7 Weeks Down, 34 to Go!

Here we are again, the end of the week update. Though I feel that I have posted on the two main events of this week I will uphold the tradition.

I still wish I were home in the States for this time of year. Between the election and the upcoming holidays it feels strange to be so far from home. In typical lazy American style, I would love to turn on CNN and passively absorb the latest on the Obama Administration, but I can't. I have to use my brain and read things. I also would just love to be surrounded by people who share me excitement. Oh well, I guess when I am asked in 20 years, "where were you when Obama was elected?" I will have a pretty sweet answer.

Another thing driving my desire to be home this week was the British teachers. Yesterday we had a big good-bye lunch/party for them at the school. Over plates of ham and olives they asked how long I would be working at the school, when I told them 'til the end of the year, without skipping a beat, they asked if I was going back to the States for Christmas. I had to say "No, I will be here until the end of June" and then accept their looks of pity. I think if people hadn't kept asking me about going home it wouldn't be on my mind so much. I am having a great time here, but when you are constantly reminded that it is difficult to be far from home over the holidays you can't help but agree.

Aside from causing me a little bit of homesickness, the British teachers were quite wonderful. After we moved on from my being stranded here, we talked about the school and how warm everyone was towards them. It is true, the people at our school are pretty fabulous. They provided a vast spread of food for the lunch, they gave the teachers each lithographs of famous streets in Madrid and sang them a good-bye song that brought tears to both British and Spanish eyes. In the matter of one week the six British teachers became an extension of the Rosa Luxemburgo family. Towards the end the other Auxiliares and I joked about what our good-bye would be like, to be honest I'm sure there will be lots of crying and probably more wine.

I spent all of Saturday in my bed. I have some mystery cold that has morphed from simple sinus congestion to a sore throat, to a cough and congestion and now we are just at the cough stage. On Thursday, I went to the doctor across the street, not the English speaking one I went to about insulin. My visit with him lasted all of a minute. It was almost closing time, so I think he was in a a hurry. Before I could tell him what was wrong I started to cough. He pulled out the stethoscope and took a quick listen. Then he asked if I had a fever, to which I told him "maybe, but I don't know" (since I don't have a thermometer here I really couldn't say for sure). After this brief conversation he prescribed two pills and sent me on my way.

I, of course, did some internet research and found that he had given me Amoxicillin and an OTC pain/fever medication in the Tylenol family. I'm not one to rely on pills, but in this case I have seen some improvement in the past 2 days of use. If that is the pills or the fact that I have been sick for about a week, I can't say. I just need this to go away.