-^-for posterity-^-

i've been running and running and finally i ran myself into the ground.

the past few days i've been sick and there are a million reasons why. i've been juggling teaching, studying vietnamese and chinese, writing, working in the international relations department doing research on a 39 million dollar building project and generally trying to keep wonderful relations with everyone.

it happened a few days ago. i was in the international relations office preparing to teach my third year students about kafka, trying to remember a few chinese characters and also answering questions people had for me about the research project. i felt weak all over, like my body had just given up.

i went to teach and all was well. after class, i went to eat noodles and study chinese. before we studied, however, the head of the chinese school asked me if i would like to eat sushi with him. since we were both going to the chinese school, i obliged.

we ate sushi, gigantic pieces of shrimp in magic sauce.

that night i felt strange and it wasn't until the next morning that my insides exploded. things gained momentum inside. things gained mass. i was immobile.

i spent the day roaming from my room, where the air conditioner was off and all the windows were closed, wrapped up in a three blanket cocoon, to the bathroom. it must have been 110 in my cocoon but my body was still shivering and, as my mother would say, leaking.

i have recovered a bit and, thanks to the help of my friends here, had plenty of medicine and what not to keep me going. hopefully i'll feel wonderfully refreshed tomorrow morning and will be able to continue running hard for another year and a half before i have to take another break and let all of the bad things seep out through tiny holes in my skin.