There's only 16 days until the students at BYU-Idaho are going to be let loose for Thanksgiving Break. My English teacher explained to us how we got to be so blessed with a full week off, unlike most other universities. He said that the school has to have a certain number of school days in a semester, which is why we usually don't get such long breaks. So to get our seven days in, the administration calls the first two days of the break "Exam Days." He also added that most teachers won't give exams on this day, unless they're online. Another big woo-hoo for the Lord's University here in Rexburg!
Alright, so that's the good news. The bad news is--of course, what else could it be--swine flu. Is anybody else getting tired of hearing those two words? Every time I hear them I think of dirty pigs spreading disease. Ick. I know it has nothing to do with pigs, but geesh, they could've picked a better mascot. You're probably thinking, "C'mon, it's a virus, it's supposed to be yucky," but they could at least make it sound more appealing. I don't want to think about the symptoms of a literal swine flu--we'd all be turning into pigs like in Willow! Why couldn't they have called it the Lilac Flu? Or the Honey Bee Flu? Clean Underwear Flu? Something not-so-dirty, and more springy and clean. I'm just sayin', if they're going to name it after something with which it has no connection, they might as well name it something pleasant. Whoa tangent! Back to the real bad news--BYU-Idaho's infected population. I guess when the school hits the 25% infection mark, they have to close down school for a week. Right now it's at 18%. I can attest to this because all of my roommates have been sick (minus yours truly). I've been drinking orange juice and taking vitamins and washin' my hands every day in the name of my immune system, but I can't help but feel like I'm in the middle of a bunch of panicky individuals who are just waiting to be coughed on so that they can stay home for a day. When it was discovered yesterday that my roommate Courtney had a lot of the symptoms, my other roommate (who is a nursing major) took out her thermometer as if on queue. She flinched a little bit when Court reached out her hand to Kim to offer her some candy. Yikes! Luckily Courtney wasn't running a fever, but I made her stay home anyway. Our apartment is relatively clean, but now I'm wiping down and spraying every surface I can with disinfectant. Is this usually how frantic flu season gets? Geesh! I'm happy to be alive, happy to be at this school, happy to see the temple at the top of the hill every morning when I walk to class. I'm not worried, so let's just all wash our hands and not hock lugies on each other. Deal?
As a sidenote, some people are really serious about getting that extra week of school off. A guy came over to our apartment the other day having just found out about the "25% rule." He said (and I quote), "Cough on everyone you know!" We're all in this together....I guess. Cough.
image from: http://www.ktis.fm/blogs/lisa/wp-content/swine-flu.bmp
5 comments:
Cough on everyone you know!!! WHAT!! Hello buddy, anyone home. Keep washing those hands Kenz. See you for Thanksgiving- hopefully well.
Keep being smart, little dude - glad you've been spared (so far!) Counting the days til Turkey Week!
I agree. Scarlet fever has a pretty name, but bad results. But, it didn't seem to ruin the reputation of the color or the name. Think Scarlett Johansson. Minus a t. At any rate please keep all infected individuals out of your personal space, especially the young man who apparently did not come to BYU on scholarship.
One more time I get to testify of the benifits of Zicam nasal spray. Your throat itches or your nose starts to stuff you get that stuff Kenz and you keep the flu population explosion at bay. 2 weeks to turkey and gabby pie better known as chocolate almond bar.
i hate to say this because i have often been compared to cliff claven on cheer's which makes me hesitent to express any thing as definitive fact....(tangent) but it is called swine flue because this strain of the flue is common to pigs, and made an exter species jump to us. the reason we are more supseptible is that we are not pigs and lack the initial antibodies to fight the infection.
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