Fowle 1 Caroline Fowle Mr.

Campbell English 1103 August 28, 2013 Sickness and Sympathy

My friend Petal and I were really sick. We spent the night before throwing up into squat toilets and moaning about how our only hydration was in the form of boiling hot water in our aluminum water bottles. We missed America. We wanted our moms. We were in China. Petal and I were two of the two hundred American students who received a scholarship through the State Department to study in China. We were studying at the Camford School in Beijing. The sign for Camford said, in both English and Chinese, For Excellence in Education. There are a few factors that need to be shared so that you can understand our mindset at that moment in time: we were dehydrated, all the other Americans and our teachers had left to go to a market, Beijing is oppressively hot, and we were given an unknown Chinese herbal remedy. The Chinese medicine smelled like fertilizer and Ramen. Petal identified the brown tablets as mugwort. Of course she did. Her name was Petal; she was a Californian hippie and knew such things. So there we werestumbling through the empty dorm and tripping on mugwortwhen we got our bright idea. We set off like Odysseus journeying home, like Huck Finn searching for adventure, or Hamlet seeking revengewe were in search of Gatorade. A cold bottle of Gatorade, at that moment, was our prize. Gatorade was the Promised Land, the goal, our dream. Our first attempt to find the golden liquid was to break into the boys dorm. What a logical thing to do! In our state of delirium, we figured that boys were more likely to have it than females (note: there is no known gender gap with Gatorade consumption) and that wed repay

Fowle 2 them as soon as we felt better. We checked in all the cabinets and there was no Gatorade to be found. Or maybe there was and we just didnt find it. Regardless, we walked back defeated and still thirsty. We weighed our options. The closest store where we could buy it was a twenty-minute walk. I didnt think I could do it. I remember looking out on to the paved road that connected buildings on campus, and feeling that I just couldnt do it. I was weak. The sun wasnt shining like it does here. The pollution dispersed the suns rays and made the whole sky glow a thick white, so it felt like the whole sky above you was hot. As we dragged our bodies back to our dorm, still with the faint hope of our beautiful (jia de le), the Chinese name for Gatorade, we found a man. We were so desperate for Gatorade we thought wed talk to him and see if he knew where we could get any. And so began one of the most powerful conversations Ive ever had. I cant remember his Chinese name but he told us his English name (most Chinese students studied English when they were in school and were given an English name to use). Although he couldnt remember any English, he remembered his name and shared it with us. His name was Colin Fox. Colin Fox was speaking to us in Chinese and we were speaking back. I dont know how but in that moment, Petal and I were incredibly proficient in Mandarin. I felt the words flowing out of my mouth as naturally as lyrics to a familiar song. I understood everything he said to us. Colin talked to us for quite a while too. He explained Chinese philosophy and the effectiveness of pressure points. He explained that if someone touches a certain part of the foot between your pinky toe and its neighbor, it will help your liver. How did I understand that? I still dont know the word for liver in Chinese.

Fowle 3 I was connecting with this stranger. He didnt have any Gatorade, but we stayed and spoke for almost an hour. About fifteen minutes into the conversation, Colin got to the deeper stuff. We were the first Americans he had ever met. He told us that if hed been alive during the revolution and subsequent civil war, he would have fled with Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan. He also said that he wanted to leave China and spend the rest of his life in Australia or England. Chinese people dont just say those types of things. China has a one-party system and a very powerful government. Petal and I were shocked but we tried not to show it. To Colin Fox, we were people that he could speak freely with. If we werent able to communicate, his thoughts may never have been shared. Thats the wonderful, magical importance of languages; the more you know, the more you can connect with other people. My realization may have been over-exaggerated due to the mugwort and heat induced insanity, but Ill always remember the look in his eyes as he told us his dreams. We never did get our Gatorade. We drank our hot water that tasted like metal. But the details that surrounded us became less intimidating. We had a purposea placehere. We were building bridges. Id made friends in China before Colin. We went out to restaurants and laughed about stupid videos. My relationship with Colin lasted an hour. He left after our sixty-minute conversation, and we never saw him again. But he was there and we spoke with him and we learned from him. When I tell people about this event, they insist we were hallucinating. First of all, Ive since researched the magical and medicinal properties of mugwort and hallucinations are not mentioned. Second of all, if I were hallucinating Colin Fox would have given us Gatorade.