Valentine’s Day and the Week Long Cold

Valentine’s Day was pretty fun this year. It landed on a Friday, which meant that there was definitely going to be some events planned. For me, being dateless [by choice], I chose the option of being with my church family for their annual Valentine’s Day dinner. It was held outside in our courtyard under the stars, so romantic eh? You mustn’t forget that it is summer here, so being outside is perfect, unlike what I am seeing from back home. Sorry east coast.  I wasn’t the only person without a date, and then, it didn’t even matter. It was just nice to be with a good group of people, about 50 people were there. I told my dad I feel old, this event reminded me of the ones that him and my mom would always go to, and leave me at home with the babysitter.

There was a lovely dinner prepared by a couple from the church, and the waiters were all the young boys, by young, I mean my high school students. Throughout the night they had games and prizes. Our table had to come up with a sing about love. My first instinct was to sing Nat King Cole’s, “L is for the way you look at me”, but one of the other ladies at the table suggested Barney’s song “I love you, you love me”. You can tell who has the children. Then there was the dance contest. Couples went up, and then men, and then women. I was the obvious choice for that one, and the way I won was by blowing kisses to the judges (the waiters). I said “you gotta know how to work an audience”. Anyways, all of these various games awarded points for my table. I am glad I sat with who I did, because we all had the competitive spirit and won! It’s amazing what little things excite me here.   One thing is for sure, it made me miss my church family back home, and all the different activities I did with them. That was basically my life growing up.

So I guess it was good that I was dateless anyways that weekend because I had been sick for 5 days straight. I got sick on Wednesday with a Cold; however here, a ‘cold’ means the “FLU”. Thus for arguments sake, I was telling everyone I had the flu. I’ve been sick many times like this before, so I knew what I needed to do, to nurse myself back to health. Good thing too, because I didn’t have any medicine. For every day I was sick, I would suck down 2L of orange juice and sleep. I would cook, but I was too exhausted to eat. Alternatively, I decided to make myself fruit smoothies. Every day I’d bust out my blender and chop up mangos, nectarines, plums, bananas, anything really. By doing so I have finally discovered that I can actually cook!! Smoothies count right?  I am finally starting to feel better, thank goodness. I am starting up my dance lessons again for the year, so I need my strength.  That’s it for now. Stay classy America.