Would you like your omelette scrambled, sick, and sleepless?

                Well… damnit. I am sick. You see, my nephew, he was sick himself. However, I didn’t catch it. Sure, I had a mini spout of cold, but that was it, and it was gone by Sunday. My aunt, her daughter, her son-in-law, and her grandson, aka, my nephew, however, went on a vacation to the seaside in northern Poland. They are all sick, thank you Tymek. My uncle also got sick. So when I finished the weekend, not being sick, I was quite excited, because I didn’t catch anything, and I just got over that mini-cold. Well… I celebrated too soon. This morning, I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose. All day, I have been sniffling, coughing on the rare occasion, and sneezing. And now, the back of my head aches a bit… So dadgumit! I caught it too…

                Which is quite unfortunate considering that today in work I started calling organizations, so the entire sniffling thing was such a bother while trying to stay all composed and professional and what not. Work today was good. Slow and quiet. As I said, started calling all these organizations; the ones I reached mostly said to email them the information. So of course I will! … As soon as I have access to a company email, because emailing them from my personal email account would be quite unprofessional, and unwanted for me as well. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have that worked out, finally. (So glad I have a company phone as well. International calls would definitely suck out the minimal minutes I have on my own phone…) At the end of the day, I was starting to sound all hoarse, so I was like, ya know what, enough is enough. I need to rest my voice so that way I can actually continue working through the week. Even though, as I was leaving the office, one of my coworkers suggested I just stay home tomorrow instead if I’m not feeling up to it. I honestly don’t want to do that, but we’ll see how I feel in the morning. If anything, I’ll call Michał for my boss’s number (isn’t that awful? I don’t have my own boss’s number)… My coworker actually suggested I email him, and I was like, lol. No internet. But again, I rather not… I was slow to getting started today, nervous about how these calls would go and what not, and when I finally got going, I got into a groove and knew what to do and expect. Although, sniffly advertising might not be the best either, and that’s all I’d be doing tomorrow.

                After work, I went to Rynek to a nice little baked goods shop. I got some nice hot tea for my throat, and a piece of szarlotka! Which I have no clue what that is in English, but let me tell you, it was delicious. So worth it. Then I went on to Empik, the book/music/school supplies store of Poland. Really. Empik’s are some of my favorite places. They have nice souvenirs from Poland, good postcards, a wonderful collection of books, and calendar notebooks in which you write down what you have to do for the day, which I don’t quite remember what they are called right now… But you know exactly what I’m talking about! I’ve been wanting one in Polish, so I will most definitely be buying one. It’s just a matter of what kind, where, and how much. Gotta bargain shop for it ;D I found Michael Crichton books in Polish as well!!! I was quite ecstatic, and yes, I do plan on reading at least one while I’m here. Hopefully the library at my school will have some to check out. If not, that’s when I’ll buy one. It’ll be great for me, especially if I grab a book I’ve read in English. I really hope that I can find a library that has Harry Potter in Polish as well… Because if so, I am so reading it.

                Although, since I told my uncle that I’m sick, he sent me an SMS with instructions on what medicine to buy… Even though I don’t use medicine… But when he called to make sure I had got the message and I told him I was in Empik, he was all: Get of there and go home and rest! … Which… I mean he does have a point, but… I really wanted to stop by Empik… And I’m sure my parents right now are freaking out, or at least my mom… Because my uncle probably already Skyped with them, so they know that I’m sick, and I’m all aloooone in Poland. Sick. It’s not like Vandy where I at least had some friends to help me if something was seriously wrong (or even not that serious; like me asking Sam how do I look, and her telling me that I look pale and suggesting what to do, as she has four younger siblings). And all my family is about 40 minutes away train or bus ride… Or car drive… And the nearest family friend is about two bus stops away from me. Basically, I am in an apartment alone, and sick, and I am positive Mama would freak out about this.

