Life here is speeding up, even as I'm lacking energy. It's now been almost a week since I got out of the hospital, but last night I still had to sleep 12 hours. Today after class I'm planning to go work out on the beach. I'm sure that will exhaust me, but I need to start rebuilding my strength and muscle and girlish figure and self-confidence and stuff.
We have a bunch of homework projects and assignments due in the coming weeks, plus we need to plan a Thanksgiving celebration. Tabaski is coming up--it's the Muslim holiday commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at God's command in the Old Testament. It involves dressing up and sacrificing a sheep. I bought some traditional bazin, the fabric people make Tabaski clothes out of, yesterday. It's a gorgeous and rather bright shade of orange, and Youssou was really excited about the design I came up with for it ("That's so nice! It's just what I told you that you should wear!").
I'm still trying to reach the guy who said he'd give me contact information for finding an internship for my ICRP (research paper--15 pages written in French about an internship). Hopefully he'll get back to me soon, but if not I'll just find something equally cool myself. There's some serious revenge for you.
I had a nice talk with my host parents this afternoon. Making more of an effort to be social with the family is a good thing. Papa has really bad high blood pressure, and the drugs he's on for it make him sleep almost constantly. He's clearly feeling ill and weak, and I wish there was more I could do for him. Mama is stressed and working too hard, but she seems otherwise to be okay.
I'm excited about actually doing some productive stuff in the next few weeks, but I'm nervous about getting everything done. Wish me luck, and I'll post again soon.
I think that being productive will do more for your well being than almost anything else you could do! I'm hoping you'll hear back about your ICRP internship this week so you can start getting things scheduled/arranged - that does seem to take an inordinate amount of time there! Any ideas as far as a back up plan if the guy flakes on you?
ReplyDeleteI hope you start feeling like your old self again soon - it can take longer to recover from the physical and emotional toll of being ill than you think. I hope your host family is understanding about your fatigue, but I'm glad you're making more of an effort to be social with them...they probably want 'the old you' back, too!