AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
I was with a group of 20 kids, and none of us guessed that we would get this swine flu that everyone was talking about. On the plane, a 14-hour flight, I was sitting next to this kid and talking the whole time, you know, boy stuff.
When we get to Beijing, the airport, we?re going through these gates, and immediately they stop this kid and take him away. Everyone was freaking out.
We?re staying at an international hotel with a thousand other foreign kids. I?d play soccer and go meet all these kids. I started feeling really, really tired. That was the first symptom I felt.
One day I came back from playing soccer, back to the dorm, I passed out for over 16 hours. I went to sleep at midday and woke up at night the next day. When I was sleeping I was pretty delusional, I was sweating. I was ridiculously hot. Sweating, hot, freezing. Crazy dreams. Every day that we would leave the dorms, get breakfast, they have these nurses waiting for us at the entrance to the dorm with these ray guns and shoot it at your head and take your temperature. They take my temperature and it?s pretty bad: 102.
These security guards come. No one speaks English. Pushing, using sign language. They take me to this nursery, and I?m sitting there for three hours. I?m not, like, panicking. I felt bad but didn?t think I had the swine flu. We were told it was likely we?d feel bad in the first few days from jet lag and pollution.
I?m sitting in this chair in this Chinese nursery, and all these people running around and talking on walkie-talkies, taking swabs from my mouth. Eventually another girl from my group, who sat next to me on the plane, she was feeling really sick. She?s freaking out. Oh my God, what if we have swine flu? Another hour and a half passes. They called an ambulance. Our chaperones came up and ask, are you okay? They gave us water and stuff. So then these ambulances roll up to the nursery, and these astronauts from ?E.T.? come out and push us into ambulance. Now I?m starting (to feel) what is the deal, what is going on. One of our chaperones came with us. They drive us out of Beijing to the outer rim of the city.
Eventually we got to this, they call it a hospital, but it?s like a garage. Kind of weird. They signaled to us that they wanted to take a blood test. I was sitting at this makeshift desk with this girl crying in the background and five Chinese people running around in the background yelling.
They put us in these rooms. This tiny, tiny cell basically, with white walls, no windows. Wooden bed. A little box desk thing and one LED light that never went off. The other girl had her iPhone and her books. I didn?t have anything. I didn?t have a pen.
Other than giving us food twice a day, the only time I had contact was when my chaperone came in and told me I had tested positive for swine flu. It kind of startled me. I was kind of shaken. My parents called and said don?t worry. These people have been developing medicine for thousands of years. You?ll be fine. So that calmed me down.
That was a makeshift hospital for people with the flu. After two or three days they moved us. It was a really big hospital. They created a big section of it for people with swine flu. We?re so relieved because we get to this nice, clean place. The room?s beautiful compared to where we were. TVs, shower. Perfect. Great for quarantine.
I was roomed with a Chinese guy. He was a tour guide, chaperone for some UK kids. He ended up being a wonderful, wonderful guy. He was showing me Chinese TV shows that were famous: This one Chinese actor was the Forrest Gump of China. We started getting food from the US Embassy. We were pretty happy.
(In terms of medicine) each individual needed something different. A friend of mine I don?t think got anything. I got this potion. I asked the doctor and he told me it was scorpion something, like crushed scorpion tail, a couple of herbal flowers and tea. You had to just drink it. It was the worst-tasting (expletive) I ever had in my life. Right after I had it I felt great. It helped me recover. I stopped coughing, I could sleep better and my temperature went down immediately. At this point I was pretty happy.
They were so nice and very compassionate. It?s more than compassion. It?s also like respect and some form of honour.
I had a couple of experiences where it showed us that being honest and honourable in society was very important. I came back not really trying to tell anyone. But everyone I know knows that I had swine flu. It sucks. It?s like the same jokes every single time.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...EO=Yago Hunt-Laudi, Beijing, Chinese TV shows
When we get to Beijing, the airport, we?re going through these gates, and immediately they stop this kid and take him away. Everyone was freaking out.
We?re staying at an international hotel with a thousand other foreign kids. I?d play soccer and go meet all these kids. I started feeling really, really tired. That was the first symptom I felt.
One day I came back from playing soccer, back to the dorm, I passed out for over 16 hours. I went to sleep at midday and woke up at night the next day. When I was sleeping I was pretty delusional, I was sweating. I was ridiculously hot. Sweating, hot, freezing. Crazy dreams. Every day that we would leave the dorms, get breakfast, they have these nurses waiting for us at the entrance to the dorm with these ray guns and shoot it at your head and take your temperature. They take my temperature and it?s pretty bad: 102.
These security guards come. No one speaks English. Pushing, using sign language. They take me to this nursery, and I?m sitting there for three hours. I?m not, like, panicking. I felt bad but didn?t think I had the swine flu. We were told it was likely we?d feel bad in the first few days from jet lag and pollution.
I?m sitting in this chair in this Chinese nursery, and all these people running around and talking on walkie-talkies, taking swabs from my mouth. Eventually another girl from my group, who sat next to me on the plane, she was feeling really sick. She?s freaking out. Oh my God, what if we have swine flu? Another hour and a half passes. They called an ambulance. Our chaperones came up and ask, are you okay? They gave us water and stuff. So then these ambulances roll up to the nursery, and these astronauts from ?E.T.? come out and push us into ambulance. Now I?m starting (to feel) what is the deal, what is going on. One of our chaperones came with us. They drive us out of Beijing to the outer rim of the city.
Eventually we got to this, they call it a hospital, but it?s like a garage. Kind of weird. They signaled to us that they wanted to take a blood test. I was sitting at this makeshift desk with this girl crying in the background and five Chinese people running around in the background yelling.
They put us in these rooms. This tiny, tiny cell basically, with white walls, no windows. Wooden bed. A little box desk thing and one LED light that never went off. The other girl had her iPhone and her books. I didn?t have anything. I didn?t have a pen.
Other than giving us food twice a day, the only time I had contact was when my chaperone came in and told me I had tested positive for swine flu. It kind of startled me. I was kind of shaken. My parents called and said don?t worry. These people have been developing medicine for thousands of years. You?ll be fine. So that calmed me down.
That was a makeshift hospital for people with the flu. After two or three days they moved us. It was a really big hospital. They created a big section of it for people with swine flu. We?re so relieved because we get to this nice, clean place. The room?s beautiful compared to where we were. TVs, shower. Perfect. Great for quarantine.
I was roomed with a Chinese guy. He was a tour guide, chaperone for some UK kids. He ended up being a wonderful, wonderful guy. He was showing me Chinese TV shows that were famous: This one Chinese actor was the Forrest Gump of China. We started getting food from the US Embassy. We were pretty happy.
(In terms of medicine) each individual needed something different. A friend of mine I don?t think got anything. I got this potion. I asked the doctor and he told me it was scorpion something, like crushed scorpion tail, a couple of herbal flowers and tea. You had to just drink it. It was the worst-tasting (expletive) I ever had in my life. Right after I had it I felt great. It helped me recover. I stopped coughing, I could sleep better and my temperature went down immediately. At this point I was pretty happy.
They were so nice and very compassionate. It?s more than compassion. It?s also like respect and some form of honour.
I had a couple of experiences where it showed us that being honest and honourable in society was very important. I came back not really trying to tell anyone. But everyone I know knows that I had swine flu. It sucks. It?s like the same jokes every single time.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...EO=Yago Hunt-Laudi, Beijing, Chinese TV shows