                Of course, I left the Empik, and I did originally go to a pharmacy… only to realize I only have 10 złoty left… (Well, minus the coin złoty, but I didn’t count that.) Now, this worried me a bit. Because the first thought in my mind was: I am going to have to find a place to eat a good meal at for a little over 10 złoty, because I have no food left at home (at the time I forgot about the eggs I still have left). Now why did I think that? Because I wasn’t certain if the Kantor would exchange my money, cause the dollars I do have left are written on, and when I was exchanging money at the bank, they wouldn’t except such money… So instead of going in to buy medicine from the pharmacy, I went in and asked where the nearest Kantor (exchange) was. Went to that Kantor, and found that it had closed about 20 minutes earlier. I panicked to myself, because it made me wonder if the other ones were closed. But huzzah! A walk down the street and I found an open Kantor! And they exchanged my money! I would not starve!!! (Why is it natural for us humans to always assume the worst first? Unnecessary stress.)

                It was then I hopped on a trolley, on which there was this precious little girl who was about two with her mom and who I am assuming was an older sister. She just kept talking like a two year old would, and it was precious. Anyways, went to the big grocer’s in my part of the city. I did my groceries, at an incredibly good price, I’d say. These should last me the week without a problem too. (:  Walked back to the trolley stop/bus stop, got on the bus and waited for quite some time for the bus to leave (it’s where they take their breaks…) On this bus there was also a precious little child, a four year old boy, I’d guess, who just kept talking and talking to his mother. Then yeah, walked home, and now I’m in the apartment, sniffling away, and soon to make myself some dinner. Eggs for sure. Proteins and all that are incredibly necessary right now. Oh! I also got my debit card today in the mail! :D Which is super exciting, because now even if a Kantor won’t exchange my money, I’ll still have my card!

                I think that’s about it for my day… I feel like I might’ve missed some parts… Ah yes, my coworker, Aldona, her son got braces today… I sympathize with both her and her son… Her for the painful costs, and her son for the experience of having braces. Besides that, yeah, that’s my day. I’m going to start up a spending excel sheet for my own curiosity of how much I’ve been spending. I think it’ll be good to have. (:

                Arrrgh! Second omelette-turned-scrambled eggs dinner. I will get this down somehow. Though I must say, this one was quite delicious. I let the red pepper (which was bigger than my hand, enormous thing), and tomatoes simmer on the stove for longer, which brought out more of the taste, I’d say! :D Now if only my rosół would cool down so I could finish it… Ah well! Until the next time!

                Ugh. Last night was not a fun night. So you see, I went to bed around 22:00, which is a very reasonable time. Except… there were two problems. One: I couldn’t sleep because of my runny/stuffy nose. As in, I kept falling asleep and waking up, and at one point, I slept quite well, but woke up again, and when I looked at my watch, I was soooo hopeful it was two in the morning or some nonsense like that. … Alas. It was not. It was… Midnight. Problem two: My neighbors were arguing. Loudly. Really loudly. Since about 22:00… and get this! They didn’t quit until about 1 in the morning. I mean. Screaming match. I think it was a teenage daughter arguing with her mom and dad, to be honest, from the voices. And since I was sick and miserable and not able to fall asleep, I made up the reason too! It was obviously because they dislike her boyfriend, and she loooooves him, and how dare they try to take her away from him! So this is quite necessary to argue over until 1 in the morning. (Note: This is my own story; I actually don’t know what it was about, I couldn’t tell, but when you’re tired and sick and annoyed, you don’t give a damn and make things up in your mind to ease reasoning, because earlier in the night I was absolutely positive it was domestic abuse and had half a mind to call the police… )

                Regardless, while the family kept arguing, I said, well… I can’t sleep… That’s actually also when I realized that my ear was aching too, and whenever my ear aches, that’s when I know I’ve come across a serious bug…  So I set myself up a nice warm bath. Ya know, heated water therapy. At first it didn’t help, but afterwards I felt a bit better, and ended up going downstairs for a cup of fruit tea with some of the tea crackers I got. (The crackers were delicious when dipped in the tea, let me tell you!) At this point it’s about 1 in the morning… But hey, it ended up helping quite a lot! I actually ended up being able to fall asleep. (: Oh the joy! Cause I was really tired and just wanted to ignore the fact I am sick.

