¡¿Tengo Pink Eye?!

Nothing better than the feeling of truly not being able to open your eyes first thing in the morning.

Pink eye is not contagious via skype, so those of you who washed your hands after our conversation (cough cough Sarah, woah COUGH COUGH cough COUGH WHEEEEZE - oh boy, this didn’t go as planned), rest assured. I also happen to be pretty wheezy and sneezy. Not my favorite combo, but the pink-eye-type-thing going on is the cherry on top.

I’m not too surprised actually, there is a lot of public surface area I touch everyday. The doors, elevator buttons, and, oh dear, the buses. I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long without contracting something worse. Hand sanitizer and frequent washing can only go so far.

In other news, I bought a pair of leather boots yesterday! They are pale sort of sandy color and have some nice fur insulation. I’m very excited to wear them to class all next semester.

• 3 hours later -

I just learned from my doctor appointment that I don’t have pink eye, just a strain of the flu virus that is throwing everything above my sternum out of whack. My eyes are clearly not taking this illness well. I was prescribed pills that will relieve the symptoms of my nose, eyes, and throat. I am happy to be on my way to getting better.

I was sort of looking forward to the experience of having to stumble through my limited pharmacological vocabulary, but my host parents already had to visit the pharmacy today, so they picked up my script, too. My huge (larger than an M&M) pills are yellow and intimidating, but are manageable with plenty of water. My mom offered to make me soup, too. She said it’s not chicken soup like she knows is very popular in the US, but it does the trick. My host parents are being wonderfully supportive of my decision to lie in bed all day and watch bad romantic comedies. The soup was actually disturbingly orange and very disgusting, but with the addition of saltless saltines I was able to get it down. They both have been very helpful in my lesser state, taking care of me as they would their own daughter.

I’d like to take a moment to write about my spanish class. The 7 of us were placed in intermediate, but we are all truly on different levels. I’m definitely in the bottom 3.

Cast of characters: Alejandro (well, Alex) is a very outspoken guy who spends most of his nights partying hard and embraces Argentine culture by drinking mate everyday in class. Leonard is tall, dark, and handsome with an 76.5% positive reading on my gaydar. Ray is always asleep in class and when our teacher wakes him up, he responds with “what was the question?”. Sam is a guy who reminds me of Jake Szirme; it’s not that I have anything against him, we’re just not friends. Slater is a chap from Baltimore who is in love with DC sports. I’m not sure why he studied abroad because he doesn’t seem to like adventure at all. Then, there’s Shaina and myself. She’s a sweetie who is incredibly smart and going to discover the cure for a disease one day. We sit to the side and watch the madness from a safe distance.

Alex is always yelling in Spanish about something- anything really. Leonard rolls his eyes and always has his tiny Spanish dictionary in hand. Sam pokes Ray in the side when he starts to snore. And, Slater reads ESPN articles on his Mac.

Our teacher, Natacha, is a really nice person. She knows both languages well and is always ready to answer our questions. Our lessons are not very successful, though. We go over our homework, do a couple more worksheets from our packet, and then we start asking question because we get so bored with the normal routine. How do you say “maybe” in spanish? What’s the difference between para and porque? Why are there 18 types of bowls we have to memorize? Sugar bowl, fruit bowl, cereal bowl, mixing bowl. Can’t we just say bowl?!

At the end, we are assigned new homework and asked to read ahead in our novels. (We’re reading El Buscador de Finales. I had to go to 6 different bookstores before they actually had it in stock. I was so embarrassed when the man led me back to the children’s section and pulled my book off the shelf. It’s disappointing that I am having a lot of problems reading at a chapter book level here.) Class is a repetitive and tiresome process.

My other classes are going okay. The entire weekend I just spent snuggled up with my computer helped ease my homework load for this week. I’m not starting off behind. Monday is the first day of my internship. I will go to the classes and introduce myself in English. I was instructed not to use Spanish in the classroom. I am happy to oblige.

5 things that made me happy recently:

- Skyping home

- My awesome new hairpin that holds my bun like nobody’s business

- That I found a great restaurant that has a grande jarro of vino for 18 pesos and delicious & authentic northern AR food. And, it’s just down the street.

- My bed

- That groceries (including fresh produce and “expensive” pears) for the whole week cost me ~$20 USD.

ps, random picture for this post, I know. Truth is, I've been slacking on my picture taking, but I felt bad posting without anything but words. There's a cat on his shoulder!