Thursday, December 04, 2003
TB Test
Wow, it's been almost half a month since the last real update. I'll try to slowly catch up. I've been trying to keep a few notes of what happened each day, so that I can remember stuff when I try to type it up.
Tuesday Nov. 18
The university is giving everyone a TB test. It's not required, but is recommended, and is free. I've heard that someone in Lane's lab had TB or something like that, so it's possible that Lane got it from him and passed it to the rest of us. I doubt it, but better safe than sorry, right?
Anyway, this test involved them sticking a needle in my arm and squirting a bunch of fluid under my skin. At first I though, man, the guy missed the blood vessel, but then I realized that that was the point. It's supposed to be under your skin, not in your blood. They said that we should show up on Thursday so they could look at it and see how we reacted to it. If it gets really big I guess we might have TB or something like that.
Wednesday Nov. 19
In the morning I stopped by the co-op to get something (I can't remember what. Probably candy or something, since it seems to be subsidized by about 20% or so there), and discovered that they had a bunch of used CDs for sale. I spent probably an hour trying to look through them, and I discovered several CDs from groups that I'd heard of. Unfortunately, I didn't remember if I liked their music or not, so I didn't buy any of those CDs. In the Anime/Soundtrack section I found two Magical Knights Rayearth CDs, which I decided to purchase since they were only 500¥ and 700¥ and I liked what little of the Anime series I've seen. The music wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, but for the price I paid I'm satisfied with what I got. Well, almost satisfied. I discovered after the fact that these particular CDs were demo CDs, which I assume means that legally you aren't allowed to sell them.
In the early afternoon I started sneezing a fair amount, and my nose started running like crazy. When I ran out of tissues I took a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom and carried that around with me, blowing my nose every minute or two. It was quite annoying. This was the start of a bad cold that lasted quite a few days (I think I might still have it, but I'm doing much better now than I was then). In hindsight, I wonder if I caught the cold because this TB test was doing something nasty to my immune system?
Thursday Nov. 20
Thursday morning a bunch of us headed over to the University clinic to see if we had TB. My spot was a bit smaller than when they'd given it to me, so I thought I was probably going to be OK. Zen's arm, however, looked really awful. His had swelled quite a bit, and a fair part of his arm had turned red. We all thought that he probably had a positive reaction, since it looked so bad. When they measured it, however, they said that it was OK. As far as I know, none of the students here had TB, which is a relief, since the description of the side effects of the vaccine was fairly scary.
Thursday night a few of us met after class to head to a Japanese cooking class we'd signed up to go to. If I recall correctly our group consisted of Zen, Mitsu, Nick, Haesung, Monica, and me. That morning Haesung had asked me if I'd remembered to bring an apron, and I told her I hadn't. I don't even have one. Monica was going to be going to the 100¥ shop to get one for herself, so Haesung asked if I'd like her to tell Monica to get one for me as well. I said yes, and thus ended up with an apron.
The cooking class was run by a guy from Sendai who makes sweets. He's been making the stuff for 40 years, and seemed to be fairly talented at it. He made it look really easy and he didn't speak English, both of which reminded me of the pottery class we'd taken. We made something that looks sort of like a flower. It's white on the outside, and has a yellow ball of bean paste or something on the inside. I couldn't read the recipe they gave us so I'm not really sure what it's called or what it's made out of. To make it we took this white liquid "batter" (it tastes somewhat like rice) that they'd prepared for us ahead of time, steamed it for about 20 minutes, kneaded it, rolled it flat, and then cut it into circles. We also took this yellow stuff that looked sort of like play-dough (if I understood correctly it's 40% bean paste and 60% sugar) and formed it into little balls. The white circles then got folded around the yellow balls to form a sort of flower shape. It tasted fairly good.
Throughout the class my nose was still running quite a bit, so I didn't do much of the actual work. Since this stuff wasn't going to get cooked I didn't want to get my germs on stuff that the other guys in my group would be eating.
At the end of the class we ate some of our attempts at making these flowers and drank tea. Evidently the sweet taste of our masterpieces is supposed to compliment the bitter taste of the tea or something like that. All in all, it was a good experience. I wish I'd been able to do more though. I hate colds.
I'll try to post a picture of what's left of what we made. We each took some home, and mine has (unfortunately) been sitting forgotten in my fridge. I was planning to eat it, but I didn't want to until I took a picture, but I haven't taken a picture yet and ended up forgetting about it.