                My alarm woke me this morning, and with my head aching, my throat hurting worse than before, still having the sniffles, and my ears aching (not as bad as yesterday, fortunately). I mean, I figured out last night that with my not being able to sleep for quite a while, and the fact that this is actually a serious bug, I ought to not go in to work, anyways. Between the fact that I need to get better, I also need to avoid getting the others sick. Which hopefully my one day in the office yesterday didn’t do that… So this morning I text Michał to get my boss’s number, he calls to see what’s up and immediately says if there is any problem to call him and he’ll help out. His first question was if I needed any medicine actually, and yes. Yes, you guys, I am going to end up buying the medicine now. Fortunately for me, I literally live right above a pharmacy! Huzzah, fortunate placement! Anyways, I called my boss, and mind you, my voice sounds like a toad at this point, so that’s yet another hint saying, you’re stupid if you go into work, cause it’s not like I could do anything since at this point I need to be making… phone calls… So yeah, that won’t work.

                So yeah, called my boss, he said he could tell that I’m sick and that I should stay home and get better, which is awesome. Though, it’s really sad that after one week of working, I end up not being able to go in thanks to sickness. Arrrgh! I mean, really, I just started last Wednesday, so this would’ve been a week! *siiighs* Why, life? Why do you find this so amusing? Ah well… so I ended up sleeping in, and woke up when I felt a bit refreshed! Now, I need to go to the pharmacy and buy this medicine… Really, it is incredibly lucky that I’m right above a pharmacy. (Oh god… these stairs are going to end me today… They’re not too bad when I’m health… but when I’m sick? This is going to be interesting…) I think I might go down to the pizzeria for a nice warm lunch today as well. Internet access and warm food for a sick body. It’ll depend on how I’m feeling… I might just order in as well… (If so, yay cheaper option! :D) I have a feeling I’m going to stay in and read most of my Crichton book (the one I brought from America) though. So we’ll see…

                Ah yes… the climb back up wasn’t too bad… but it wasn’t pleasant either. But I have my meds now. And they aren’t too bad… until the end… then it’s just awful. But at least they actually help me feel better! :D Ah yes… this is the moment I really wish I had internet in the apartment… Regardless, every time I lock the door to my apartment, I keep doing the entire reverse of intuitive thing thanks to Vanderbilt. And then I do the reverse of the reverse, because trying to teach myself. Argh. Forever messed up thanks to Vandy locks. Besides that, I had a bit of surprise today! Michał's wife came to show a potential renter their apartment. Or well, I ended up showing the apartment. She seemed to like it minus one problem, which I actually don't know what it was... So yeah. After that, I ended up actually meeting his wife, since she came late, and she's really nice! (: I can't wait to spend the weekend with them! It'll be really nice. She pointed out how it must be lonely, being on my own, and yeah it is, but I keep myself busy between commuting, work, exploring, and commuting, haha. So it works out. (:

                Either way... I was on my way to the pizzeria for a good objad. I ordered chicken curry with some peas and something else. It was really good. And yaaaay internet, lol. I am fortunately feeling a bit better. I don't know if I'm going to work yet. My uncle still says I shouldn't, and I still feel bad if I don't... so we'll see how I feel in the morning... If I still feel like I'll bring the plague to the office, I'll be staying home. Oi, and Agata, Michał's wife, hugged me twice today. Now I'm paranoid that I might've gotten her sick. Or worse. Their kids might get sick! Arrrgh! All from one little kid. Bacteria, your force is strong... I dislike you when you are the bad ones. Go away. Let my immune system work without panic, because I'm pretty sure I got a fever through this too. I can't quite tell... I'd say that's all I have to say for the past two days. Haha. Good bye! (Fatigue's starting to hit again...)