Advice from a Chinese Doctor

Today I had the fun experience of going to the hospital for the first time in China. Don’t freak out, I'm not dying – it was really more like the university clinic. I’ve had a cold that seems to have turned infection, and since I’ve been doing all the right things (seriously, I have) and it hasn’t helped, I figured I’d try the antibiotic route.
I asked a student today in class if she would go with me, and of course she was willing. In fact, she brought two classmates along for the fun. We walked to the clinic and then wandered down the hall to find a doctor.
We peered into one room, but no, there was already a patient being examined. After a couple of tries we found a free doctor. Actually, two free doctors, since one examining room can hold two doctors, two patients, and apparently as many onlookers as needed. The doctor spoke a few words of English intermixed with Chinese, which my students eagerly translated…all three of them at the same time. The first thing he said was: “You should wear more layers!’
He asked about symptoms, looked down my throat, and poked a glass thermometer in my mouth. “Five minutes,” he said. Those five minutes were probably the funniest. He kept asking questions, which my students would translate, and of course all I could say was, “mmmhmhm.” He asked if I was allergic to penicillin and then he asked how old I was. My students, horrified, said, “You can’t ask that!” We discussed in class that it is impolite to ask a foreigner their age. If I didn’t have a big thermometer under my tongue, I definitely would be laughing. Finally they gave up asking questions and continued to talk about me in Chinese. Several other patients came in and out in the meantime and joined the discussion.
After asking more questions, and prescribing some medicine, the doctor gave a lot of friendly advice. Wear more layers. Drink hot water (actually I’m drinking lots of it). Your apartment is too warm so you feel cold when you go outside. You should lower the temperature so it is more like outside. You should open your windows to change the air. You should wear more layers. Thank you, doctor. Actually, any random person on the street would have given me the same advice. They probably do every day, I just don’t understand it.
We went back down the hall to pay for the medicine (it was 3.5Y, or less than fifty cents) and then pick up the bagful. In China, they aren’t shy about prescribing pills. The doctor followed, telling me a few more times to wear more layers. I was pretty much the highlight of his day. On the way back one student said, “The doctor was very thorough with you. When I go, it is maybe two minutes. But he asked you lots of questions.” They also said, “Is it okay for a doctor to ask about age?” When we got back to my apartment, they read all the boxes and told me what to take when. And they repeated all the friendly advice in case I missed it the first few times.
The good things are (1) they didn’t try to give me an IV, as I’ve heard they’re fond of. (2) I didn’t have to take off any clothes, which would have been highly awkward. (3) The drugs are all reasonable (I looked them up online). (4) I now have some thick, black, extremely foul-tasting cough syrup. Oh wait, this is the good things.
Ah, fun times. Yes, I am still in a foreign country. “Is what it’s like to go to the doctor in America?” my students asked. Ummm, more or less.