Pig Fever

Several of our local friends have expressed worry about our trip tomorrow to the US. There is, of course, a lot of talk about 猪流感, or as someone translated for me the other day, Pig Fever. This isn't a common translation, by the way, just one I found particularly fun.

When I was in my usual black cab after Mass, the driver turned to several talk radio stations, most of which were discussing H1N1. This afternoon at the coffee shop, the manager asked me what kind of quarantine do they require in the U.S. He thought when we came back next month we could end up spending a week in quarantine whether we are sick or not. He and some of the other people in the coffee shop were surprised by my answers to their questions about the U.S.'s quarantine. I did tell them that several schools were closed for a while, but they still thought it was interesting that in the U.S. the doctors can only recommend you stay home and not mandate it.