So before I get started on this segment, I want to talk to everyone who liked my dance crew, Verse|One, at Halo-Halloween 2009 (see my blog about it for more info). We have not one, not two, but THREE performances coming up in the next week! They are as follows:
1. Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA) FREESTYLE: Thursday, November 5th, at 7PM in the Busch Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room. You can buy the tickets this Monday and Tuesday (11/2 and 11/3) for $8 if you're an RU student or $10 if you're not. Tickets are also sold at the door - $10 for RU Students and $15 for non-RU students. This time, it's actually a COMPETITION against other teams, so wish us luck! Also we're going to have celebrity guests, including comedian Eliot Chang and the guys from WONG FU Productions (if you don't know who they are, go on Youtube and look up "Yellow Fever"). However, I won't be performing because I need to study for my Death & Afterlife exam. :-( Email rutgers.tasa@gmail.com with any other questions.
2. Children's Annual Rememberance Events Showcase (CARES): This event is going to be hosted by the Chinese Student Association (CSO) in the Busch Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room on Saturday, November 7th, at 7:30PM. Once again, I'll be missing out to study for an exam - this time, Bio. :*( I don't remember the entrance fee, but all proceeds are going to the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Treatment Support (PATS) and Love Without Boundaries (LWB)! Attire is semi-formal, so look nice if you're coming!
3. ASIAN GALA 2009 (Las Vegas Night!): This one is going to be huge! Asian Gala is going to be hosted by the RU Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), which Verse|One is actually a branch of. AND THIS TIME I CAN PERFORM! It's going down at the Rutgers Student Center (College Avenue) at 6:30 with a Casino-themed pre-show in the Lounge. At 8:30, the show (and dinner, aka 7 COURSE MEAL, AKA AWESOME!) will begin in the Multi-Purpose Room! V|1 and other entertainers will light up the stage, including world-class magician Chin-Chin (and I've seen this guy on Youtube; he's absolutely insane!). Asian Gala also has a semi-formal dress code so look nice! :-) It's $9 to get in and proceeds are going to Operation Smile, an organization that sends volunteers to visit hospitalized children and their families and...make them smile. :-) For more info, feel free to email vsa.rutgers@gmail.com.
But anyway, now to business!
Dear readers and colleagues, sometimes, you have to remember that there are 50,000 people at Rutgers. Not all of them are clean. In my building, my RA and the two guys are complete mysophobics (fear of germs), so much so that it's almost annoying. But as I just said...chances are you're gonna see some people walking out of the bathroom without washing their hands. Or going a week without a shower. Or freaking out in their room when bugs start moving in. Or just getting sick.
I myself got hit with the flu last week. I know exactly how I got it; it was from this girl I know a week before that. I gotta stop being so nice. I'll be hugging sick people like crazy and it knocked me out of school for two days. So anyway, I wasn't feeling so hot on Monday night, but the fan didn't really hit the shit until Tuesday morning. I was suddenly way too weak to get to Death & Afterlife at 8:40 so I skipped. I did force myself to trudge to my FIGS class. I was miserable, but I did manage to participate in class. After class I went to Tillet to get some breakfast. Since I didn't bring my glasses, I couldn't see where I was going at all when I was trying to find my friends from my building. I went to this girl that looked like my friend Julia from House 20, but it turned out to be my friend Ognjenka (pronounced Og-nee-yen-ka. It's Croatian. But Ogie for short). Ogie is a senior that lives in Quad 1. I met her when I rescued her from this creeper on the B bus after dance a couple of weeks ago. It turned out that Ogie was sick, too, and we had ourselves some tea (Ogie makes ridiculously awesome tea) and ended talking for four hours. :-) But that night was from Hell. I had the worst headache, I was coughing, sneezing blood, congested...it sucked. AND I was missing Verse|One practice. You know I'm sick when I can't dance!
So the next morning (the morning of the Hillel protest), I went to the Health Center and they advised me to go home. Okay, first of all, the Health Center is whack because they can only treat the first two people of the week that walk in with the flu. What kind of monkey bullshit is that? I was dying! But I guess they were right about one thing - I'd definitely rather be miserable at home than at Rutgers. So I left that night. My mom had me on like 10 different pills a day and probably illegal amounts of Theraflu, but I was better in no time. My mom's a Registered Nurse, so I'm never sick for long. But she complains about it the whole time. Lol. Love you, mommy.
One way to stay healthy in this BS Jersey weather is to cover up. Get yourself a sweater and a really good jacket or coat for those cold days / nights / weeks (Jersey only.) I would also suggest buying a small umbrella from one of the bookstores in the event of rain. Staying out in the rain too long definitely brings problems. For example, back in June, I went to go see World Of Dance in NYC. From Penn Station to West 52nd street is like twenty blocks. Now imagine that all you're wearing is jeans, sneakers, a T-Shirt, and a hat. In the pouring rain. For twenty blocks. And then you have to go to New Student Orientation the following Monday. My Orientation Leaders were freaking out because they thought I wasn't going to survive the Great Campus Hunt. But here I am, still alive. Win.
Another way to feel fresh is to SLEEP. Now, I know this university obviously doesn't give a crap about whether you sleep or not. And while all of us have stayed up until 5am on Facebook at least once since moving in, don't do it all the time. According to my mom, neglecting your rest weakens your immune system and makes you susceptible to pretty much anything. Kinda like Bubble Boy. Plus, even though none of you may go to this extreme, sleep deprivation can actually be fatal. What happens is that your organs start to shut down one by one. One of my ODASIS TA's told me that one time a guy stayed up for a week straight and suffered from permanent personality changes. My TA's record, by the way, is five days (which she did to study for exams, and then she slept for three straight days after they were over). But the moral of the story is, if you're up at 2AM and there's no school work to be done, just hit the sheets. You'll feel better in the morning.
And if you do get sick? Well, first of all schedule an appointment with your campus Health Center by calling 732 932 7402 (this is the number for New Brunswick) and explaining what your issue is. Then get yourself lots of fluids - the warmer, the better (for sore throats). Chug water, juice, tea, broth, soup, and decaf soda (i.e. Ginger Ale). And stay away from dairy because it's only going to make your mucus thicker. Sleep a lot, and if you can, gargle salt water to ease sore throat and eliminate mucus running down the back of your throat. Hop on Vitamin C pills, Sudafed (congestion), Mucinex (excess mucus), Robitussin DM (cough/sore throat), Advil, Motrin, and Tylenol (last three for pain and fevers).
God bless and stay healthy, everyone! Wish me luck for this week; I've got a Death And Afterlife exam on Thursday and a Bio exam on Sunday - on top of all the work I need to do / make up, plus Verse|One practice. Love love love. PS - I do read all my comments and it makes me so glad to see that people that aren't on the Blog Team like my writing...unlike my Expos teacher! ;-) I appreciate your kindness, and it's people like you out there that make me love what I'm doing. <3 So I'm leaving you a cool picture:
v Flu? What flu? v
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