The date: October 12, 2009. The reason why it’s important: I had to return to work at Ekohe. It’s not that it’s stressful or terrible, but after a week of work and then a week of no work, I came to realize that working here might not have been the best idea. With all the traveling and the desire to go out and have fun, I guess it’s counter-intuitive to work during the semester. Not that I regret it. The chance to program a professional website is certainly appealing.
November 17, 2009
10/11/2009 – Day 50 – Again, but relieved
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…
November 12, 2009
10/08/2009 – Day 47 – Relief
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.
October 29, 2009
10/05/2009 – Day 44 – BUGS!!!
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.
10/04/2009 – Day 43 – Itchiness
After I got back from Chengdu, I thought I was done with that trip. Unfortunately the bites (or allergic reactions?) that I got during the trip continued to get itchier and became really irritating. It’s almost a sure thing that I got them from the dirty, roach-infested hotel at Emeishan. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing that bugged me while I was sleeping. I got attacked by a pair of mosquitoes that bit me seven times and kept buzzing past my ear. I had the last laugh though, since I ended up killing both of them.
I went back to sleep and woke up pretty late in the afternoon because I was so tired. All I did was HW and study for Chinese. Wei also visited and we shared pictures (my Guilin/Chengdu photos and his Hong Kong photos). Made me really wish I was in Hong Kong already…