Peking University (Beida)	Darrol at East Gate of PKU	Darrol at one of many cafeteria's on campus

10/14/05 

China Update #4 by Darrol Butler

Dear Family, Friends, Fellow Students, and Professors:

Firstly, I want to show my appreciation to a few kind people who I missed on my thank you list in the last email update.   These people are:  Paula Bielfelt, Dario Martinez, and Sarah Salisbury and Leila Newell.  Thank you very much for your support in this endeavor.   Your generosity is helping me to realize a dream I never thought possible.

Secondly, I would like to mention an exciting development.  Both my mother and my brother have kindly volunteered to create and manage a webpage chronicling my life in China.  In addition to archiving my email updates, the webpage also includes a section with pictures that I've been taking while studying in China.  Later, when I have time, I will post additional information to the webpage.   This will include such things as a short autobiography, and stories and anecdotes that are either too long, or inappropriate for the context of my email updates.  Like all webpages, it is in a constant state of flux, so it will change as we see fit.   My webpage at CSU Chico is:  http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~dbutler1/

Well, after making it through class registration, getting my immigration status up to date and legitimate, getting over the flu, and settling into my classes, I thought I was in for some smooth sailing.   Additionally, I was looking forward to catching up in my studies during the upcoming Chinese National Holiday celebrating the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, by Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949 .  I could not have been more wrong.  On the night of September 29, a little more than one day before our week long holiday I came down with the worst sickness I've ever had in my life.

Unfortunately for me, Chinese National Holiday is one of only three holidays we will have during this year of classes.   The other two are the Chinese New Year, and the Spring Festival.  Since China has only three holidays each year that people have off from work, these holidays are the only time that most Chinese have for travel.   Therefore, as you can expect, it is also the most busy and expensive time to travel.  Just like in America during Christmas or any other holiday, the rates for everything from air tickets to hotels are raised.  Since I only have one holiday each semester, and then a one month break between semesters, I was really tempted to make plans to travel, like the rest of the international students, during the holiday.   However, I thought I would be clever, and save some money, by waiting to travel during the winter break or during next summer.  I also thought I could use the time to catch up on my studies and to do some reading.   My choice ended up being a good one, but for a much different reason than I expected.

Thursday night, the night before our last day of classes for a week, I came down with a pretty bad stomachache and minor diarrhea.   The whole night I tossed and turned.  When I woke up Friday midmorning I had the worst stomach pain, headache, muscular pains, fever and diarrhea I've ever had.  I was so sick I spent all of Friday in bed and missed my last two classes before the nine-day National Holiday.  To make matters worse, I had no water, or any other kind of liquid, to take some aspirin with, and to keep my body from becoming dehydrated.   As you may know, the tap water in China is far from drinkable, even when it comes to emergencies, so my only options were to buy water or filter it.   However, I was barely able to make it to the toilet with my aching body, throbbing head and diarrhea.  So, there was no way I could get to the living room, put my shoes on, and get down three flights of stairs to go for a five minute walk to buy water.   I brought my backpacking water filter with me from the U.S., however, if you've ever used a high quality water filter, you know that they are not easy to use.   Water filters require a lot of effort because you must pump the water through extremely small pores in the filter.  At the moment, I did not have the kind of energy needed for such a task.

So, I laid in bed both dehydrated and racked by fever and stomach problems.  Finally, around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening the dehydration and fever became so bad that I realized I was going to have to make water regardless of my condition.   It was a challenge, but I made it out of bed, got out my water filter, and managed to make it to the kitchen to start filtering water.  My head pounded the whole time, my muscles were very sore, and I broke out in a sweat, but eventually I was able to filter two liters of water.   Just as I finished filtering the water, but before I could remove the excess water from the filter to put it away, the exertion caught up with me, my fever started raging again, and I had to do another race for the toilet.   It was quite a miserable experience, but finally I was able to take some aspirin and to start re-hydrating my body.

