Hi all,
To fall right back into my pre-summer pattern, I am very sorry I have not updated for a while. I will not bore you with useless, unbelievable explanations though, but get straight to the (hopefully) interesting stuff.
I am not well. Or, I should say I am relatively unwell. My Delhi belly is still here, although admittedly in a much less serious state, and I am feeling the effects. I am not suffering from the explosive type of diarrhoea that forces you to make a run for the bathroom and hope for the best whenever you feel just the slightest tinkling anymore. Nor am I any longer plagued by cramps and spams in my intestines before and after going to the bathroom. Actually, my condition is under control and things seem to be returning to normal - although there is obviously still something wrong but I will not bore you with the gross details. I have had lots of general antibiotics and other types of killers which have obviously helped but unfortunately not resolved the problem. I am still waiting for the results of tests to be able to fight whatever it is that has nested in my gut more efficiently.
I must say I am quite fed up with it though. Not just with the diarrhoea and medication that does not solve anything, but also with the Italian healthcare system. Italians are paranoid and hypochondriacs and therefore feel the need to have full checkups every two years or so. I, on the other hand, coming from a country where you are taught only to go and see your doctor when there is a serious indication, have obviously never had one before. When my doctor heard this, she nearly fainted and frantically started typing out pages and pages of blood and urine tests that I had to do. That is in addition to the faeces tests she had already told us to do because of the diarrhoea. As it would never even occur to me to doubt a doctor, I consented ("Well, alright, better safe than sorry!!") and did not worry since I have had health insurance in this country for over two years and I assumed basic checkups would be part of that. I could not have been more wrong. Having health insurance in this country means that you pay less than if you do not, it does not cover anything. Which in my case meant I had to pay 70 euros for tests I did not even need. Moreover, GPs in this country are apparently unable to perform even the simplest medical procedures and I had to go to the hospital to get all my tests done. Not only did this mean waiting for an hour three days in a row (we had to do some tests three times on successive days), it also meant filling in piles and piles of paperwork before even getting to see a nurse. And on top of that, it takes between one and two weeks before you get your results back!
As you can imagine, I was not very happy. I was feeling crappy at the time and just wanted to be helped (you know, get some CARE like most sick people do). I had lost 8 kilos in about 5 weeks (about 4 of those I had to get rid of anyway but the other half - which I lost in one week - scared me a lot) and am still physically quite weak - though not working out for two months may have something to do with that as well. Last Tuesday, I slipped off the sidewalk thanks to my new shiny shoes without grip and hit a lamppost with my ribs which are now bruised and hurt whenever I move. But, worst of all, I have a zip on the inside of nose which itches like hell!! Can you imagine the horrors of my life???? *wallowing in self-pity*
Anyway, things have not all been bad. Hotel O&F has opened its doors again and we have been entertaining Jochen (who was here for a conference), Bart and Tineke (who stopped over on their way back from Tuscany) and Lars and Rachel (who were here to celebrate a weekend without children - aka booze up and play games!). Their visits were very enjoyable, though unfortunately not too good for the strict observation of our diet and drinking alcohol while taking antibiotics is usually not such a good idea! Oh well, Tuesdays at La Hora Feliz are back with a vengeance and are now rather the rule than spontaneous gettogethers that happened to be planned on Tuesdays because they always had been. Whatever, it is good to have your own bar! Oh, and I have discovered a new drink: Mojito champagne, yummy!!!
There have also been some changes in my professional life. Changes for the better, I think. I had agreed with Caroline to support her doing admin and course management work in September while she was looking for a replacement for Veronica (our former course manager who left because she found a better job). After a couple of days, she asked me as a joke if I did not want to do it for real and after thinking about it for a night I told her I would like to give it a try. Even though she knew I am only staying until next summer, she offered me a shitload of money if I would do it, which took away any doubts I might still have had about that impulsive decision. So, I am finishing the courses I still have and am easing into office work.
It is a challenge though. It is good money but I am also experiencing some difficulties. On the one hand, there is a lot of information missing that Veronica had in her head and I can not find anywhere - but clearing messes up, getting to the bottom of things, filing and archiving are some of my strengths and things I like doing so that will be fine. On the other hand, I have realised that my Italian just is not up to the mark. It is good and as long I am writing I do not have any problems, but I have found out that my knowledge of Italian is very theoretical. Ask me about subjunctives and conditionals and I can apply the forms correctly - besides telling you fascinating stories about their etymology and linguistic development - but basic, down-to-earth, colloquial Italian is very different from that. I am too focused on applying the correct grammar rules and pronouncing everything in a right way which, combined with my businesslike approach, does not seem to work well with Italians who apparently need to be cooed and wooed. In other words, I apparently come off polite but very direct and not friendly enough. Clashing cultures. I would not dream of making small talk on the phone with random strangers about the weather or how difficult it is to start work again after the holidays when I am supposed to represent a company. But apparently Italians do expect just that!
