conferencing

day 2. i attend a CME (that's continued medical education) conference. it is on HPV and update on CIN guidelines, is meant for physicians from other hospitals/regions, and is entirely in Vietnamese.
One of the FP doctors picks me up in the morning to take me to the university, which is further away then the hospital. he is 15 minutes late. he is supposed to be taking me on his bike (dont tell my boss), but my landlord who was keeping me company while waiting, strategically talks him out of it and suggests we better take a cab (cassing should thank him). we arrive at the conference already in progress, and since no one wants to sit upfront, we park in the second row.
the conference is in the medical university. the conference room itself seems oddly familiar, like i've seen it somewhere before, maybe at a conference in russia, maybe somewhere in east berlin. the conference room is old, built likely right after the war, maybe even before. the walls used to be beige with pink splatter; they are now gray with some pink peeking through. concrete floor, linoleum stage, red velvet curtain behind the screen. giant bust of ho chi minh sitting at upstage right. there are red banners with ho chi minh quotes (i assume they are his because the quotes are signed with his name); no a/c whirring fans over rows of wooden conference chairs.
i am learning all about pap smears, and how the ThinPrep has a higher sensitivity. the slides and the lecture, of course, is all in vietnamese. i understand vietnamese! wait, no, i can just piece together numbers and no the guidelines. the male doctor intermittently tells me what is being said. at some point, he tells me he has to go back to the hospital and pawns me on a resident (3rd years, 3rd out of 3).
we take a walk around the university building, with medical students sitting in groups on the floor (sweaters, no shoes). we stop short before the anatomy lab ("are you afraid of anatomy?" "no, but it's been a really long time since i've taken anatomy") apparently, it's the biggest in the nation, unclear why, other than they have a lot of bodies there.
back to the conference. i am introduced to more residents. some confusion happens at first as they realize i (the visiting professor) am not an old gray dude, and am in fact "quite young and beautiful" (this is immediately followed with 'are oyu married?"). i am force-fed raisins, i guess i have to work on my asian no. we listen to more guidelines and protocols. one of the residents keeps asking me questions about our practice, which i sort of feel like i'm not always certain and certainly dont want her to think i'm stupid and/or lying to her. although, apparently, in vietnam they follow ACOG guidelines. after the last speaker, a terrible thing happens: the faculty and residents take pictures, on stage, and drag me with them. so there i am, front and center, at a random vietnamese CME conference. then the residents have a meeting and i am asked to please wait a little. the meeting mainly consists, as it seems, of the residents being yelled at. good to know some things are not all that different. then, i am quickly escorted into a cab. super productive day!