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Why does travel have to be exciting? Just like anything else stressful there are highs and lows; travel just has particularly high highs and low lows. We're about to set out for Xi'an via train. It'll be an experience, but not a new one. I've already been in the region a couple times before and I've experienced train travel in China a half dozen times. Hopefully my Chinese will improve and that the Laduzi will be minimal.
April Fools!
Oh. My. God.
You guys, my body played the funniest April Fools trick on me today.
I woke up a little later than normal with some mild cramping in my stomach. Hoping for the best, I had a light breakfast of coffee and some crackers with vanilla filling.
(Ugh, just typing about those delicious crackers is making me gag right now.)
Sitting in class, I became increasingly uncomfortable. Something in my stomach wasn't feeling right. As soon as the teacher dismissed us, I dashed back to the dorm.
My roommate smiled at me when I threw open the door, but her smile quickly faded when she saw me make a beeline for the bathroom.
That's when my body unleashed its cruel prank.
"Oh, yeah. You just have an itsy bitsy stomach cramp. Nothing to be worried abo- JUST KIDDING! YOU HAVE F#!&ING FOOD POISONING!!! APRIL FOOLS!"
Not to brag, but I never get food poisoning. Living in Beijing for 9 months my senior year of high school, I'd never had anything worse than very mild diarrhea.
Having cancelled all my plans to become intimately acquainted with the less glamorous workings of my bowels, I want to present to you a couple ways to minimize the horrible-ness of China food poisoning.
Now is not the time to be a hero. Yeah, you have homework or work-work or people you want to hang out with. Trust me, no one will hassle you if you tell them you have food poisoning. If they're being a jerk about it, go ahead and give them the details.
Now is not even the time to be a functioning human being. Ugliness will be coming out of you in the form of sounds, smells, and worse for the next, like, 12 hours. Now is not the time to bother with pants... or, like, dignity.
Take the medicine your roommate offers you. It's all in Thai, and it tastes funny, and you're not clear on the usage instructions. But it will make you feel better.
Lay in bed for hours. You won't sleep most of this time, but something about being supine minimizes the ugly feelings in your stomach.
Concentrate on putting things down rather than bringing them up. You're going to experience the horrors of both, believe me, but the latter is considerably harder on your body than the former.
I'm no doctor, so this shouldn't be misconstrued as medical advice (take note all 4 of you that read this!). But it is what's working for me. In the likely event it happens to me again, it will be reassuring to have some sort of self-care checklist.
Currently I'm feeling a bit better, but it's not clear whether I'm out of the woods quite yet. I have a friend bringing me some shrimp crackers - puffed rice with shrimp flavoring - to see if I can keep food down yet.
Wish me luck.
