As I mentioned before, my old roommate is staying with me and it’s been nice to have someone to chitchat with when I come home after work. But I’ve been under a bit of stress lately with my boyfriend of a year leaving China, trying to adjust to new responsibilities at work, starting a part time teaching job to help earn some extra dough and working on some freelance design projects. It finally took its toll on my body when I got my first-ever full-blown migraine. I’m prone to painful headaches, especially in the summertime, but this was the first time it was this bad.
Anyway, when she got home later that evening, I thought I’d test my Chinese skills and tell her that I got a migraine. This conversation quickly turned into clear cultural (and intellectual) differences about how to take of oneself. Her initial response to me telling her about my migraine was “Oh my gosh! Why?”
I thought “why?” was a peculiar question, but didn’t dwell and told her I thought it was from stress and emotions, and that I had been busy with work and I’ve been upset about my boyfriend leaving. And then she said something to the effect of “you’re still upset about that?” To which I thought “Why are you surprised about that? He’s only been gone like 6 days so yeah... I’m still upset/sad/thinking about that.”
So then she says “Did you take any medicine? I don’t think you should.” Ok, you try telling that to the girl who feels like a nail is being hammered into her head. I told her, “Yeah, I took medicine. I had to.”
Then she asked about how much I work out, which lately has been about once in the last two weeks. So she suggested “You should do yoga. It helps stress and muscles.” Ok, fair enough. That’s some logical advice. But then the kicker. “Next time, you probably just needed some fresh air.” Sigh. I wish that the “fresh air” would have cured my migraine, but it’s doubtful.
I don’t know how I feel about Chinese medicine compared to Western medicine, but I know her diagnosis of no medicine and fresh air wasn’t what I was looking for.
Anyway, when she got home later that evening, I thought I’d test my Chinese skills and tell her that I got a migraine. This conversation quickly turned into clear cultural (and intellectual) differences about how to take of oneself. Her initial response to me telling her about my migraine was “Oh my gosh! Why?”
I thought “why?” was a peculiar question, but didn’t dwell and told her I thought it was from stress and emotions, and that I had been busy with work and I’ve been upset about my boyfriend leaving. And then she said something to the effect of “you’re still upset about that?” To which I thought “Why are you surprised about that? He’s only been gone like 6 days so yeah... I’m still upset/sad/thinking about that.”
So then she says “Did you take any medicine? I don’t think you should.” Ok, you try telling that to the girl who feels like a nail is being hammered into her head. I told her, “Yeah, I took medicine. I had to.”
Then she asked about how much I work out, which lately has been about once in the last two weeks. So she suggested “You should do yoga. It helps stress and muscles.” Ok, fair enough. That’s some logical advice. But then the kicker. “Next time, you probably just needed some fresh air.” Sigh. I wish that the “fresh air” would have cured my migraine, but it’s doubtful.
I don’t know how I feel about Chinese medicine compared to Western medicine, but I know her diagnosis of no medicine and fresh air wasn’t what I was looking for.
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