Sick Days

Today has been a day of irony.

Ironic Day, Part 1: The Apartment

Last week I was cooped in my room due to Sohini’s absence and desperately wanted to break out of my prison cell and run rampant in the streets of Vadodara; now Sohini has returned and I can travel with a friend, but I have been feeling sick for the past few days and all I want is to stay confined within my apartment. My illness is nothing serious, but I have a slight fever and my stomach has been twisting and tangling into knots while a heavy blanket of fatigue is draped over my body.  Yesterday morning I promptly went to the principal’s office and asked if I could take a few sick days and rest in my apartment, which he happily obliged because supposedly I do not look good at all. One would think that this comment is redundant since the mention of an internal sickness implies effects on one’s external health as well, yet I keep being reminded of my poor appearance.

When I crawl out of my hole and trudge down four flights of stairs and hike across campus to the cafeteria to eat, the students and staff members gasp and ask in a curious roar, “What happened to you?” Personally, I would ask this question if there was a grotesque physical abnormality, like a burn blistering on the side of someone’s face or a deep gash across a person’s arm – not for having a pale, peaked look and slow-moving steps. I’m tempted to answer this embellished question with an exaggerated answer: “This giant bacteria bug with twenty legs and a thousand pointy teeth suddenly sprung from my food and lunged into my mouth! I began to wrestle the venomous creature with my tongue but to no avail it hurled towards my intestines. My white blood cell army was roused and prepared for battle against the monster and I have barely survived four endless days of gut-wrenching terror on the battlefield.” Or I could merely mumble, “It must have been something I ate.” Lol. Either way, this slight sickness has given me a chance to nap, although this heat is causing strange dreams . . . When I awoke from my nap today, I was dreaming that two new geckos were found in my room and I named them Edith and Edna. Oh dear :)

I-Spy, India Edition :)

           

Ironic Day, Part 2: The Earthquake

Two years ago when I was studying at the University of Ghana-Legon, I was abruptly woken up at 3:00 am by a furious pounding on the door accompanied by frantic shouting that there was going to be an earthquake and everyone needed to evacuate the building. All of the international students scurried out of their beds and gathered outside amidst the swarms of malaria-carrying mosquitoes and humid black air. We stood, crouched, sat, and wandered around outside for over an hour until news spread that the earthquake warning was a prank by a radio station; we angrily sleepwalked back to our beds.

            Well today there actually was an earthquake in Indonesia and tremors were felt in some parts of India, yet I was given no warning or wake up call. Honestly, I didn’t even feel the tremor or know about its existence until Sohini brought up the subject by asking if I also felt the earthquake around lunchtime. But I must give a big shout-out to Melissa Scherer who is a true friend (not to mention a well-aware citizen in worldwide events) and sent me a concerned message today inquiring after my safety :).  Don’t worry, Mel-Bel, I’m fine . . . except for the giant bacteria bug with a thousand pointy teeth that I’m battling to the death.