I woke up with a fever around 5 a.m. I had felt restless since last night, and now I knew why. The cause was obvious: I had overdone my strength training. After checking, it turned out that muscle inflammation had caused my immune system to overreact. I drank Pocari Sweat and took one fever reducer. After about two hours I felt a little better, but I started sweating and the fever rose again. I resigned myself to being unable to do anything today and decided to spend the day at the hostel.
I lay on the sofa on the second floor and read a book. The fever wouldn't go down. I called my grandmother and my mother for the first time in a while. I also had some urgent work, so I did a little work in the middle of a 39°C fever.
When I have a fever, Overthink disappears.
In the evening, feeling I should eat something, I ordered and was eating khao man gai when a girl sitting next to me started talking to me. She started speaking to me in Chinese, so I was like, 'What?' She asked, 'Are you Korean?' and when I answered, 'I'm Japanese,' she said, 'What! You look Chinese. If you were in China, everyone would definitely talk to you in Chinese (laughs).'",
She was staying in Chiang Mai for a month to study for the IELTS. She wants to study at a graduate school in Italy next year, and this was her preparation period. She said everyone in Shanghai is so busy and doesn't really fit her, so she likes slow-life places like Chiang Mai. I thought that was amazing.
I told her about myself too: that I'm traveling around the world while working as an engineer. The conversation naturally flowed.
I made an amazing discovery. With a 39°C fever, even the concept of 'Overthink' disappears. Maybe because energy isn't reaching the frontal lobe, I was able to communicate incredibly fluently. Normally my sensitivity is too high and that hinders smooth conversation. But because I had a fever, I didn't have the luxury of thinking about extra things, and I could speak truly naturally.
In other words, I'm good at communication. I'm usually just overthinking; my true self is this cheerful and able to speak fluently with people. That was a big discovery.
A message in the notebook
I asked her to write a message in my notebook. It's a request that always makes me nervous, but I'd never been able to say it so smoothly as this time. I said naturally, 'Hey, write it in my notebook!' Partly because she was easy to talk to, but more because with the fever I didn't have the energy to worry about little things.
I was moved to realize that my true self is this cheerful.
She had a class right then, so she said she'd write it later. About three hours later she came back with it written. I gave her a message card too. Her name in Chinese was too complicated, and even after hearing its pronunciation I couldn't remember it. In the end we said 'Thank you very much' and bye. What the heck (laughs).
We also took a picture together. It was a great encounter.
At night, the fever reached its peak.
When it was time to sleep, the chills wouldn't stop. My face was extremely hot; I think it probably rose to nearly 40°C. I was sweating and, at the same time, feeling cold. I worried about things like whether my immune system was running wild. For now, I just hope I get better soon.
But it was a day that brought a discovery precisely because of the 39°C fever. Not bad.
