Stuffy nose, sore throat, overall body ache and chills. Yep, in this winter of 2009 it could only mean one thing: the dreaded swine flu. Tell my cats I love them and when you come to my funeral don’t cry…I want you to remember all the happy times we’ve had.
Ha ha, don’t worry too much. I’m sure I’ll somehow manage through (with help from my friend Tylenol Cold and Flu) and I probably won’t even miss a class. After all, it seems like China is the best place to catch H1N1. In the US the current count is 2 million cases and 4,000 deaths while in China the death toll is only 30. (And this isn’t from a government propaganda paper, I got that from the NYT.)
I’ve gotten first hand experience in how serious China has been treating the Swine Flu. We were warned to not cough, or sneeze or clear our throats as we went through customs for fear of being dragged away and quarantined. Here in school, after the first case was discovered in late September, we had to take our temperatures every day for about 2 weeks and report them to the people in charge. (It wasn’t just foreigners they targeted either. We saw all the cafeteria workers doing it as well.)
When a student here was discovered to have swine flu, they were quarantined in the hospital and his or her roommates were locked in their dorm room for a week. In some places entire universities were quarantined.
Of course I don’t even know if I’ve got H1N1 or just a common flu. The news has constantly been talking about Swine Flu I can only assume. I’ve heard in America they don;t even test anyone anymore. They assume that if you have a flu, it is the Swine Flu.
*Cough* *Cough*
Well, if you’ll excuse me I think I’m going to go back and snuggle underneath the blankets and watch some downloaded movies or the latest ‘Project Runway’ of Youku.com. If I feel better later I’ll get the Chinese equivalent of chicken soup (dumplings in broth). Hope everyone else is healthy and don’t forget to keep washing your hands!
I'm a Goner…..
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