So I had a moment of frustration…ok, it was like a buildup of encounters that left me a bit frazzled.
First, I’ve been sick and in bed yesterday and today (Friday, Jan 30th). My host says it’s normal. I was pretty exhausted and the pollution here can get to you especially if you have any kind of allergies. There’s nothing like blowing out black snot. Most of the past two nights I’ve been hacking up my lungs and other gunk. This was accompanied with a fever and a severe sinus headache. Today after sleeping in till almost noon I was awaken by my mobile ringing. It was my good friend B. After a few sentences the call was dropped which I’m finding to be very common here. I couldn’t reach her after that. I was a bit bummed.
I got up and made myself some of my favorite tea that I brought with me. I snuggled into this nice chair and wrapped this warm blanket around me. I also enjoyed a delicious orange. I had a great afternoon catching up on email and my blog. Then I realize that my legs are itching. Yeah, we are pretty sure that the nice cozy blanket has been infested with some sort of bug(s). I have red itchy whelps all over my legs.
I changed over to the couch which I know is safe. I have to place an order for water and milk. Seems pretty simple unless you’re trying to figure out how mobiles and phone numbers work here. I couldn’t get any of the numbers to work. I finally called someone and they said that sometimes you can’t call landlines from mobiles. I went and used the landline. The items were delivered.
I was ready to crash at this point (it’s about 5pm & the headache is coming back), but instead was sent inspiration to learn Hindi. Not only did the person come to deliver the water and milk, but then some strange man came to the door. After that someone came to deliver my roommate’s train ticket which I wasn’t expecting. I tried to ring her but there wasn’t any answer. I just paid for the ticket and tried to lay back down. Then came the neighbor. All I understood was water and pump. I took a guess that one of the roommates had turned the pump on to fill our tank and it was now overflowing. I went and turned it off. I ended up being right. At this point I had given up on resting and decided to try to order food to be delivered. It was a success. I enjoyed some amazing chicken biryani, garlic nan, and paneer parantha. The first is a chicken and rice dish. The others are types of tortilla like breads (one with garlic, the other filled with cheese).
Then the evening ended well with my roommates coming back and a surprise visitor. We had great conversation over tea and biscuits.