So, I am worried about having made the right decision and perhaps also about taking on too much. I am tired, feel that things are escaping me and have to send myself an email reminding me that I still have to do something I should have done but forgot. But beginnings are always hard I guess, and perhaps I am even more insecure because I still do not know what is going on inside my body. Vediamo!
Another reason for doubt is that the more students finish their courses, the more I realise how much I am giving up. Teaching English to individuals or small groups is much more than a job. When you see people once or twice a week for a long time, you get close to them. A good teacher is an attentive and trustworthy listener and people talk to you about anything they want. You find out so much about their personal lives, their plans and worries, their fears and hopes. You learn more about their past, present and future than you had thought the grammatical tenses you teach them could imply. But you are not some kind of psychologist, you share a lot of yourself too. You become friends, even though it is just for a short time. As a teacher you have many short-lived, fleeting friendships whose end may cause you pain. I had not realised how much it would hurt me to give up this type of life. The life of spending much time with people talking about their innermost feelings, of traveling for hours a day and of reading at least one book a week, the life of irregular hours and of long days, but also the life of satisfaction after a long day's work has born its fruits and your students are confidently using the constructions and vocabulary you taught them. Maybe it is all for the best though, perhaps this way it will be easier for me to cut the cords when we leave this place a few months from now. It will still be hard saying goodbye to my real friends but at least I will not be bothered by the additional weight of these temporary but profound short friendships.
In short, I am in doubt. But then again, that is nothing new. On to the future. This weekend, we are going to have a Costa Rican dinner with Diana and Jorge and have a 'primitivo' red wine party planned with Cinzia and Louisa. In early October, we are going to test new wine produce at a wine festival in Valtellina with Jen, Louisa and Kate and obviously we are coming to The Netherlands in mid October to look at our new nephews/nephew and niece who will be born by then. We are there from 16 until 21 October so let us meet up!!!
Keeping my fingers crossed for the girls, you have nearly made it! Just a few more days and you will have beautiful children!
Ciao, Fe
Showing posts with label diarrhoea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diarrhoea. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Afterglow
Ciao all,
We are back. And happy to be. In spite of some minor annoyance which I will eloquently illuminate in due course. But let's start where I left off.
Leaving McLeod Ganj was one of the hardest things to do. The peace and quiet we found there, the fresh air and overwhelming natural beauty, had easily made it the highlight of our trip. As far as I was concerned, it could only go downhill from there. I did not want to go back to dirty cities and annoying Indians and the thought of Delhi was actually quite frightening. I was still a bit under the weather and had more or less had enough of traveling and just wanted to go home. But on the other hand, I did not want to leave India before at least seeing Shruti (my Indian colleague) and congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. It was bad enough that we could not stay for the wedding itself, as a traditional Hindu wedding would have been the perfect end to our trip, and Delhi did seem to have a lot to offer.
And it did. The Red Fort was a bit of a disappointment, but the Jain temple across from it was cute (at least from the outside), Humayun's tomb (an architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal) and the Bahai Lotus Temples were very enjoyable. I was not really able to give it my all anymore, but I guess that if we had done Delhi in the beginning I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Shruti was quite busy, so we met her at a shopping centre where she and Elisabetta (her friend and student who had come over to be her bridesmaid). We spent a nice, quiet evening together, topped off by a delicious meal cooked by her lovely mother. The next day we went shopping and bought about 4 billion cheap books, as well as the last souvenirs we were still looking for.
We then took the night train to Mumbai, put our bags in the cloakroom and did all the things we still wanted to do there but had not had a chance when we were there before. I did not particularly like Mumbai initially but the fact that it was now raining constantly pretty much confirmed my negative verdict of this city. The famous Mumbai laundrettes (where rows and rows of people are doing the whole town's washing in ankle-deep dirty water but manage to everything clean and back to their respective owners - while most of them are illiterate and keep track of everything in their heads!!) were a sight to be seen but Mahalaxmi Temple and Haji Ali's mosque on rock in the ocean were a bit disappointment. I did enjoy our boat trip to Elephanta Island to have a look at the 2,000-year-old rock temples there. After that we were caught by bookshop again and lured into buying another truckload of books.
