Chengdu

I have been in Chengdu for a few days now. My first two days here were great. I walked around the city, ate Sichuan food, went to a tea house, visited a Buddhist monastery where I made friends with a monk, and hung out with the other students staying in the hostel I'm staying at. But on Monday I got really sick and couldn't even leave the hostel. So for the past few days I've been reading books. When I get better, I want to go to Leshan where I can see a giant Buddha statue, and then go to Emei. Emei is a holy Buddhist mountain that takes two or three days to climb. And there are monkeys there!

Being Sick

Last week, five of my friends and I got food poisoning from a restaurant where we ate together. It only lasted one day, in which I slept in between having to throw up, but I realized that when I’m in America, I take for granted not being constantly ill.

Everyday when I wake up in China, I assess my health to see if I need to stay home from class. I usually miss about one class per week.

Sometimes I am not actually sick, but I have a sore throat from the air. I wear a facemask on these days, which usually fixes the problem.

And lately, I have been extremely tired. Sometimes I will finish class just before eleven o’clock and sleep until dinner. Later on that night, I have no problem falling asleep or sleeping through the night.

In America, it was a huge inconvenience for me to have a cold. In contrast to constantly thinking about my health while in China, my health was never on my mind while in America. I can hardly remember always feeling well…

Chinese Medicine

Because I became ill from eating raw vegetables, I went to a Chinese hospital. This might be a scary thought for you, as it was for me at first.

What made me the most nervous was the language barrier. A faculty member from the University took me to the hospital, so I tried to describe to her in English what was wrong. She told the doctor in Chinese and tried to translate his questions and instructions for me.

Not much was said to me. After she explained to the doctor what was wrong, I was given medicine- two types of pills, and told how many times per day to take them.

The medicine isn't anything weird. I've been thinking about how scary Chinese medicine seems to foreigners, especially Americans. But really, one quarter of the world's population lives here. They go to these hospitals and take this medicine. Just because China is different doesn’t mean they are wrong. Maybe we have better solutions in America, but the Chinese ones work fine, too.

Oh, and my doctors bills were less than 15 yuan, or $2.10.


P.S.- I'm FINE, don't worry!!!

Forbidden Fruit

Because fruit and vegetables in China are grown in unsuitable water, westerners are not supposed to eat them raw. Supposedly, my body will get used to it over time and I will be able to eat uncooked produce in the future. I mentioned my friend Tracy in a previous post. She is also from America and has been in China for about seven months, so I asked her if she eats uncooked fruit and vegetables. She does and has had no problems. I decided to take my chances, and I ate a raw tomato with some rice one evening. I should mention that I had had no adverse reactions to any of the food in China until this point. And, all because of a tomato, I was sick for three days. I'm now wondering why I didn't enjoy a banana, apple, pineapple, pear, or other tempting fruit I walk past every day at the local markets. I now know how Adam and Eve felt.