

Yang is in the passenger seat, along for the ride just because that's the way she is and because I will need a translator for the lady with a chisel. Lydia is at home, in the middle of a two hour nap. It must be nice to be three. Earlier I sat on the coach and Lydia brought me the Pirates of the Caribbean cartoon book and asked me to read. One problem, it was in Chinese. So I made up the story as I went -- things about Johnny Depp needing a bath -- and she seemed entertained until Aidan stepped in and said to here that Bobbie (that's me) cannot read Chinese. He then fetched a Dr. Zeuss book from which I read, but Lydia didn't seem as interested.

The Lady with the Chisel's office is down a small alley about a half a mile from Forbidden City. It's in a 1950's era brick building, maybe four stories total. We walk up a half flight of stairs, past the stacks of coal, and step inside. The outer office small and rectangular, with simple chairs lining the walls. Patients and staff alike wait and watch a 12 inch black and white TV. It is showing some American film dubbed into Chinese. We are lucky today and there isn't much of a wait and we are escorted to the inner office which is a bit narrower, lacks the TV, but is otherwise similar. The Lady with the Chisel is in the inner office and upon seeing me, smiles, stands, and offers me her seat. It is easy for her to be friendly now since she is, after all, the one with the chisel.

 
Aidan waiting outside to toe doctor's office

On the walls are famous athletes and some government dignitaries. They've all made the trek down the small alley and into this worn down office to see the Lady with the Chisel.

An aide to the Lady with the Chisel brings a bucket of water. Extremely hot water as my feet soon discover. After about 10 minutes in the water, the Lady with the Chisel puts on her white coat and beckons me to sit in the patient chair. She lifts the Chisel from out of the alcohol bath it sits in and starts to tap. Tap the chisel into my big toenail. Tap, tap, tap. Aidan is very curios and asks me in Chinese and English if it hurts. I pretend it does, but it doesn't, and Aidan knows this. The lady with the Chisel is very skilled. In 15 minutes she is done and she wraps my toes in bandages. This week she only put on a little bit of her famous red medicine. The famous red medicine that does hurt as it does it work.

We get up and I pay the 100 RMB fee, the special foreigner rate. If I was Chinese, it would be 30 RMB. But I don't mind, she does have the chisel after all and my feet are starting to look human again.

We leave with bits of toenails in our wake.