At this point, we were both really ready to go home and it seemed like our wish was to be fulfilled easily. All we had to do was spend the night at the airport in order to catch our early morning flight back to Helsinki. Reality had something else in store for us and the way back turned out to be quite horrible. Having arrived at the airport, I suddenly fell ill. I was shaking uncontrollably, felt ice cold, had a very high fever and burst out in the heaviest diarrhoea I have ever had. I was very happy I had fallen in love with a yak hair sweater when I was in McLeod Ganj because it was the only thing that could keep me warm. There were, of course, no beds and after a night of shaking (which I fortunately got under control as the night wore on), running up and down to the bathrooms and sleeping on the floor because that was the most comfortable position I could find, we were just happy we had made it. Olaf was also suffering from the same explosive diarrhoea but fortunately not from the other systems I had. But then it turned out that our flight was delayed four hours, which meant more waiting but also that we would miss our connecting flight in Helsinki. I felt like crying, screaming and running to the bathroom at the same time. In the end, it was not too bad because FinnAir booked us into a relatively good airport hotel in Helsinki and we could fly back early in the morning. And a good night sleep in a wonderful bed was exactly what I needed and did cheer me up a lot. But not as much as the idea of being out of India and in a civilised country again though!!!
No seriously, India had a lot of positive sides, we ate very well, saw beautiful temples, forts and palaces, did a lot of shopping, were amazed by the countryside and fell in love with the Himalayas. But it was also dirty, smelly and filled with Indians who (like those beautiful errant cows who do not know any better) are apparently not bothered by living - literally - in their shit and garbage and do their number twos everywhere except in the public washrooms or even in the open sewers. It is incomprehensible. Oh, and 99 per cent of them are really annoyingly persistent. In the 26 days we were there, I met just one person who wanted to talk to me to share experiences and cultures and did not just want to sell me something (except for Shruti and her mother of course).
I still have not recovered and am getting a bit worried by it. I have been suffering from this explosive diarrhoea for nearly a week now and I had expected a return to normalcy to take care of that rather quickly. So, I called the doctor today and got prescription for a smorgusboard of pills which I am all taking. Let us hope it helps because I am really fed up with it and will not be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need to anymore next week when my courses start again. Yesterday, I started working in the office again. Now that Veronica has left, Caroline and I are sharing her responsibilities and I am going to be working in the office about 3 days a week for about a month until we find a replacement for her. Right now, I could not be happier. But if I do not get this under control those other 2 days a week will be damn near impossible to manage. Fingers crossed!
We went out for a very nice welcome back aperitivo on Thursday with Louisa, Jen, Caroline, Kate, Loic, Gerry, Felix and some more of Olaf's colleagues. That was great but the enormous amounts of alcohol were not too good for my belly. Plus, I am not used to drinking alcohol anymore. I have lost about 5 kgs now and am just under my perfect and have got used to eating much less. If only I was not feeling so lousy, I would be jumping for joy and back in the pool showing off my perfect body!!
A selection of pictures of our trip is online on Olaf's profile page on Facebook. For those who are not on Facebook, these links should work. If not, please let me know.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50422&l=8982c&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50426&l=4a251&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50434&l=f54aa&id=672566816
The ones taken in Khajuraho are quite graphic. Please enjoy the shock and take it in good humour. Let me know what you think of the pictures!
Fedor
We are back. And happy to be. In spite of some minor annoyance which I will eloquently illuminate in due course. But let's start where I left off.
Leaving McLeod Ganj was one of the hardest things to do. The peace and quiet we found there, the fresh air and overwhelming natural beauty, had easily made it the highlight of our trip. As far as I was concerned, it could only go downhill from there. I did not want to go back to dirty cities and annoying Indians and the thought of Delhi was actually quite frightening. I was still a bit under the weather and had more or less had enough of traveling and just wanted to go home. But on the other hand, I did not want to leave India before at least seeing Shruti (my Indian colleague) and congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. It was bad enough that we could not stay for the wedding itself, as a traditional Hindu wedding would have been the perfect end to our trip, and Delhi did seem to have a lot to offer.
