Down with the Sickness

The cold I thought I was getting on Sunday never really got that bad, but I still randomly cough, sneeze, and have a runny nose out of nowhere and at the beginning of the week I was sore for no apparent reason. But it was mild enough that now I'm not sure whether it was a cold or just allergies. Most of the other students have gotten colds by now though, mostly thanks to their almost weekly all-nighters. But in general, it seems like a lot of the Japanese students have been sick too, but maybe that's just because it's more obvious when Japanese people are sick because of the masks they wear. Wearing a mask to help stop from spreading your cold seems like a good idea, but judging from how many people are sick, I wonder how much it actually helps. It's probably just hard to avoid catching something when you're hanging out with other sick people.

As for the cold medicine, when I told my host family I thought I was getting sick, they offered me some and I found out that cold medicine in Japan is Chinese style medicine, medicine in powder form that I assume you pour into your mouth and wash down with a drink or just mix it with something. My cold wasn't bad enough that I needed any, but now that I know what it is I might try to avoid taking it more. I still have bad memories of eating crushed up medicine mixed with apple sauce as a kid...

Lately not too much of interest has been going on. In class I had a conversation test which went fairly well. Then today we reviewed for the big grammar test on Monday. But over the weekend a bunch of blog-worthy things are planned. Everyone (BCA students, British students, Korean students, Chinese students, a bunch of people from HI-C) is going to "International Camp", though I'm not sure why it's called that. It's a trip to Noboribetsu, south of Sapporo, where we'll be going to an Ainu museum, an onsen (a hot spring), and Edo Wonderland (basically the Renaissance Fair of Japan). Last time I came to Japan I went to an onsen and a different Edo Wonderland, so I know pretty much what to expect, and it should be fun, but I'll post more about that once I've done it.

And here's a video from the elementary school that I didn't post before:

And here's a link to my other youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/Linkums