city at night

city at night

Friday, January 23, 2015

Under the Weather

Before I left for Mexico, I had read that this year's flu shots were not very effective.  I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't get the flu right before my departure.  Fortunately, I didn't get sick, and I was fine throughout our stay in Oaxaca.  

Then on our last night in Oaxaca, I had a sore throat.  The next day, on the bus to Mexico City, the sore throat had diminished but I was coughing.  By my first full day in Mexico City, the sore throat was gone, but I was coughing, sneezing and sniffling.  I have no fever and I don't feel too terrible, so I don't think I have the flu... just a common cold.  

I have not been doing much.  I went to the laundry to drop off a bag of dirty clothes, and to the nearby Sumesa Supermarket for bottled water and orange juice.  In the evening, when Alejandro is done with work, we go out somewhere for supper.  But for the most part, I have just been hanging out in the apartment.  

Winter is the cold and flu season in Mexico too.  Alejandro's mother, sister, and his four year old nephew all have "la gripa".  ("Gripa" literally translates as the flu, but it is used for any cold-like, flu-like illness.)  So if Alejandro gets sick, it won't necessarily be my fault!

 

4 comments:

  1. Ha, and I had been thinking of taking the bus down to visit ya'll. NOT now. Take care.

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    1. Kim "el Gringo Suelto" is talking about coming down to D.F. while I am here. We could have a bloggers' reunion!

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  2. I studied abroad in Costa Rica in 2009, right at the height of the H1N1 scare (in fact, I was actually supposed to study in Mexico that summer until my college canceled the trip, but that's another story...). I came down with what may or may not have been a cold about 2 weeks into my trip, and I remember going on a fevered, day-long, cold-medicine-induced near-hallucinogenic exploration of downtown San Jose one Saturday so I wouldn't be a burden on my elderly host parents. I saw some really weird stuff that day. (I saw what looked like a Star Wars convention, I visited a really weird nouveau art exhibit that seemed to include things like everyday office furniture, and I stumbled across all the make-out parks in the city.) It was probably all completely normal except for me being sick and hopped up on cold medicine, which made the entire day seem really wild. It's actually one of the most memorable (well, sort of!) experiences of my trip. I'm glad you're feeling better now, but maybe you should have just rolled with it. ;-)

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    1. Hi Meredith,
      Latin America can be surreal as it is (Salvador Dalí called Mexico City the most surreal place he had ever seen.) I can imagine what it would be what it would be like with a fever and under medication!

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