Sick Day

I'm pretty sick today. Usually when you change the climates here, either from sierra to coast or coast to sierra, you wind up with a little cold. It's happened to me just about every time I've come from Guayaquil to Cuenca, but this time it's worse than it's been since I've been in the country. I was feeling fine, just tired from traveling, up until yesterday morning when I woke up with a sore throat.

It continued throughout the day with congestion and sniffles, and last night developed into a fever of 102* that lasted all night long. And today I feel weaker. Though the throat isn't as sore as it was yesterday, I just don't feel well. The word flu gets thrown around very loosely down here, and usually even if you have a cold people say it's the flu. But I might actually have that. I'm not sure. In any case, I'm lucky that I'm still on vacation, even though I had to go to a meeting yesterday and go back to the university this morning to pick up a book.

What I really want is a nice couch to lay out on and just watch TV all day, but I'll have to settle with my saggy bed and DVDs all day. A nice fireplace would also be good, but there's nothing like that around here. I just hope I can get better soon so I don't have to waste the entire week in bed.

Updated: 9 p.m.

I've been in bed all day since coming back from the university around 11:30. With just a small lunch and a dinner of ramen soup and an apple, I'm fighting a persistent fever. It's hovered around 101-102, which is usually a flu-like symptom. I am bored after sitting around all day, but know that I need to rest in order to get better. My host mom Cecilia gave me some boiled lemonade and a couple of pills to help, and if the fever doesn't get any better by tomorrow we'll see a doctor. I'm tired and hot, and I just want to feel better. Hopefully the fever will break tonight.