During college, I spent a semester studying abroad at the National University of Singapore, in Singapore. I had a fantastic semester -- and the amazing opportunity to travel to many other Asian countries.

Toward the end of the semester, in November, I took a trip up to Beijing to visit a friend from home who was living in Beijing. I had a fantastic few days exploring the city.  On the last night, we went out to a bar, played some pool with friends, and called it a night. On our way home from the bar, we decided to stop by a street vendor and get a treat -- I'm not quite sure what I had since he ordered it, but it was some form of meat on a stick.  I had grown comfortable with eating food from street vendors in Singapore and didn't think twice about it at the time.

The next morning I caught a cab back to the airport. I was already starting to feel a bit sick: a little feverish and sick to my stomach.  When I got to the airport I found complete chaos: apparently all the air traffic control towers in Southern China were down and so flights coming into and out of Beijing were limited. My flight was cancelled and I ended up having to wait over 6 hours for a flight. While waiting in the cramped and crowded Beijing airport, I began to feel worse and worse. I don't know how I made it on that plane back to Singapore!

I made it back to Singapore and I felt absolutely terrible: I was feverish, and I couldn't keep anything down - not even water. I tried to go to sleep that night and had strange dreams.  When I woke up the next morning, I knew that something was terribly wrong and that I needed to see a doctor. I was too delirious to really realize what I was doing, but I walked across campus in my pajamas to the University Hospital.

They took my temperature as I walked in the door -- I was at 38.8 (about 102). I was immediately sent to the 'fever quarantine ward' and they started me on an IV. When the doctor came to ask me questions, they were initially concerned that I might have contracted Avian Flu -- I had a high fever and had recently been in China.  Luckily the rest of my symptoms (i.e. vomiting and diarrhea) weren't consistent with that!

After about an hour on the IV, I was coherent enough to phone my parents to let them know what was going on. My parents were glad to hear from me and happy that I made it to a Singaporean hospital (rather than being stuck in China)! Unfortunately, they also had bad news -- my grandpa had passed away the night before.  I was stuck in the Singaporean hospital with looming exams -- there was no time for me to get home in time for the funeral. I was devastated!

I stayed in the hospital for the rest of the day and overnight. I was released from the hospital the next day, but apparently I had lost about 8 pounds in the meantime... I wasn't able to keep much down except for plain white rice and water for a few days after that.

Because of my hospital stay, I was unable to study for and sit for two of my exams. I petitioned the university for hardship circumstances. I was able to pass one of my classes without taking the exam (i.e. I had an A in the rest of the class, and the exam was only worth 30% so even with a 0 on the exam I walked away with a C), but I was not so lucky with the other exam and did not receive credit for the course.  Because I didn't get credit for that course, I was one class short of graduating from my home university on time -- I was not able to graduate with my classmates and had to stay for a summer course!