I think I got the flu

Last week I got pretty sick. It was a Monday and I was really excited because a friend had come to visit me. Halfway through the day though, I started feeling dead to the world. I was pretty sure it was going to be serious since I never get sick.

The first night I cried because I thought I was going to die (a tad melodramatic at times). When the word leaked out to my local teachers that I was sick, they freaked out. Maybe they were scared I'd get so sick I'd go back to the states, like some of my 腾冲 Tengchong colleagues. They worried over me so much that the other TFC fellow here, 彭智文 Peng Zhiwen, likened my situation to a panda.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's the most cherished animal in China."

They kept insisting I should go to the doctor and get a shot. I'm not the biggest fan of Western medicine in the first place, but Yunnan has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in all of China, so I'm a little wary of unnecessary needle use. That night I couldn't sleep because it felt like my right ear was going to explode. They canceled my classes.

"Do you dare take Chinese medicine?" they asked. Of course! They should've of asked sooner. So I headed to the local doctor with my two friends. Only the "young" doctor was in, a man well over 40, so my local teachers said we would have to wait until the next day.

I headed back and met the young doctor's father, he's probably over 70 years old. He felt my left wrist in three places, and then did the same to my right wrist. He asked if I had a cough, I said no. He looked at my tongue and commented that I was 上火, or "on fire." I'm no expert, but I know that Chinese medicine often assigns temperature to people and their afflictions, but also to food and herbs. He slowly wrote my prescription- about 15 different ingredients that he then weighed out. I really have no idea what any of it was; some of it looked like mushrooms, some looked like tea, some like mashed peppercorn. I was to boil it all together, and drink three times a day. He calculated the price on one of those abacus things, which I have no idea how to use, so I was convinced it was going to be 100s of yuan. It was 25块.

Drinking it at all was a disgusting challenge. It tastes approximately like rubbing alcohol, chai tea, and dandelion greens mixed together. The Chinese have some saying like, the bitterer, the healthier. They are not kidding, I'm making a face just thinking about it.

The results were weird. I felt almost 100% better, but I completely lost my voice. As in, either whisper or turkey squawk.

This week, I've regained my voice, and also my 精神 (roughly translated as spirit or vigor) according to my local teachers. I'm on the mend but my ear is still popped and my throat hurts, so I returned to the doctor for a new prescription. He said I had no physical strength so I should eat more- all I've ever wanted to hear.