The bugs were back again. Was I frightened? Certainly. The prospects of never-go-away bed bugs is certainly not something to laugh at. Luckily, I found a place to submit bug ID requests on this bed bug forum. AND, it was confirmed that they were not bed bugs! They were book lice (or psocids), which are really not lice and aren’t harmful to humans. Unfortunately, waiting for a reply forced me to go to sleep at 5:00 AM and I didn’t wake up until 3:30 PM. Heh.
I did have a lot of work that needed to be done, so I ended up squeezing in Chinese studying and City studying into one night, with a week full of midterms and work looming…
Yes, they came back. Being deathly afraid that they were bed bugs, I once again didn’t sleep on my bed, opting to stay awake for most of the night. Unfortunately for me, I had Tuesday classes the next day. Ouch.
Justine and Guo Xiaojie helped me again, calling the maids to switch my sheets as well as my mattress this time.
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Doctor’s appointment day! Couldn’t be happier to see a doctor, something that usually wouldn’t happen. During Chinese class, we were told what our Chinese midterm would be: interview an ECNU student in Mandarin, write an essay about the interview, and then present it. Not exactly what I was expecting, but in retrospect, it beats memorizing ton of characters for a written test.
In law, the guest speaker was actually interesting, but he took a bit long to finish. I had to rush to my doctor’s appointment and was late by a fair amount. Luckily, everything went by quickly and I got some good news. The doctor examined my bites/spots and agreed with me that they probably were just allergic reactions to the bugs. He gave me steroid cream and an anti-histamine called chorphenamine.
Woke up and saw no improvement in the bites/spots. Nothing was working, so I made a doctor’s appointment to check on them. Nothing particularly interesting happened, except Guo Xiaojie did give me a map of China. I only asked them where they got them so I could buy one, but they gave one to me for free! Yay! I hung it on the wall in front of my desk so I could look at it any time I’m doing work. Nicole Lee also happened to be in town and was surprised when I saw her in the student center.
Contemporary China was pretty interesting this week. We watched a documentary about a family and their housing problems. They lived in a tiny house and couldn’t wait for the government to relocate them. I wasn’t very sympathetic for them though, since they said some outrageous stuff about 9/11. Regardless of the actions of a few politicians, 3000+ people DID NOT deserve to die.
While studying for Chinese, Fanny suggested that maybe my bug bites were from bed bugs. Paranoid, I checked my bed before going to sleep and there were things moving around. Very tiny, but still moving! UGH! In panic mode, I looked up what bed bugs looked like and how to get rid of them. In the end, I dry cleaned some clothes to kill the bugs and moved what I needed into the living room. I slept with my head down on the table for the night and ended up exhausted during my Chinese test.
After talking to Justine, Guo Xiaojie, and Shen Laoshi at school, as well as the maid and landlord, they determined that it wasn’t a bed bug. That gave me some relief. They also sprayed my room with Raid and changed everything except the bed frame and mattress.
I managed to get some relaxation at night when I went out to dinner with friends at Ajisen Ramen. It was pretty yummy. They had some delicious looking shaved ice, but it probably would have required three people to finish it.
I actually slept in my bed at night, hoping all the bugs were gone. Unfortunately, I was still pretty shaken by the thought of bugs and ended up inspecting my bed and sheets.