102 degrees of thrills and chills

ok well maybe not thrills..

so the past two point five days I've been sick.. and one of those days was pure hell.. I've been waiting to get SICK here and this experience did not disappoint in the slightest. Let me tell you that getting sick in another country REALLY gets you thinking about home and having your mom care for you (hah like most mothers love to care for their adult children when they are sick..)   man did i miss my bed and being able to curl up and be comfortable and in some ways take care of myself or know that a reliable doctor was only a phone call and 30 minutes away.. ah the plush life..

so Monday i woke up feeling a little crappy but it ended up going away fairly fast.. so i didn't think much of it.. Then that night, i guess early tuesday morning for those who want to get specific, i woke up with an annoying stuffy nose and a slight sore throat. Under normal circumstances this is annoying, but this was one of those times when you are sure the mucus is out to get you.. You know whenever you turn your head your sinus fill up incredibly fast and you have to fight to breathe through your nose? and even when you attempt to sleep sitting up (sorta) you still managed to stay right on the cusp of being able to breathe.. but just barely.. of course having to breathe through your mouth just aggravates the already sore throat.. so of course from 3 until about 5 I had a lovely battle with my upper respiratory system..

Around ten that morning i feel quite a bit better and i go to school.. does wonders on my throat i.e. dried it the hell up.. Please please please note the sarcasm.. So i get to school and naturally being the celebrity that I am all the teachers ask me how i am and if I'm sehat (which means healthy) and of course i feel better so i say sure HAH.. This also happens to be the day that the school board for our school is there and i have to beg off shaking hands with like 15 people.. its really a wonder i haven't gotten sick here more often.. one of my vice principals was willing to ignore the fact i was sick but i dunno shaking hands with someone who is sick kinda makes me cringe.. I finally just did a little head bow with my hands in the praying position and went into the office.

I must say the real bright thing in my day was getting two letters from home that I was not expecting. Its always nice to know someones sending me something so i can make sure its not lost but getting something unexpected is just as awesome and thrilling.. So thanks you parents for the v-day card and the women of Penzeys for the thoughtful holiday card.. and however late it may have been it made me smile that much more..

But anyways so after getting my mail and sweating all the water out of my body, because tuesday just also happens to be one of THE hottest days in awhile, i head to class. Now being a little sick is bad enough, but having to go to a class that i have a few issues with. I went in expecting issues but luckily they were actually good and i think it was one of the best classes i had with them..

so after class i went home and decided taking a nap was in order and then that is when my day just went down hilllllllll.. After about 20 minutes i started to get chilly, which was weird. Then it turns into full blown chills and aches.. yeah AWESOME.. i had my fan on which ended up making everything worse.. i debated texting someone in my family to come in and turn off the fan but i thought that might have been a little weird so i just ended bundling up in my two blankets and turned the fan off and scrambled back into bed.. for a good part of 3 hours i huddled under the covers trying to break the chills and finally it happened.. but now of course I'm hot.. and I'm getting hotter.. i figured it might have been my room so i turned on the fan and opened my door.. my host dad saw me and of course he gets worried so i have to tell him I'm sick.. again.. i lay back down and then my host mother comes in and turns on the light.. which hurt really bad.. i ended up getting a FULLLLL blown headache that was centered right behind my eyes.. finally she told me she would get me some tea and that i should turn off my fan or i would get worse.. i of course was adamant about not turning it off.. i really did not need my body over heating and something worse happening to me.. so finally after a few hours i decide to take my temp.. I had to take it 4 times to be sure i was getting the right results.. I was a little delirious and disbelieving when the first stick told me 103. The next two came up around 102.4 and the last one came up as 103.. needless to say i was a little worried..

so i call the doctor and he says it sounded like a general illness so if something else happened he needed to know but right now he though id be fine.. yeah yeah.. being semi delirious and hotter than hell i naturally didn't want to believe him but heck nothing i could do..

finally the next few hours include me attempting to eat (not all that successful) and then napping and having my host mom come in and check on me.. while it was really nice that they cared so much at times i really just wanted to just be left alone.. every time she came in she turned on the light and i just wanted to scream because it hurt so much
not sure it was comprehending that i had a massive headache and the light was only making it worse.. I'm sure my indonesian was really suffering.. the one thing that kept being a battle between her and i was the fan.. I was incredibly hot. I almost felt like my insides were in an immense furnace and the heat was radiating out.. i kept putting the fan on high and pulling it closer to me but every time she came in she would put it on the low setting and push it away from me stating that it was going to make me feel more sick.. oh man.. it was frustrating..

