Ever since our bus ride from Shangri-la to Kunming, I’ve been having eye problems. On that bus ride, my eye got all irritated and I took out my contacts in favor of my glasses. Although I was sure something was in my eye, the irritation eventually subsided. For the three weeks since then, I’ve been going half and half with glasses versus contacts, due to the sporadic but continual irritation. The past couple days have been really bad: my right eye waters, the contact won’t stay in, and my right-eye vision is out of focus. So I decided to go to the hospital today and get it checked out. Good thing too, as turns out that I have conjunctivitis, which is a complicated way of saying the interior of my eyelid is inflamed. Apparently, pink eye is a form of conjunctivitis, although my type shouldn’t be contagious. Anyways, the bottom line is that I have to take eyedrops four times a day and cannot wear my contacts for 2-3 weeks. The last time I’ve worn glasses more than two days in a row was when I was in fifth grade.

In other medical news…Towards the end of Thailand, I ate some bad food and had diarrhea for a week or two. Then I was good throughout Malaysia. Then Indonesia was bad, no doubt due to the poor sanitation. The d-train kept rolling throughout Vietnam. At the very end of Vietnam, Joylani convinced me to take some Cipro. I had resisted for a long time, because I figured there was no point to taking medicine- I was just going to get sick again. Well, I was solid for about two weeks, but then sure enough I was having diarrhea again (even developed China cannot match Thailand or Malaysia hygienically). So now, like much of this trip, I’m sick in the stomach. Looking back, it’s been a long year bathrooms wise. Both of us have had stomach conditions to some degree in all but a handful of countries. I’ll start taking Cipro in a week, hopefully ensuring a healthy time at home.

I was gonna write this in another post, but since I’m on the topic of bathroom related stuff, I’ll spill it here. Two very unique things about China: its bathrooms and potty-training. To start, I’ll go ahead and say it: China has the nastiest public bathrooms in Asia. For one of the most developed places we’ve gone, its unbelievable how nasty bathrooms are. Firstly, most Chinese toilet stalls don’t have doors. If you’re going to build a bathroom and divide it into stalls, how much harder is it to attach doors to the stalls? It really discourages me from going when I have to a lot of times and walking through a bathroom where people are openly relieving themselves is pretty nasty as well. Secondly, while Asian squat toilets are most common, many toilets are much simpler and dirtier. Many bathrooms consist of a long trough running the length of the bathroom with dividers (but no doors) built over it. So rows of people (divided by short walls w/o doors) are squatting over a channel, relieving themselves. While in principle, I think water is supposed to be flowing through these channels, I have never seen water running. So what you’re left with is a nasty, open, smelly latrine. The dirty bathroom thing starts young though. Most toddlers in China wear pants with holes cut in them. Childrens pants seem to universally cut from the butt to the abdomen. Babies butts are visible all over China. Anyways, boys are always pissing all over the place to the entertainment of family members who think its cute or something. Nastier still, boys are girls squat on sidewalks and curbs to take dumps. Fortunately some parents carry bags around to pick up after their children, much as American dog-walkers carry plastic bags. As Paul said yesterday, “China is modernizing incredibly quickly. But it takes the people some time to catch up.”

One last thing, as my bathroom tangent has taken this post in the direction of public health. You’ve probably read or seen photographs of how polluted Beijing is. While its been pretty noticeable, the past few days have not seemed that much worse than some other Asian cities we’ve visited. I mean, we haven’t seen blue (although Joylani claims she can see a very faint light blue hue in the sky) and everything is hazy, but you can’t taste it and it doesn’t mess up your throat or eyes like some places. But then there was today. A thick layer of smog hung over the city, much worse than the past couple days. The sky was brown or yellow, I’m not sure. Thick haze obscured buildings just across the street. I would’ve thought a dust storm had swept through the city except that I new that one hadn’t. It was truly unbelievable. If I had not witnessed the conditions today, I really doubt I could conceive such bad pollution.

Postnote: Between the time that this was written and the time it was posted, Joylani contracted bronchitis, no doubt from the Beijing air.