Bite me! (Marcus)

So I’m sitting here feeling pretty goddamned over being bitten by things. At first there were mozzies in the apartment. They were visible, in some cases hearable(you know at 2am in the morning 1cm from your ear), and mostly stoppable; well not really, but they don’t fly very fast so can be squashed mid-air with a well judged clenching fist, Raid or our new anti-mosquito light thing, which has yet to see any action.

But the last few days the weather has cooled somewhat, and even still, I haven’t actually seen any mozzies yet _something_ or rather us, as I am sure Courtney is copping them too. I have absolutely no idea what they are and I am feeling a little frustrated as asking our dear old Chinese teacher friends(heh!) achieves nothing as they can never provide any information – this is assuming that 1. They could understand English or we could speak Chinese, 2. They actually spoke to us and 3. We actually had any Chinese teacher friends! Ahh jaded, yes.

But getting back on track, bugs…there is something biting me right now. My leg is bloody itchy, my lower back is covered in bite type bumps. Yesterday Courtney couldn’t stop scratching her left arm to the point it actually was bruised..yep BRUISED from so much scratching. So what the HELL is it?

There were mornings where we’d wake up and have bites on our backs and other areas that were clearly under the doona cover. Now I didn’t think mozzies could get at you under there – I just can’t see them having the ability to fly in under the covers. That leaves only really three other things that I can think of personally – bed bugs, lice or fleas. Well if we had fleas I think our hair would be an absolute itchfest, likewise with lice. And bed bugs I have read you can usually see their remains or similar when you look at the mattress – they supposedly leave a mess.

So it’s got me. Is it some kind of unique Chinese bug? If so, it can well and truly get stuffed! I am over it! I sometimes – more and more regularly actually, wake in the middle of the night absolutely itchy as hell. The other night I was being driven nuts by my left arm being itchy. I was scratching it all over, frustrated and tired, half asleep, and could NOT find the source of what was making it so itchy. I also had a nice little bite right on the pad of my right hand, near the thumb, in a crease of skin, so it was constantly feeling irritated.

Ahhh China.

The only other bugs we have seen in the place are the tiny black ones that inhabit the bathroom now. I do not know where they have come from or what has attracted them, but I am trying to find out. I think the only real outlet of information over here is asking around the expat community, such as the Wuxi expat forum over on Wuxlife.com. Unless you have a Chinese friend who is very good at speaking English, not speaking the native language sometimes feels like a real disability. Sure you can get by in your day to day tasks, nothing is really THAT difficult – frustrating yes, but particularly difficult – not really. But finding answers to annoyances such as this mystery biting thing can be a real pain in the ass.

There is one final thought that occurred to me – could we somehow be allergic to – or having a reaction to the washing powder/liquid? The liquid we have been using basically since we got here, so I can’t see why we would suddenly feel any different towards it. The powder we have only just started using in the last day or 3, so I highly doubt it’s that.
Well it’s time for bed – at least there I can scratch in comfort.