They say people experience symptoms of hiv about 1-2 months after they get it. what exactly are those symptoms?

Flu like symptoms: Acute viral reaction such as flu like symptoms, rash, headache, joint pains, malaise.

Acute HIV infection: Symptoms generally occur within 2 to 4 weeks. The most common symptoms are fever, fatigue, and rash. Others include headache, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, feeling achy, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and night sweats. It is easy to overlook the signs of acute HIV infection because of its similarity to any viral syndrome like the Flu, so HIV should be TESTED if there is a recent exposure.

Wrong timing: Roughly half of newly infected people experience symptoms, called acute retroviral syndrome (ARS), mainly with sore throat, fever, often skin rash and body-wide lymph node enlargement. Onset of ARS usually is 7-10 days, gone by 4-6 weeks. Most HIV infected people have no new symptoms in the 1-2 mo. range -- after ARS, next symptoms usually are those of overt AIDS a few years later.