Last week can be summed up by the worst sickness I have had in the past five years. Every single day I grew worse and worse. On Wednesday I was forced to be a PE (physical education) teacher all day and the constant yelling really did me in. By the time I got home, I had no voice. I went to the rest of my classes that week begging my students to take it easy on me because I couldn't really talk. I designated some students in each class as helpers and their job was to get everyone silent when they could see I wanted the attention of the class. I also played a lot of movies! It was such a struggle though. I was achy, exhausted, weak, my throat felt like it was being stabbed by daggers, I was SOOO stuffed up to the point that I couldn't breathe properly and would wake up gasping for air in the night. Not a pretty sight. By Friday I was so bad that I decided I had to go to the clinic. I've had colds before but this felt different. I was really struggling and hadn't felt this sick since I had pneumonia five years ago. The thing is.. imagine being sick in a foreign country. What do you do? You don't know what their process is or where the clinics are. I don't have a health card here. I had no idea what to do. Gabel was a saint and kept looking things up for me on the internet while I texted with our boss asking for help. She told us to go to a NHS based location and they would help us without charge. So Gabel found a place that we could train to in a little suburb called Eastleigh just outside of Southampton. The thing was we had to be there by 9:30pm or they wouldn't see me. We arrived in Eastleigh just before 9 and began the walk to the clinic location using our GPS. When we arrived it was closed and it was labelled as a Sexual Health Clinic. I looked confused at Gabel and she couldn't figure out what was going on. Turns out the poor thing had so many tabs open on the computer she accidentally looked up directions to Eastleigh when we really wanted to go to Bitterne which is an area of Southampton where there's a regular clinic haha. So we were about 7 miles out from where we needed to be and the clinic was closing and I couldn't breathe. So we walked back to the train station in Eastleigh and got a taxi to bring us to Bitterne. It was so hard to find the clinic but I made it with five minutes to spare. The head nurse examined me and told me that I had laryngitis. She was helpful in explaining to me what was going on with my body and gave me tips (absolutely no speaking all weekend, breathe in steam, take ibuprofen to lessen the inflammation of my vocal chords, take lemon lozenges, sleep lots because this virus leaves you exhausted, etc) but she did not prescribe me anything and did not help me with how stuffed up I was. So I left with a diagnosis and tips, but no medicine. Very frustrating. Gabel figured out how we could bus home and I just passed out when we got back. I was so thankful to have Gabel though. Normally when I'm sick Matt takes care of me and take me where I need to go. Gabel did an excellent stand in job and it was so nice to not have to go to the clinic alone. <3
So what did I do all weekend? I did not speak a single word. It was soooo hard!! You can't even imagine how hard it is until you try it. Especially because I was with Gabel and Steph the whole time. And they would be having conversations and I'd want to add something but I couldn't. The only form of communication I was able to perform was typing out everything I wanted to say. It was torture. At one point I typed them out a note that said "I feel bad for you all that you can't listen to my quick witted hilarity or zinger comebacks anymore because by the time I type it out the moment is gone." Hahaha and Gabel told me that it was too bad and that she was taking over as the funny one now. But it really helped me to rest my vocal chords.
We all rested and lounged the entire day Saturday which was nice and needed. By nighttime though I was feeling really guilty that my sickness had been such a dominating presence in our lives for the past week and I didn't want to ruin everyone's fun. I had also promised Steph we would take her out clubbing. So I summoned up some strength and we got ready to go out. Gabel let me do her hair and makeup which I loooove doing. And Steph let me do her makeup. We had a really funny time at the bar because we don't necessarily know all the best spots to go yet. It's still a trial run. We ended up in this place called the Rhino which was playing rap music and.. let's just say as white girls we were the minority there!! Very funny experience indeed. We got home around 3am and had a good sleep in the next day.
Sunday I decided that we all needed retail therapy! And it was an activity I could still do without talking. The really neat thing is that the company Gabel and I work for has a promotion that when you refer a friend, you get 150£. Since we came over together, we qualify for that money. So we are splitting it down the middle aka freeeeee 75£ each. So our shopping budget was 75£ each. We went to Primark which is like a really big and really cheap store for teens and young 20 somethings. It's pretty comparable to Forever 21 back home. Our next stop was Top Shop which is one of the best British fashion stores everrrr. Gabel's bday is coming up and she found the best birthday outfit ever there. It's expensive but worth it! Then we went nuts in the H&M. I did well for myself though. When all was said and done I only went a little over my budget and I got 2 long sleeve teaching dresses, 2 mini skirts, one long maxi skirt, a pair of really funky pants, a necklace, a sweater, and a unitard thing. Which sounds really dorky but it's actually really pretty and comfy.
We then hurried over to ASDA and made it ten minutes before it closed (I'll never get used to how early things close here!) and bought some things for our own Thanksgiving dinner. They really don't celebrate it here so getting a turkey was out of the question. But we found a large chicken, got some potatoes, green beans, buns, and gravy (and obviously yummy desserts). Annette sent me the instructions for her to make her famous beer can chicken and I was able to replicate it. Our meal was fantaaaastic. Soo good! I had a really hard time being away from home for Thanksgiving because I usually have four turkey dinners, including a huge fun potluck I've done with my friends for years. I reallllly missed being able to be with them so at least Gabel, Steph and I had a great meal of our own. To everyone asking if Steph helped with the cooking - don't be ridiculous!! Hahaha. So we stuck her on dishes duty instead.
The best part was the leftovers. Gabel and I both taught at Ryde yesterday and at lunch we busted out this amazing feast and the other teachers were like whaaat.
As of right now I have my voice back! So the world is no longer deprived of my thoughts. I'm slowly on the mend, just trying to get rid of how stuffed up I am. Fingers crossed I'm 100% soon. Katherine Gabel has just arrived as well to stay with us for 3 weeks and I'm really excited about that! Lots of adventures to come.
Cheers! xo
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