H1N1

Everyone in China is freaked out about the swine flu, and rightly so. China is crowded and dirty. Several people live together in apartments the size of some U.S. families’ living rooms. Many apartment buildings have shared bathrooms that are, needless to say, filthy. And friends share food and drinks all the time.

Universities are especially concerned. Students are housed six or eight people per tiny dorm room. Libraries, dining halls, and classrooms are all crowded and thousands of people use them every day.

The number one in Chinese is “yi” so everyone says H-yi-N-yi, which I find very funny. If they say “H” and “N” (not Chinese) can’t they also say “one”? Actually, I’m wondering what other countries say in their languages… for example in Russian, what looks like an “H” says “N” and they don’t go around translating the name of the swine flu into н-один-N-один. No, no one does that. H-uno-N-uno, H-eins-N-eins, H-un-N-un? Anyone?

But back on topic, last week I entered Zhuan Jia Lou - where I live - and the desk workers stopped me and checked my temperature. Beside my name and room number they carefully recorded my temperature to the thousandths decimal place.

And just today, all the international students met in an auditorium, and the police talked to us about safely and sanitation. (I’m not sure why it was the police who came… that doesn’t really make sense, does it?) Then they gave everyone a fairly large bottle of disinfecting solution. As soon as I had hot water tonight, I cleaned everything in my room. I’m not so worried about getting the swine flu; I just like to clean things, especially in China.

I would also like to mention that the cleaning solution they gave us was produced and bottled in Lanzhou, by the Lanzhou Numerous Sterilization Products Company. It’s “galloping horse” brand, and is called 84. Impressive.