Sick in China

I like this one much more than Weibo so I am going to move the posts here and manage two sites for a while.

This was written in Weibo a while ago:

Last two days I've been pretty much dead under my blanket. Dripping nose, couching my lungs out and putting more and more clothes on to stay warm. It started with a sore throat on Thursday night and that was still sore on Friday morning. Diagnosis a flue and hoping that it will pass soon because I want to be in shape to run the Baiyun mountain stares when redhead arrives.

But “Viina vanhin voitehista” as the Finnish like to put it. (=alcohol is the oldest medicine) So nothing else to help this, because again I am a Finn. I'm not going to a doctor because of a flue until it has been bothering me over a week, rather two. And I'm not going to eat any medicines, they will just bulk in my body and antibiotics are not that friendly either, so rather let your body fight for you and get stronger with the win. Yea, a small bottle of whiskey cola and ginger green tea. One day totally out and today, nose dripping less than half of yesterday, couching little more than yesterday but I feel better. Finnish medicine really doesn't require wonders… mostly it's have a drink.

What I noticed was that people were saying things like this: “have you been to the doctor?”, “Do you eat medicine?” or “put more clothes on”. People do worry and want to check things here more than they want in Finland, but still… my first reaction in my head. WTF, why? No, gee, it's only a FLUE. I don't need a doctor to tell me the diagnosis for this one. Then I start laughing in my mind. When I was modeling for art students, their teacher said “Finns are strong characters, really strong willed and now what they want” yea, I bet we are. So I answer with a laugh and make joke out of it and say that I'll be fine with few days rest and hot drinks.

But how is it really? Not that different, the flue always feels the same, but the environment makes it quite different. It's not enough to wear just a long sleeve, specially now when the temperature is under 20. Don't laugh, it feels really different here than in Finland. 20 is summer but Guangzhou's under 20 is like Finland some where between 10 and 0 especially if it's raining. What is worse considering my flue, there's nowhere I can run from the cold. No heating meand that my room is actually colder than the outside temperature most of the winter time. Also because it's humid, close to 80% most of the time, you can wash clothes but they're going to stay wet for a week and even after that they're still humid and cold - and yes, I have to wear them. Hot water only from 18.30 until midnight, so most of the day stay under blanket and try not to freeze your nose. The life at university dorm during winter time is far from charming.

Now how about the class room, you might think. Well let me tell you the good news that it's as cold as the air out side. Studying jackets on and holding onto a hot cup of coffee or tea to prevent fingers from freezing. My life at the moment is going from coffee shop to a coffee shop in order to stay warm. Gym is forbidden until I get better, few more days. Then I have to be better because Redhead is landing. So I am also thankful that I can stay two weeks at hotel in down town. HEATING!!! Yay!!!