And it did. The Red Fort was a bit of a disappointment, but the Jain temple across from it was cute (at least from the outside), Humayun's tomb (an architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal) and the Bahai Lotus Temples were very enjoyable. I was not really able to give it my all anymore, but I guess that if we had done Delhi in the beginning I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Shruti was quite busy, so we met her at a shopping centre where she and Elisabetta (her friend and student who had come over to be her bridesmaid). We spent a nice, quiet evening together, topped off by a delicious meal cooked by her lovely mother. The next day we went shopping and bought about 4 billion cheap books, as well as the last souvenirs we were still looking for.
We then took the night train to Mumbai, put our bags in the cloakroom and did all the things we still wanted to do there but had not had a chance when we were there before. I did not particularly like Mumbai initially but the fact that it was now raining constantly pretty much confirmed my negative verdict of this city. The famous Mumbai laundrettes (where rows and rows of people are doing the whole town's washing in ankle-deep dirty water but manage to everything clean and back to their respective owners - while most of them are illiterate and keep track of everything in their heads!!) were a sight to be seen but Mahalaxmi Temple and Haji Ali's mosque on rock in the ocean were a bit disappointment. I did enjoy our boat trip to Elephanta Island to have a look at the 2,000-year-old rock temples there. After that we were caught by bookshop again and lured into buying another truckload of books.
At this point, we were both really ready to go home and it seemed like our wish was to be fulfilled easily. All we had to do was spend the night at the airport in order to catch our early morning flight back to Helsinki. Reality had something else in store for us and the way back turned out to be quite horrible. Having arrived at the airport, I suddenly fell ill. I was shaking uncontrollably, felt ice cold, had a very high fever and burst out in the heaviest diarrhoea I have ever had. I was very happy I had fallen in love with a yak hair sweater when I was in McLeod Ganj because it was the only thing that could keep me warm. There were, of course, no beds and after a night of shaking (which I fortunately got under control as the night wore on), running up and down to the bathrooms and sleeping on the floor because that was the most comfortable position I could find, we were just happy we had made it. Olaf was also suffering from the same explosive diarrhoea but fortunately not from the other systems I had. But then it turned out that our flight was delayed four hours, which meant more waiting but also that we would miss our connecting flight in Helsinki. I felt like crying, screaming and running to the bathroom at the same time. In the end, it was not too bad because FinnAir booked us into a relatively good airport hotel in Helsinki and we could fly back early in the morning. And a good night sleep in a wonderful bed was exactly what I needed and did cheer me up a lot. But not as much as the idea of being out of India and in a civilised country again though!!!
No seriously, India had a lot of positive sides, we ate very well, saw beautiful temples, forts and palaces, did a lot of shopping, were amazed by the countryside and fell in love with the Himalayas. But it was also dirty, smelly and filled with Indians who (like those beautiful errant cows who do not know any better) are apparently not bothered by living - literally - in their shit and garbage and do their number twos everywhere except in the public washrooms or even in the open sewers. It is incomprehensible. Oh, and 99 per cent of them are really annoyingly persistent. In the 26 days we were there, I met just one person who wanted to talk to me to share experiences and cultures and did not just want to sell me something (except for Shruti and her mother of course).
I still have not recovered and am getting a bit worried by it. I have been suffering from this explosive diarrhoea for nearly a week now and I had expected a return to normalcy to take care of that rather quickly. So, I called the doctor today and got prescription for a smorgusboard of pills which I am all taking. Let us hope it helps because I am really fed up with it and will not be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need to anymore next week when my courses start again. Yesterday, I started working in the office again. Now that Veronica has left, Caroline and I are sharing her responsibilities and I am going to be working in the office about 3 days a week for about a month until we find a replacement for her. Right now, I could not be happier. But if I do not get this under control those other 2 days a week will be damn near impossible to manage. Fingers crossed!
We went out for a very nice welcome back aperitivo on Thursday with Louisa, Jen, Caroline, Kate, Loic, Gerry, Felix and some more of Olaf's colleagues. That was great but the enormous amounts of alcohol were not too good for my belly. Plus, I am not used to drinking alcohol anymore. I have lost about 5 kgs now and am just under my perfect and have got used to eating much less. If only I was not feeling so lousy, I would be jumping for joy and back in the pool showing off my perfect body!!
A selection of pictures of our trip is online on Olaf's profile page on Facebook. For those who are not on Facebook, these links should work. If not, please let me know.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50422&l=8982c&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50426&l=4a251&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50434&l=f54aa&id=672566816
The ones taken in Khajuraho are quite graphic. Please enjoy the shock and take it in good humour. Let me know what you think of the pictures!
Fedor
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