04.15.05
Week 1: Classes begin
Well, when everything happens, it happens at once. I began classes, experienced Tokyo’s largest earthquake in several years–6.1M, and caught acute bronchitis. And it rained. This week has been tough.
I probably shouldn’t have walked to Shibuya last week, but the weather was so beautiful, and it seemed like something interesting to do before classes started. Monday it rained, and Hye Young kept claiming that I had a fever, but I had no way to tell. When I stayed in on Saturday, both Jin Young and Ji Yoon brought me Korean cold medicine and vitamin C. It seemed to help, which is why I went out on Sunday.
Another of the colorful tiles you see occasionally in the sidewalk. Art inside a bathroom in Shibuya. A gothic Lolita hands out flyers for alternative television.
Monday, though, someone mentioned my cold to Ms. Somekawa, our liason in the International Center. She’s been a bit like a mom to us, asking after us, and taking Hye Young, Cat, and I out to Chinese food before the others arrived. Ms. Somekawa insisted I go to the student health center to be checked out after class.
Fortunately I had my electronic dictionary. My Japanese is pretty bad comparatively, and the nurse and I traded medical terms through the dictionary. She looked at my throat, which was inflamed, took my temperature under my armpit (at least not anally, like in Germany!), and asked about symptoms. Then she gave me cold medicine, anti-inflammatory (fever and throat) drugs, throat lozenges, and told me to come back on Wednesday when the doctor would visit if I hadn’t improved.
Shortly after the visit, I started phlegm production, by coughing and nasally. Green, disgusting. Ick. The next day at class, Anna and Lenka wisely wanted nothing to do with me, but Cat and Hye Young didn’t seem to care. It had stopped raining, so I went to find the post office to mail some post cards. During lunch, it started up again. I had left the umbrella at the dorm, so I pulled up my hood and plodded through the rain.
Soaked, I arrived in time for my first Japanese subject class, which I’m calling Children’s Literature. I was a little nervous, because the professor hadn’t returned Ms. Somekawa’s requests for information on the class or granted permission for me to attend. The class was crowded, but there was a seat up front. She seemed genial to the class, and spoke clearly into the microphone, but I understood almost nothing of what she said. While my throat wasn’t actually sore, I used the lozenges as cough drops, so I wouldn’t cough during the lecture. I introduced myself after the class, but she seemed unimpressed to have a semi-literate foreigner in the class. I don’t think I’ll keep this class.
I was on toilet duty Monday and Tuesday, so I had to hurry through the cleaning, so I could go to bed early. Toilet duty and Kitchen duty rotate through the dorm floor. Each period of servitude is for two days. Next week I have Kitchen duty, so I’ll have to figure out what that entails, because there’s additional kanji there I don’t understand.
Wednesday is my long day, and the others were happy to hear I was going to see the doctor at lunch, because my cough had gotten worse. I had the dorm “mom” on duty check my temperature, and at least I had no fever. The doctor listened to my chest and back, checked my throat and glands, and listened to my symptoms. He declared I did not, thank goodness, have pneumonia (!!!), but acute bronchitis. Not good news, but not pneumonia. He prescribed more of the anti-inflammatory drugs, gargling 4 times a day with what I think is iodine – 6 drops in water, drink plenty of water, and get plenty of rest. Sadly, I had three more classes that day.
Before lunch was Japanese Culture. After lunch was Japanese Society, and two sessions of Japanese language. I managed to make it through the classes, although the latter half of the last language class is kind of blurry, but that could be because I am the worst student in the class. All of my teachers that day were new, so I felt compelled to go to them. I have seven sessions of Japanese language per week, five teachers for Japanese, and three textbooks. Whew. I ate dinner, left a note that I was going to bed early, and went to bed.
Thursday, I decided I should stay in bed. There was one new teacher to meet, but I felt it would probably be OK. I left a note for Anna, the classmate who lives closest to me, and left a message for Ms. Somekawa, my International Center liason. She called back and offered to bring me some Vitamin C fruit. I called Keith, and then went to bed and essentially slept all day. I only got up for small meals to take my medicine with. Of course the weather cleared up and it looked nice outside. That evening, I took a bath, a rare treat for me. The baths are only open from 5-9 p.m. I suppose it’s because of the high volume of water used to sustain them. Also, there’s additional water use because in Japan, you wash and rinse your body clean before you get in the bath. I managed to go at a time when no one else was using it. This had happened once before, and I had resolved to bring a camera with me to take pictures if it was empty. (No, this is NOT Japanese Girls Gone Wild). The baths are gorgeous and luxurious, and hot. I soaked until I was jello, and got out.
The room was steamy, so I’ve tried to clean them up a bit.Friday, I resolved to get something done, although still rest a lot. I was feeling a little better. Friday is new sheets day, so I had stripped the bed, and prepared for my morning shower by laying out my clothes on it. I was about to go to the shower, when a house “mother” stopped by with the oranges Ms. Somekawa had sent over for me. She seemed appalled that my bed had no sheets, and asked whether I used them to sleep on. I tried to explain that I was in the process of trading old sheets for new, but it didn’t seem like she believed me. She kept repeating (in Japanese) how sheets protected the mattress they had loaned me from perspiration. *sigh* So now I’m a barbarian who sleeps on a naked mattress. Little does she know that I nicked a second sheet to use as a top sheet. Oh, the irony.
The weather was nice again, which was good for laundry, but is making me a little stir crazy. I’ve resolved to stay in all day Saturday, though, no matter how nice the weather is. I want to get better.