This past weekend, I was working as a staff for a Japanese TV station's Promotion. Basically, I would give out flyers to people who visited the Japanese grocery store. I would answer questions people had as much as I could, and get as many people to know of the station.

Initially, I was assigned to do this outside of the store, but since it was pretty cold in Columbus, OH, this Saturday, the store manager let me work inside - near the entrance. I was standing or sitting at one area without moving so much, so my body got pretty cold. I knew I was very cold because my writing was very messy when I worked on the report - when I am cold, my writing gets pretty messy. The first day ended without too many problems luckily.

The next day, it was warmer, so I stayed outside. I would stand in the sun to keep myself warm. After the promotion, I decided to buy Tentsuyu No Moto, one ingredient I can't do without, and one of the cashier told me that my face was tan. I checked the mirror, and my face was a bit reddish. I thought, "am I ashamed or something?" I couldn't really think why I whould be embarrassed. It was 6 hours of staying outside in the sun.

This promotion really made me cold, so when I started to feel ill this Tuesday, I thought that I must have been catching a cold - I seldome go out so just a few hours of exposure in the cold would be enough to get me ill. My head started to feel heavy, my nose would keep running, and my throat was scratchy.

Then the next day, I realized that the way my throat felt was not really the same as when I catch a cold. When I catch a cold, my throat hurts terribly when I swallow. The one I am having right now is just scratchy. Terrible pain every once in a while (when I swallow) v. Mild pains all the time. ... I now know what I have is allergies, not a cold.

With the limited ability to think, I thought of treating allergies at home. Here it goes.
If you have allergic reaction to something, that something is going to get your nose to run as much as it can whether you want to or not. The mucas that runs in your nose and to your throat contains a bit more salt than your saliva, which changes the osmotic pressure around your throat. Then, your throat will absurb the salt in the mucas, and release the water. It causes your throat to feel scratchy.

Now I may be completely wrong. Probably it is more complicated than that.
In any case, what you can do is to get much of the mucas out of your nose and mouth as possible. You can use klinex or toilet paper near you and as soon as you feel the liquid in your nose, you brow your nose. To get rid of the mucas in the throat, you can drink/eat something saltier and sticky than the mucas. Maybe some soup. I have been having soup with beef soup mix, for that matter.

I heard that it will rain pretty soon, so hopefully I can stop feeling like this and get back to my "work" as soon as I can... For those of you who are reading this, please take care of yourselves.