A cold in 100 degree weather..really?

A cold in 100 degree weather..really? Last night after dinner everyone was staying out but I came back because I was literally hacking up a lung and losing my voice! I actually slept pretty well (I don’t think I had any nightmares, yay!) but woke up still feeling like I had a cold. I guess I started feeling bad on Monday, but thought it could just be the air quality, but now it seems like a cold. During the day I don’t feel as bad (just hot, which is when my heat rash comes out to play) but at night I start to lose my voice and cough a lot (I won’t say what color my phlegm is..gross).

I did go to the gym. I like the normalcy of it and I also think it helps me sleep better at night. Surprisingly both days it’s like I don’t have a cold when I am working out, weird huh? I guess maybe I am so tired and sore that it takes my mind off my cold, which is ok! I got in trouble with the “locker room police” (yes it’s true) for having the wrong type of lock on my locker. Oops!! I took step today and it KICKED MY BUTT! I really have never taken classes so hard! I could actually walk this morning (so maybe I didn’t work out as hard as I thought yesterday!) but this class was crazy! The tempo was twice what we do at home, and this instructor had us doing the craziest moves! My brain was seriously hurting (cue the blonde jokes) from these moves I was trying to do! Anyway somehow I made it out alive.

On my way back to the hotel I walk through the park (when I attempted to work out last year). Last year before I came I had read that you have to be careful about people posing as students wanting to practice their English. I guess what can happen is they take you to a coffee shop or something, run up your bill (they know the people who own it) and then make you pay for it? Or something like that! So anyway last year I would sometimes bring my lunch to eat in the park but would literally get swarmed (in seconds) by “students”. The sad thing is you become so paranoid that everyone is out to get you, and I am sure some of them were really just trying to learn, but I didn’t stick around to find out. So today I was walking through and was stopped by two boys asking if they could interview me for their class. They were so cute (very timid and intimidated..maybe I just have that effect on guys…) but I sat down with them. They had a full worksheet of questions they had to ask me (with directions saying they couldn’t just have me fill it out!). The worksheet was actually perfectly written, which is such a difference from when I was in China last year teaching English. The poor teachers were trying to teach a language they didn’t even understand, so a lot of times I was correcting their worksheets before they gave them to the students. I guess though that is also the difference between grade school and university. Anyway the questions were about where I am from, why I am here, etc. Their English was ok (I honestly think they were just nervous about speaking) but we talked about how Vietnam was SO hot and the food was spicy. The boys have been taking English for 6 years and they don’t live in the city but just come in to go to school. After my picture was taken of them (as evidence I guess?) I was on my way!

I stopped by the fruit stand to get some dragon fruit (yum) but my Jessica Simpson man was nowhere to be found. Maybe he has moved on to bigger and better things.

I realize I haven’t said anything about the hostel/hotel. In Vietnam it is definitely a hotel; in the US it might be considered more of a motel. It is really nice though. I am in room 202 (which is really the 3rd floor so I get good exercise) and the room has two twin beds and a bathroom. The bathroom has a TINY sink and a huge bathtub, which makes no sense to me because there is really no room for a bathtub! You have to stand at the side of the sink because the bathtub is in front of it, I don’t get it! But it is so nice having a nice clean room and bathroom to come back to after a crazy day!

After some lunch (cereal actually feels best on my throat) I was getting ready to head out for the afternoon. My plan was to stop by the pharmacy (which is on the way to the bus stop) to get some meds! I had texted Long and explained how I wasn’t feeling well and asked him if he could text me back the words for cough medicine or cough syrup in Vietnamese. That way if the pharmacist didn’t speak English I could show them the text and not end up with some crazy drugs that aren’t even for a cold! What would I do without Long!?

I was exhausted and decided I would lie down for 20 minutes. Well, I think we all know how that turned out. I actually didn’t fall asleep by the time my alarm went off, but I just realized how bad I felt! Just the thought of walking to the bus station made me tired. I feel so silly, I mean I just have a cold, but having a cold in another country is exhausting! Blake made me feel better (what a good boyfriend!) about staying home saying I would feel awful if I got any of the kids at the orphanage sick, which is so true, so I don’t feel as bad about staying in today. Plus, I need to be tour guide Julie when my mom gets here (woooohooooo) and we have a busy next few weeks, so I would much rather just rest and feel better now!

I could have slept all afternoon, but after a reasonable nap (less than 2 hours) I got myself out of bed. I headed out to drop off my laundry and to go to the pharmacy. In the hotel they have a little laundry basket and say they will do it for you, but I figured it would be overpriced compared to the place down the street (it pays to know your way around a city!) And, the funny thing is (or at least I think it is funny) yesterday I saw the bell boy at the laundry shop I go to! So I figured they charge a little bit more and then drop it off at the laundry place anyway! The price at the laundry shop seems reasonable ($3) and I can pick it up tomorrow!

There is a strip of “medical” shops, but most have things like slings, thermometers, etc. rather than medicine. However, I did find one the other day that seemed to have medicine, but since nothing was in English I left! Today I asked the woman if she spoke English but she replied, “No English” so I whipped out my phone! She reached underneath the counter and pulled out Ameflu C! YAY! Right on the packaging under the Vietnamese it said, “Cough, Cold and Flu!” Woo hooo! I can’t even tell you how happy I was! I also saw she had strepsils (which looked promising) so I got some of those too! Luckily those directions are in English (they are like throat lozenges with medicine) and I was able to find the Ameflu directions online (love the internet!) so I am going to be feeling better in no time!!!

I then decided I needed to get dinner and even though I hadn’t been in my room that long it felt like forever, so I figured I would take a walk on the “strip” (think Hampton beach..). As I walked about a minute away from the hotel, I thought, “Really Julie..really!?” There is a pharmacy one minute away and I know they speak English because I was there last year (getting Raid of all things..). Anyway having Long text me and getting medicine that way was MUCH more fun, but I did get some cough syrup that will hopefully help me sleep tonight!

I splurged tonight and went to Subway. I guess if there’s one good thing about not feeling well it’s that I don’t feel as bad doing “American things”. When you walk in they say “welcome to subway” which is nice! While the woman was making my sandwich (roast beef if you must know) I asked how long they had been here and this guy (who seemed to speak English very well but looked middle eastern) said, “Since Wednesday”. I looked at him and said, “As in a week ago?” and he said yes! I couldn’t believe it..what perfect timing! He also said they were the first one “here” (I am guessing he meant in Saigon).

My second splurge of the evening was on a massage..which sadly wasn’t even that good, but it felt nice just to relax! Now with some cough syrup in my system and a throat lozenge in my mouth, I am hoping for a good night sleep!

Hugs and kisses from a 100 degree weather cold!