It's a new day,
It's a new dawn,
It's a new life,
For me,
And I'm feeling...pretty rough.
Last week I was rather ill. On Friday 22nd of January I started to feel funny. And I'm not talking jokes and witticisms. My neck started to ache, my throat was like knives when I swallowed, my body felt weak and feeble and my head felt like I had a clamp tightening round it in pulses. With these symptoms and my inability to focus I was sent home early. Bumbling through the metro system, nearly succumbing to the malaise and tumbling to the floor, I managed to reach my flat. Elena, my housemate, was there, wide-eyed and ready with the pity. She handed me a thermometer. BEEP. 38.4. degrees. Not normal and very high for me.
I don't usually get sick.
What followed was a weekend (and a Monday) of bad periods. I would feel good for a couple of hours but then stumble to my bed for another few as a migraine decided to try and eat its way out of my cranium. On Tuesday it all but left, with the help of amoxycilin - attained after going to the doctor on the Saturday. I also had a crash course in Spanish healthcare on the Monday when I went to ask for my 'justificante' - a.k.a. my 'look I'm sick and here's my proof' paper. It was most fun trying to go through the process whilst my head was pounding more viciously than Phil Collins at a gig. Highlight? Being told by the doctor 'That's a good laryngitis'.
I mention all this because, at the time of writing, it feels once again like I have collected a cornucopia of glass shards and needles in my neck and they have set themselves up in a kind of 'Ker Plunk' formation, thus making swallowing hard and painful.
This is even more annoying as this week we have been given our new timetables - so, new classes and students. This is the time when you make a positive image and try and get a table of Spaniards to love you in 1.5 hours. This could be difficult for me. Every time I swallow my facial expression could be construed as disgust for some badly implemented language from a student. I'll have to time my oesophageal activity perfectly.
Finally, I have my uni friend Anna over at the moment. She got herself a one-way ticket to Madrid in the hope of finding lodging and work. I generously gave her an ultimatum of one week or so in my flat to spur her on. As of today she has a nice, one-person studio flat and moves in Tuesday. Bosh. No job though, not yet...
You may say,
'What, that was the blog? But you didn't do anything!' Should you say that you would be both rude and correct. I haven't really done much recently. I will try and do more things. Go to more places. Notice more 'Spanish' traits. I will try. But for now you have the 'I-was-ill' segment.
I sometimes wonder, is anybody reading this? (other than my parents)
Anybody there?
Or am I wasting valuable time that could be better spent talking to myself?
Have a video: