Just before bed on my last eve in Xi'an, I tottered off to the business centre upstairs, taking my baby laptop so I could check out my bank accounts. Just before logging off, I happened to check the ABC news website to get an idea of what’s happening in the world. That’s when I heard about the swine flu. The information was all over the net & it seemed the not-so-perfect place to be in China at the outbreak of a major infectious disease, particularly after the severity of SARS here. Although, from another perspective, they are so strict in China that if anyone is identified as having the disease, they’d probably be sent away to some kind of quarantine centre for the next 6 months, or until they died, in order to save the rest of the community. But I decided, being an ex Girl Guide & being prepared & all, that I would take the required precautions & stock up with a face mask (trendy fashion accessory as they are in China) & some Tamiflu just in case.
I’d planned on getting up early & wander down to the park to do some tai chi with the locals. Sleeping through to 8:30 didn’t fit well with my agenda, & by the time I repacked my bag, I wasn’t out the door till 9:30. Two important things on my ‘To Do’ - get money out of the bank & purchase flu preventatives.
First thing to a pharmacy for the flu goods. The hotel directed me to a small pharmacy just opposite the hotel in the laneway. No one any English, but I was presented with a menu of goods with English titles for the diseases. When I flicked through to the page for Influenza/Cold, everything was in Mandarin. But I knew there was a difference between flus & colds - flu is bacterial, colds are viral. At this point, I was a bit confused - how can a bacterial infection be airborne? Sure, colds spread so rapidly because they are viral. But a flu is a different thing altogether, seemingly, so why are they touting the swine flu as being as catchable as a cold? There are obviously many many things medicinal that I’m still yet to learn. Anyway, I pointed the ‘influenza’ out to the woman who swiftly produced a couple of packets of medicine with not a word of English on them. Not sure if this was for colds or flu, I eventually gave up on trying to explain & understand, & headed out the shop to the big supermarket mall near the Bell Tower.
Once there, I managed to find my way to the pharmacy which was part of the food section of the supermarket on the lower ground floor. On my way, I loved watching the L’Oreal girls promoting their products & making up all the Chinese woman, anxious to look more beautiful. Many woman were eager to look more beautiful. I finally located the pharmacy section, but again had the same problem - no one spoke a word of English. Although, in my attempts at explaining what the flu was, & dropping the acronym SARS, I did notice a look of alarm on the woman’s face as she probably assessed if I may have the disease. With no luck in translation, I wandered around the supermarket asking people if they could speak English, ending up the L’Oreal counter where the women there must have thought I was in desperate need of a good makeover instead of medicine. In the end, I had no luck with the medicine & decided that if I was meant to die from the swine flu, then it was my destiny & I would be okay with that.
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