So let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, open up your heart and let the sun shine in!

Well it has definately been a quiet few weeks for me.

I was hit with a bout of strep throat a few days after arriving from Qingdao and while it was certainly debilitating, I took it as a learning experience for me here in China.

I originally found a lump in my armpit - which from what you hear out there, is never something comforting to find. A few days later the fevers and chills started and at this point I started to panic, because all of a sudden Lymphoma started screaming over and over in my head... A lump and intermittent fevers is a sure combination of cancer. So here I was thinking, “CANCER IN CHINA...Whaaaa???”

Fortunately, between going to classes in the morning and crashing in bed in the afternoons, I started to feel that my swallowing was becoming a little bizarre, so I looked in and sure enough, the tell-tale white spots of Strep Throat were right there, hibernating in the back of my throat, nuzzled in my tonsils. 24 hours later my throat was on fire and swallowing was a chore.

At this point I had contacted my coordinator to ask him how to get to the hospital and what documents I needed to see a doctor and get a prescription for Penicillin (I had strep as a kid so I knew what to ask for and had everything translated in Chinese). What I didn’t expect and was for my coordinator to tell me to avoid the hospital as they were going to overcharge me and write me up for a bunch of unecessary prescriptions, and that he was going to get me the medicine I needed. I ws groing increasingly frustrated and decided to take this into my own hands and brought the symptoms that I’d written out previously to the pharmacist. All I needed was some Qingmeisu (Penicillin) and all would be good in the world again.

The pharmacist took one look at me when I said “Wo xiang yao Qingmeisu” and uttered the dreaded “Mayo La” (Don’t have)... I started thinking that I was going to die in China of a simple case of strep throat, at which point my eyes must have welled up with tears because she reached back again and placed two boxes in front of me. One read Amoxicillin and the other Cefalexin. These sounded familiar so I went back to my residence and looked them up. Sure enough they were exactly what I needed and I rushed back to purchase the drugs that would make life bearable again. All hail the pharmacist god.

With a little more research I decided to take the Cefalexin, took my first two pills, and slept through the whole weekend.

Here I am, a full week later and the last two pills have been swallowed along with lunch. Life is good again, my armpit lump is gone, the sun is shining and swallowing has once again become something I don’t have to think about.

And what is it that I have learned through all this? Well, for one thing you do not need to see a doctor to get your drugs here. Also, drugs are also ridiculously cheap. The boxes of Amoxicillin and Cefalexin set me back a whopping 25 kuai (5 Canadian dollars).



China is great.



xx