Bacon Flu

I've spent the month of August (summer vacation) at Ogimi Elementary working with my English Club. The kids will be taking the Eiken Level 5 in January, so I've used the summer break as a time to drill them with worksheets and practice problems.

However, my club (and summer) was interrupted two weeks ago when I woke up with a 38.5 C (101 F) fever. I went to the hospital and they shoved a thin q-tip up my nose and ran some sort of test. The doctor came back and said the results were negative: I didn't have the flu, just a fever, and I should be okay to go to work tomorrow. Then one of the nurses came running in holding a white plastic thing (looked like a pregnancy test) shouting, "Wait, wait!" She showed it to the doctor and he looks down at the ground, shuffles his feet a bit, and murmurs, "Well...hahaha, you DO have the swine flu."

I was then told I was not allowed to leave my apartment for a week.

The swine flu is currently spreading through Okinawa like a...plague. There have been five deaths in Japan from the flu (as of this post), with the first death being in Okinawa. 77 schools in Japan have been shut down, with 63 of them being in Okinawa. A school has to shut down for a week if two or more teachers catches the flu. I became the second teacher at Ogimi Elementary, and I think the doctor told me I should contact the school and tell them they had to close up. As I wasn't 100% sure on the Japanese, I just called the school to let them know I did have the flu and let them decide what to do with that information. (They didn't close down.)

In short, the swine flu felt like any other flu. I had a fever for a couple of days, which sucked, but as I was just laying around watching TV, it was no big deal. Honestly, I rather have a fever than a cold. With a fever, I'm weak and immobile, but a fever doesn't annoy me. With a cold, I am still expected to go to work and have to sneeze and blow my nose constantly.

I got over it pretty fast, though. I remember taking a run after only a couple of days. I had friends drop by with food, books, and DVDs so that I didn't have to leave my apartment. One of the teachers told me today she was going to come cook for me, but then her husband told her no, because he didn't want her catching the bug from me. I guess the gesture itself is nice.

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Today is the first day of the new semester! One month of summer vacation really is too short...

A few random updates that I haven't blogged about.

I bought a plane ticket home for Christmas. I leave on December 21st, and I'll be in the States for about 2.5 weeks.

I got my motorcycle license back in June, but that isn't anything special because I don't have a bike yet. I think I will have one by October/November.

Also, after climbing Mt. Fuji (partly), I went to Fuji Rock and saw Weezer. Fuji Rock was a 3-day music festival but I only went for one day. Definitely want to do all 3 days next year, because it was so awesome.

And finally, Okinawa experienced a 94%-ish solar eclipse a couple of weeks ago. Check out my pictures!