哎呀：Interjection of Suprise

I've been getting a lot of mileage out of this phrase the last few days. The reason is that--哎呀--la duzi (the dreaded travelers' diarrhea) I've managed to avoid thus far this year finally struck early Sunday morning, waking me from an otherwise peaceful sleep. Saturday morning, just seventeen hours before, I'd been worried that I wasn't using the bathroom enough (i.e., at all, for a thirty-six hour period), and as I suspected, constipation gave way to the normal situation in China: cant-stop-ation.

I made it through work on Sunday, with three bathroom breaks (breaking my rule about not using the work toilets) and a lot of water. Cramps set in a bit painfully, and Sunday night was restless because of them. Yesterday, my trips to the bathroom were becoming a bit less frequent, though the cramps persevered. Knowing that I had classes that night, I decided to go out and buy some medicine, hoping to find just a simple anti-diarrheal to hold me through classes.

Unfortunately, the medicine available in China for an upset stomach goes a long way toward explaining why all the big-media illnesses--SARS, avian flu, etc.--seem to originate in Asia. To treat my simple case of the runs, I had my choice (out of those boxes labeled in English) of Ciprofloxacin (a wide-spectrum antibiotic) Azithromycin (usually used for respiratory infections) and Oseltamivir phosphate (the active ingredient in Tamiflu--used to treat avian flu) and--哎呀--Nelfinavir Mesylate (used to treat HIV). I finally sent Nersey a message asking for the name of any simple charcoal tablets, and fortunately, he had enough at home to give me a little bag of tablets, presumably anti-biotic-free.

Three pills later, and I'm feeling a good bit better. I tried solid food again earlier today (Yesterday's diet consisted of Gerber carrots and peas and a bowl of boiled noodles), and since I only have to work for one hour tomorrow night, I'm going to try a calzone at Andes cafe. That seems about the best way to celebrate being off the baby food.

Ten Reasons to Come to Shenzhen, or Stay
Originally posted: 03:08, 2007-10-14

You want to experience another culture, meaning that you have a sadistic desire to be continuously confused by a language you don't understand and by daily routines you don't understand, while suffering diarrhea and living surrounded by dirt.

You never really fit in at home and figure it might be a nice change to try not fitting in in a new place, somewhere no one would expect (or let) you fit in.

You really, really like tiles (tile buildings, tile floors, tile sidewalks), the slipperier the better.

You want to learn another language and think the best way to do so might be through hour-long conversations with people who only want to say, "Hello," over and over again.

You think it's high time you cashed in on your only marketable skill: your undeniable ability to be not Chinese.

Though not a Hilton, you desperately crave the attention normally afforded celebrities, but you don't want to go through all the hassle of doing something noteworthy first.

You're tired of being called "crazy," "retarded," "a criminal," "a loser," or "an arrogant jerk" and would prefer being somewhere where you're just "foreign."

The only things you like more than tiles (see above) are handwritten triplicate forms, for everything.

You believe whole-heartedly that all Asian women are beautiful and want to test this article of faith through exposure to a thousand or so of them per week, mostly on buses, mostly in hot, humid weather.

You really dug the eighties but always felt that (despite the Flock of Seagulls haircuts, Boy George and Judas Priest) the decade just wasn't gay enough, and you'd like to live in a place where rat-tails and jean cut-offs still rock.