Tuesday Nov. 18
The university is giving everyone a TB test. It's not required, but is recommended, and is free. I've heard that someone in Lane's lab had TB or something like that, so it's possible that Lane got it from him and passed it to the rest of us. I doubt it, but better safe than sorry, right?
Anyway, this test involved them sticking a needle in my arm and squirting a bunch of fluid under my skin. At first I though, man, the guy missed the blood vessel, but then I realized that that was the point. It's supposed to be under your skin, not in your blood. They said that we should show up on Thursday so they could look at it and see how we reacted to it. If it gets really big I guess we might have TB or something like that.
Wednesday Nov. 19
In the morning I stopped by the co-op to get something (I can't remember what. Probably candy or something, since it seems to be subsidized by about 20% or so there), and discovered that they had a bunch of used CDs for sale. I spent probably an hour trying to look through them, and I discovered several CDs from groups that I'd heard of. Unfortunately, I didn't remember if I liked their music or not, so I didn't buy any of those CDs. In the Anime/Soundtrack section I found two Magical Knights Rayearth CDs, which I decided to purchase since they were only 500¥ and 700¥ and I liked what little of the Anime series I've seen. The music wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, but for the price I paid I'm satisfied with what I got. Well, almost satisfied. I discovered after the fact that these particular CDs were demo CDs, which I assume means that legally you aren't allowed to sell them.
In the early afternoon I started sneezing a fair amount, and my nose started running like crazy. When I ran out of tissues I took a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom and carried that around with me, blowing my nose every minute or two. It was quite annoying. This was the start of a bad cold that lasted quite a few days (I think I might still have it, but I'm doing much better now than I was then). In hindsight, I wonder if I caught the cold because this TB test was doing something nasty to my immune system?
Thursday Nov. 20
Thursday morning a bunch of us headed over to the University clinic to see if we had TB. My spot was a bit smaller than when they'd given it to me, so I thought I was probably going to be OK. Zen's arm, however, looked really awful. His had swelled quite a bit, and a fair part of his arm had turned red. We all thought that he probably had a positive reaction, since it looked so bad. When they measured it, however, they said that it was OK. As far as I know, none of the students here had TB, which is a relief, since the description of the side effects of the vaccine was fairly scary.
Thursday night a few of us met after class to head to a Japanese cooking class we'd signed up to go to. If I recall correctly our group consisted of Zen, Mitsu, Nick, Haesung, Monica, and me. That morning Haesung had asked me if I'd remembered to bring an apron, and I told her I hadn't. I don't even have one. Monica was going to be going to the 100¥ shop to get one for herself, so Haesung asked if I'd like her to tell Monica to get one for me as well. I said yes, and thus ended up with an apron.
The cooking class was run by a guy from Sendai who makes sweets. He's been making the stuff for 40 years, and seemed to be fairly talented at it. He made it look really easy and he didn't speak English, both of which reminded me of the pottery class we'd taken. We made something that looks sort of like a flower. It's white on the outside, and has a yellow ball of bean paste or something on the inside. I couldn't read the recipe they gave us so I'm not really sure what it's called or what it's made out of. To make it we took this white liquid "batter" (it tastes somewhat like rice) that they'd prepared for us ahead of time, steamed it for about 20 minutes, kneaded it, rolled it flat, and then cut it into circles. We also took this yellow stuff that looked sort of like play-dough (if I understood correctly it's 40% bean paste and 60% sugar) and formed it into little balls. The white circles then got folded around the yellow balls to form a sort of flower shape. It tasted fairly good.
Throughout the class my nose was still running quite a bit, so I didn't do much of the actual work. Since this stuff wasn't going to get cooked I didn't want to get my germs on stuff that the other guys in my group would be eating.
At the end of the class we ate some of our attempts at making these flowers and drank tea. Evidently the sweet taste of our masterpieces is supposed to compliment the bitter taste of the tea or something like that. All in all, it was a good experience. I wish I'd been able to do more though. I hate colds.
I'll try to post a picture of what's left of what we made. We each took some home, and mine has (unfortunately) been sitting forgotten in my fridge. I was planning to eat it, but I didn't want to until I took a picture, but I haven't taken a picture yet and ended up forgetting about it.
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