the complete china experience

how could anyone claim to have had the complete china experience if they didn't eat something bad and get really sick. we'll i've finally completed my china experience... and the past few days haven't been pretty.

so after two and a half months in china, i've lost weight, i've been eating great, and relatively speaking i had no problems with my stomach... that is until wed morning.
tue night i had been at work late, until i ran out to meet kevin for drinks. since i was in a hurry i ate at McDs. then i proceeded to drink half a bottle of whiskey that night. after that we ate some food from a street vendor on the way home. i had some deep fried bread, what could possibly be wrong with that?
well, i new my stomach wouldn't like the McDs and drink, but what happened next was definitely not caused by that. i've never experienced anything like this in my life. perhaps it was the street vendor food? may be the ice i had with the whiskey was bad? (everyone tells you not to trust the ice, but i had been having ice in my drinks since i got here without major problems, so i didn't even think twice about it.)
basically, i've been pissing out my ass at least once an hour for the past two days. additionally i've had horrible gas.
wed when i woke up, i spent some time in the bathroom and then decided i should probably eat and go to work. that was a mistake. i was miserable at work. additionally i started to get really bad gas and i was belching left and right. and when ever i did i could taste the breakfast i just had. and the taste was getting really bad.
wed night i took a couple imoduim and passed out. the imodium got me through the night, but i woke up in the morning in a hurry to get to the bathroom. needless to say i didn't bother going to work thur. thur i didn't really eat much. i bought some bananas and yogurt, but any time i put something into my stomach, there was hell to pay.
and my belching was getting worse. i could still taste the meal from the day before. and it was starting to taste really rotten.
i didn't want to take any more imodium because i wanted to get whatever it was out of my system. before coming to china i got some ciprofloxacin in case i got really sick (my previous definition of really sick was bloody diarrhea, but i was getting ready to revise my definition) and if i wasn't better in the morning i was planning on taking it.
so thur night was hell and i kept waking up every hour. also my stomach gas was reaching phenomenal proportions. finally around 3am i lost my lunch, so to speak. quite violently as well.
the good news is that after that things really started improving. my leaky ass stopped leaking and my stomach stopped hurting. by friday afternoon i was feeling brave enough to eat a club sandwich from my local bar. and it wasn't painful.
since then the situation has improved. i think that the upcoming week i'll be able to go out to the schesuan hot pot dinner that i had to postpone.
well, at least i know that next time i'm in this situation i'm simply going to force myself to puke, rather than waiting two days for my body to get around to doing it.

adieu, adieu, pt 2

so today was kevin's last night in beijing. kevin's a guy i met at my local bar, platform. i've seen him a couple times around town and at the bar. tonight was hit last night in town and he invited me to join him and his friends for drinks.

they were going out to sichahai/houhai so there was really no way i could say no. also, i spent the last weekend working, and i've actually been working entirely too much recently, so the break was really needed.
also, kevin is heading back to the states and is going to be starting school in SF at the academy of arts, so i gave him my email address and told him to drop me a line when he gets into town.
well, we went out with a large group of people and i started into a good night of drinking. i ordered a bottle of whiskey, and everyone else mixed it with some green tea, but i decided to drink it strait. that always does the trick.
i told kevin about good bars and restaurants is SF. i also talked to a couple of his friends who's names i don't remember now although i've talked to them before (one from new york and another from new zealand.) also, raymond decided to sing a couple chinese songs for kevin with the accompaniment of a guitarist who was wandering the street looking for just the opportunity that raymond provided.
we ended the evening at two little carts with deep friers and assorted foods on sticks. after that we wandered the small hutong alleys in search of another supposed bar that we never found. eventually we got to an actually road with cars and called cabs and headed home.
i had a good time hanging out and i really needed the decompression break.