Early this month, I heard people were experiencing spring fever at winter’s end. The Germans have a word for the early days of spring: Frühlingsanfang. We don’t have winter here, so we will never fully know how it feels to yearn for the first day of spring.

Last week, before I left for Beijing, I was feeling stifled in Manila. I was going through cabin fever; I get restless and upset when I don’t leave the country every so often. I need to clear my head, hop on a plane, and gain some perspective elsewhere.

Now, after pulling an all-nighter (sleeping at 6 a.m. because I was writing a paper that turned out to be unnecessary), my muscles ache, my nose is runny, and my temperature shot up. It’s actual fever, and it’s not fun. Even my eyelids are warm.