A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events

   Today was a great milestone for me- I stood upright for a solid 15 minutes straight and ate an actual meal (eggs and toast) for the first time in four days! There really is no better feeling than those simple victories.

    I have been pretty off the radar lately, not because I'm on a social media break, nor because I've taken less photos, but simply because I have been pretty much dying since Thursday. Last Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) I began to feel pretty under-the-weather, but chalked it up to lack of sleep or allergies. Well, on Thursday, everything went down hill, and I have been bedridden in our tiny apartment for the past four days, too weak to make more than two rounds to the kitchen per day. Needless to say, I haven't been doing much exploring lately. My roommates have been my connection to the outside world, bringing me back chocolate from the Florence Chocolate Festival, picking up drugs and food, and updating me on the goings on of the outside world. The doctor who visited me yesterday believes that I have bronchitis, so I am about to get hopped up on a whole lot of steroids and antibiotics. Woo! Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have enough strength to at least walk to class and back, but we shall see if that's being too ambitious or not.

    Being bedridden in Florence isn't exactly the best feeling in the world. At home, if I were sick, I'd happily be a lazy bum. I'd do the bare minimum and enjoy every second of it. But here, each precious moment is one less street explored, food tried, or statue seen. I've also had more time alone with my thoughts than needed and have spiraled into a homesick sadness more than once. (Yes, it's only week three and I'm homesick). Between being pent up in my apartment, unable to move, sick, miserable, stuck with my thoughts, and coughing like a three pack a day smoker every ten seconds, it's been a lovely few days.

    But for those four lovely days of sickness, I find myself a little thankful.

    I have been forced to sit and do absolutely nothing. I've read some books, watched some movies, and slept for four days straight while in Florence, Italy. That sounds almost like an oxymoron. Bronchitis has not been fun, and neither has the homesickness, the stress, etc. But now, as I begin to get my strength back, I find myself much less stressed out about a lot of things on this semester's bucket list. I've won round one in the fight with homesickness. I've hit my first rough patch in the road, and I've survived it (mostly). So, yay for sick days. Here's to hoping my meds kick in soon and I don't have to find the bright side of more sick days again.

~Leah

(Update: Roomates came home today with an odd array of sprays, syrups, and horse pills, complete Italian instruction manuals, for me to begin taking. After failing hopelessly to read the instructions written by the doctor who visited me (turns out baad handwriting is a universal trait..?) I spent a solid thirty minutes Google Translating all the instructions on my medicines in a desperate attempt to keep myself from overdosing. So now that I've intelligently guesstimated what the correct dosage is for each medicine, let's hope that this works. Nothing like self-prescribing medicine. What could go wrong, right?)