I spent the entire night alternating between intense sweating and bone racking shivering, as well as making the occasional mad dash for the toilet.   At 1:00 am I took two more aspirin.  Needless to say, I did not sleep very much that night.   Saturday morning I was happy to find that my fever had been dramatically reduced.  In total I had spent a full day and a half in bed.   My friend Zhao Lin was so worried about me that she took an eight hour night train (Friday night) from her hometown in Datong in order to come to Beijing as quickly as possible.  She brought me some Chinese medicine and then she went to the grocery store to pick up some vegetables.   When she returned she cooked me some soup.  It was the first food I had eaten in about 36 hours.  After breakfast she even called my professors to explain my situation to them.  As it turns out, they were very worried about me.  They gave her my homework assignments and told her to wish me well.  In addition she told me that I am not doing as poorly in my classes as I keep telling her.  They both said that I am one of the better students, and that if I get over being sick and turn in my homework on time I can do very well.   I am indebted to Zhao Lin for her overwhelming kindness and selflessness.

My fever slowly receded, leaving me with extreme stomach discomfort which just recently went away.  That Saturday I had to do thirteen trips to the restroom!  The Imodium pills finally started working on Sunday and the diarrhea mostly went away.  However, I had major discomfort and stomach cramps several times a day.  Fortunately I had brought some antibiotics with me from the U.S. in case of a bad bout of Travelers Diarrhea.  I immediately began taking the antibiotics once I realized that the stomach cramps were not going away.   The medicine didn't seem to be working as I spent the entire week of National Holiday, Oct. 1-9, with abdominal cramps and extreme stomach discomfort.   So, once classes began again on Monday the 10^th, I finally went to the Beijing University hospital.  With the help of a friend I was able to see a doctor, and get some additional medicine.  Tuesday the 11 ^th, I had to return to give them a stool sample.  I am happy to report that the sample was clean, and later that day (twelve days from when I originally became sick) my cramps receded and then went away altogether.   I guess the antibiotics finally killed the parasites in my body.

As you can imagine, for the past two weeks I have been eating very cautiously, which means I have been avoiding street food altogether.   While I really miss the delicious street food, my stomach problems gave me more motivation to familiarize myself with the numerous cafeterias on campus.  Though the learning curve was high, and I still cannot really order food, I have found out which cafeterias have food that I can just grab, or point at.   Additionally, I learned that the cafeteria food is delicious, the choice of dishes is nearly unlimited, (imagine having almost every dish from your top five favorite Chinese restaurants, as well as numerous other dishes, available all at once and for as little as $0.10 per plate) and the food is subsidized by the government, making it very cheap.  For as little as U.S. $0.50 I can eat two or three plates of Chinese food, as well as have a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup!

As for my classes, I've been doing my best to keep up with the Chinese lessons and the plethora of homework that the professors give us.   As usual, I am quick at catching on in class, but always a little behind in my homework and studies.  It is difficult for me to remember everything that the professors teach us.   We have so many new words, sounds, and characters/combinations of characters each day that it is hard for me to keep on top of it all.  Unfortunately we don't have very much review in the classes, and since we are going through material at a very fast rate, I have become quite anxious about my three midterms next week.   Additionally, because I missed a few classes while I was sick, my ability to keep up is being pushed to the limits.  The good news is that regardless of whether or not I can remember everything my professors teach me, my Chinese language skill is increasing rapidly.   I've found that I am communicating more with people, my vocabulary getting larger and I have more that I can say.  Additionally, I have found that I recognize more and more of the characters that I see in my daily life.   Though I do not always know the meaning of combinations of characters (forming new words), just that I am recognizing more of them means that my character knowledge is increasing.   I know that understanding will come with time, and diligence in my studies.

Until the next email update, take care, and thanks for reading,

Darrol Butler

戴龙
Dai   Long

My Chinese name is Dai Long  戴龙

戴 (Dai) is a Chinese surname and has no meaning. 龙 (Long) is a Chinese given name that means dragon.

hairyleprechaun@gmail.com

My address in China:

Darrol ButlerBeijing Shi Hai Dian Qu Shang Di Nan Lu
14 Hao Yuan 203 Shi 100085
               China