Under the Weather

A couple days ago, M and I sat through an 8 hour performance by the couple that runs the studio she's interning at. They and a friend of theirs spent 8 hours exploring their memories through their individual expressions: dance, writing, and film. About halfway through, I started to feel kind of gross. By the end of the performance, I was crashing. It was mostly stomach pains and these weird flu-like chills. By the time I got home, I was a mess. I bundled up with a couple sweatshirts and blankets, and passed out.

When I awoke the next day, I had a number of choices. Should I feed it, starve it, sweat it, run it, drink it, sleep it out? All the superstitions and old wives' tales swirled in my brain. Since I knew M would be angry if I didn't, I decided to eat. I went to boil some water, but the stove wasn't working. So, I reached for my phone to order some food, but my phone wasn't working either. I briefly considered switching to the starve it method, but quickly decided against it. Thankfully, our Skype out account (speaking of Skype, check out this little gem) had a few cents left, so I ordered food by yelling at my computer. I love technology.

I ordered myself a big bowl of spare rib soup. M and I used to make that for ourselves in Berkeley and Michigan when we felt sick. Later, Marilyn asked me how I knew the delivery place had spare rib soup. Actually, I didn't. These days, when I have to order food without Marilyn, I just call out a random dish. Usually, they have it, sometimes they don't. Sometimes I get awesome looks, such as when I ask a Sichuan restaurant if they have Cantonese bbq pork buns, or some random boba shack if they have soy milk/you tiao.

My spare rib soup was quite delicious. As I drank it, I could feel it spreading through my body killing the little virus/bacteria. Maybe. One of the things I used to like when I was young and got sick was that I didn't have to take my daily bath or shower. My mom said that cold period when drying off supposedly wasn't good. I've changed quite a bit since those early days; here in China, I shower twice a day, voluntarily at that! But I decided to kick it old school and forgo the shower.

I spent the rest of the day napping and resting. Then later was feeling well enough to meet M for the evening's film screening. On my way out the door, I decided to put on my snowcoat. I have this theory that if my body has to fight to keep itself warm, it will lose the war against the sickness. But if I overheat myself like crazy, my body can focus on winning the war. I got no few amount of strange looks as I strolled around Beijing in a down jacket in what was barely sweater weather.

Somehow, this strange superstitious cocktail, plus a bit o' prayer, seems to have worked! I feel much better today.

On our way home last night, we were talking to one of the dancers from the festival about the different theories on how to handle sickness. She says her boyfriend doesn't eat or drink anything for 2 days, then on the third day starts to drink a little. Some of my friends swear by going to the sauna and sweating it out.

So let's hear it, what are your superstitions? What's your technique for getting over a cold or random sickness?

P.S.: I know for a fact that some of our readers are in medical school...feel free to debunk our junk science cures.