The week after…
Well, the sad truth is that I have come down with what everyone on the trip is affectionately calling the “Budaflu”. Just about all of us have felt crummy this week with coughs and stuffy noses - fortunately for me, I had some medicine stockpiled for just this occasion! However, I did not pack and cold symptom medicine or cough drops so I did the next best thing - went to a Pharmacy here in town and was utterly confused! Flora and I settled on a box of packets called “Coldrex” which has relieved most of our symptoms.
Tuesday was more of us moping around but we had some grocery shopping to do! After grocery shopping, I hiked 50 minutes to the bookstore to grab my language textbook that I needed for my class later. Our professor is still a bit difficult to understand when she switches back and forth between languages but as classmates we are starting to figure things out.
I went to my early class on Wednesday and have started reading my list of books for it. Flora went out on Wednesday night since she was feeling better, I being the adult that I experienced the worst FOMO ever and opted to stay in to not push the limits of my healthy mindset! Flora came home the next morning and said she was never going out without me again (apparently, I am the voice of reason and sticking with 2 drinks a night).
Thursday we were finally starting to feel more like us - except that Flora was aggressively hungover so we ventured out to one of the McDonalds here in town. The food was different but not in a bad way, so I am not sure how I am going to survive the next few months. The internet did not lie about the “fancy” McDonalds they have in Europe (I only got a video, and I am not able to upload here). After lunch, we headed over to do some paperwork with the office and if all goes well next week, I should be heading the embassy to get my residence permit!
Most of our friends got healthy again this week and are all off visiting different cities this weekend! Since Flora and I thought we were going to die earlier this week, we opted to stay in town and relax in the spring weather. Friday was a pretty chill day we spent the afternoon thrifting, and I found a cute short sleeved sweater that will be a staple for this spring. We grabbed coffee and cake at a local cafe and visited for a couple of hours before heading back to the dorm for dinner. I called and talked to Aunt Lisa and Grandma Eileen for about an hour before showering and calling it a night.
Saturday was another lazy morning! We had lunch in the dorm and decided to go out for a walk in the Great Forest that is right next to campus. Flora and I decided that we would try and hike a new part every week and do some picnicking. We came back to the dorm to get ready for the activity of the weekend - iceskating! Since most of the international students in our program were out traveling this weekend it was a pretty small group that went out, but it was still super fun! However, I came to the conclusion as I was putting my skates on that it has been about 8 years since my last 4-H iceskating adventure. Needless to say, it was definitely a rocky start but with some help from the Italian girls I was able to get back into it! We skated for about 2 hours before calling it in, we were all sweaty and ready for some food. The Italian girls made a reservation at a restaurant in the city center so we ventured over there - I got a BBQ burger and fries (it was huge)! We hopped on the last tram of the night and headed back to the dorm to shower and get some sleep.
Sunday, we had another relaxing morning. In the afternoon, we went out to the park and had some snacks hanging out with Ludovica (an Italian girl), Ettu, Zeyad, Tommi, and Flora. Flora and I made pasta for dinner, and I called Gabby to make plans for her and Jaeda’s trip out in May!
It was nice to have a lowkey week while recovering from being sick. This next week is going to be pretty busy again so stay tuned!