which leads me to a little rant about healthcare here.. i know a lot of non-western countries don't have the best healthcare systems. Thats not to say that the US has an awesome system, because it has major faults BUT some things that we take as common sense just do not exist here.. i keep being told that drinking cold water when you have a fever is bad.. which is dumb.. as my parents (in the US) pointed out, when you are in the hospital and you have a high fever they will give you ice chips.. so obviously its not life threatening.. and second if i ever have to hear its because the wind entered your body again, i am going to go on web-md or whatever and get the definition of a germ, virus and bacteria and force people to read it.. Yes sometimes you may get sick because of the weather BUT it is not because of “wind” entering your body.. it scares me sometimes that people can believe in something like this.. especially when you can easily go online and look up the facts..

but i digress..

so finally around 9 i get left alone and i start to sleep. By this time i am delirious.. I keep thinking that every time i wake up, i have to prepare for the next dream. Which i guess may not sound that crazy but it was blowing my mind.. and i kept waking up in a strange cycle.. I would sleep for about 40-45 minutes and then id wake up, probably because i was hot, and then stay awake “preparing” for my next dream for about 15 minutes.. and this cycle went on.. alllll nighttt.. finally i fell asleep around 3 in the morning feeling about 2 million times better, though still sick..

and now i have the common cold along with enlarged tonsils.. lovely.. and of course i still have a temperature.. Just high enough to be annoying.. gotta love it.. thank god today wasn't too hot or man i might be signing up for the next plane home.. I'm sure my mom would be happy.. i think i give her a mini heart attack every other day..

so yes sickness in indonesia is an enjoyable and thrilling ride, something i think all people should experience at least once in their lifetime..

and finally i have a note..

today my friend and i had a fairly deep convo about life.. i cant even remember how it got there but I'm kinda glad it did.. We had a conversation about pregnancy and how stupid people can be and apparently a few years ago there was a girl in my school who was pregnant and here its a HUGE deal. Girls will get kicked out of school and not allowed to graduate. It just is hard to here that because already this girls life is over but now she has no way of moving on with her life after school, if by chance she would have been able to further her education.. its just tough to hear that getting pregnant warrants expulsion.. and heck what happens the guy? nothing.. its really really hard to hear about..

i guess the one positive from the convo was she doesn't see the west as being a problem for sex and drugs and alcohol.. honestly anyone who blames another culture is just being ignorant of the fact that we are ALL human and we ALL make dumb decisions.. Yes the western culture does little to hide our flaws but that doesn't mean that we influence kids in other countries to fall. Thats their choice. It just kinda hurts to hear/ read that the western culture is bad and they cause all these problems and “everyone does drugs/drinks and has sex and gets pregnant” which is just so not true.. I survived high school and i don't have a little kid running around at home.. I didn't get into drugs or alcohol in high school.. Lumping people into a category based on movies just is not fair. America, just ONE western culture, is FULLLLL of cultures from around the world and yes, some people may view all of us as fiends and miscreants but that just is not the case.. which is guess is why organizations from America and else where have volunteers who go out and show that we are nothing like the movies..

It was good to have this conversation with her. It was relieving to hear that she didn't blame the West at all and she realizes that people everywhere have dumb moments. Most people have free will and just because it may be in the movies doesn't mean that everyone does it/that its acceptable..


ok I'm done ranting.. i think its amping up the fever haha..

so thanks for sticking through this long entry.. hope it was amusing up until that last bit.. Sometimes i crack myself, but then again.. I am slowly losing my mind.. :)

Lastly I have to impart some new found music I came across within the past couple of weeks.. Firstly is the Two Door Cinema Club. They will not be for everyone.. but they make me happy.. Here is their song “Something Good Can Work” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PorW3y5n1w

and then “What You Know”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwYJyrKK5A

Finally is someone i have fallen slightly in love with.. Gotye.. Oh. My. God.. I could listen to some of his songs on repeat for hours and probably NEVER get sick of it.. which is actually hard to do.. so check him out..

Somebody That I Used to Know (starts out slow but once it gets to the chorus, oh man.. awesomeness ensues..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

Eyes Wide Open (second best song.. just catchy and feel good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVJsg0XIIk&feature=fvwrel

So there you have it folks.. hopefully this feeds your need for an update in my life.. obviously nothing is happening thats too fascinating if i have to write about getting sick.. haha..

love you all :)