Food poisoning.

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I woke up sick. My stomach was turning and I mostly definitely was feverish.

I was debating whether or not to go to Beijing with our group. But my roommate convinced me that it was worse to be sick alone in a dorm. She was probably right.

I went to visit the Temple of Heaven. I felt so horrible, I may have taken a trip to Heaven at one point.

Then I got back on the tour bus. We hit our next stop. I thought that if I didn't get off the bus and privately vomitted into a shopping bag, I would feel better and make it to the Forbidden City (something I've always wanted to do).

I vomited into a shopping bag, but I didn't feel better. I was miserable and the world was spinning. The next stop was Tiannanmen Square and I refused to get off again. A kind motherly professor Chu came by and patted my head. That was all it took. I started sobbing because I was sick in a foreign country on a tour bus with no family around. The sobbing induced a lot more vomiting. The next thing I knew, I was carrying a sealed plastic shopping bag with my vomit around a hotel, while we dropped off our luggage and then went to a local hospital.

I'm sorry for all the times I've written "vomit" in this post. I sincerely am very, very, sorry.

But that's what blogging is all about. (And if you must know, the bag was deposited in the nearest public waste receptacle I found. They're not as common in China as in the US. And I didn't want to subject anyone else to the task of disposing my bile.)

We went to a local hospital in Beijing. The differences between hospitals that I visit are astounding. This one was clean, modern, and the wait times were all less than 5 minutes. An hour later, and I had my blood drawn, an attempted stool sample, a consult, and three types of medications in my hand with results from the labs. All for less than 100 yuan. Wow.

My professor told me that I should go through the reimbursement process with our student insurance. But honestly....why? It was less than my co-pay in the US for just a doctor's visit. Is the time for paperwork even worth it?

I spent the rest of the day sleeping in our 4 star hotel. It was so damn beautiful inside I didn't even miss the Forbidden City (okay...maybe a little). I watched HBO and the Discovery Channel and texted messaged my adventures to Jason. Internationally. Ooh boy, my cell phone bill is going to be a nightmare.

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