Being Sick

I came down with a pretty nasty sinus infection on Sunday. I woke up and had one of the worst head aches I have ever had, and my face felt like it was going to explode with all the pressure coming from my sinuses. I was also coughing and sneezing a lot too.

So when 8:30 came and I had to meet Jeff, Andrew, and Graeme downstairs to go to our meeting, you can imagine how much I did NOT want to go. But being that I'm stubborn and don't like to miss things like that, I pushed through it and survived through one of their boring meetings (barely though).

I don't usually go to the doctor (I haven't been in about 2 years), but after feeling more miserable than I have felt in a really long time and hearing about 20 people tell me how terrible I looked, I figured it was time to buck up and go. Luckily, there is a doctor's office about a 3-minute walk away from our hotel. I walked in, they asked me for my insurance card (which they had given to us at the end of last week, thank goodness), then they told me a doctor would be right with me. Less than 20 minutes later, I had seen the doctor, was diagnosed with a sinus infection, and received my medicine from the pharmacy (conveniently attached to the doctor's office). I walked home, took my medicine, then took a nap.

Two hours later, I woke up feeling like a completely different person. My headaches and sinus pressure were mostly gone, and my nose wasn't as runny either. I was really glad I went to the doctor, to say the least!

Sunday evening, I ate downstairs with Jeff. He had cooked some chicken fajitas, which were pretty good. We talked for a while, then he, Danielle, and I walked over to the mall to check out some of the Ramadan sales that are going on. We also went upstairs to the sports store to price out some pool, ping-pong, air hockey, and fooz-ball tables to fill up the big empty space I have in my living room. I think the pool table was the nicest option, but also the most expensive so we'll have to just wait and see about that.


This morning, I woke up feeling pretty much like my normal self. We went to a pretty boring meeting about using technology in our classroom. The presentation would be fine, except for the guy began by saying, "I know that this won't really apply to a majority of you who are in government schools, but I'll go ahead and give the information for those of you who are lucky enough to have computers and internet in your classroom." I'm not a professional on public speaking by any means, but I'm pretty sure that the one thing you should never do while giving a presentation is to tell 1/2 the room that what you are about to say is pointless for them to hear.

After a frustrating 2 hours of doodling pictures and passing notes back and forth with the people around me, err . . . I mean, listening intently to a great presentation about computers and technology, a few of us headed over to the Marina Mall to get a few things from Ikea. I ended up getting some tupper wear and a giant 8 ft x 5 ft canvas print of a photo of New York City to hang on my wall in my living room. It looks pretty cool and adds a lot of life to my living room.

This afternoon, I went to the Co-Op to buy a few groceries, as well as a printer. It turns out that you have to buy USB cables for the printer separately, but by the time I realized this the store was already closed. So I didn't get to try out the printer yet, but it seems like it will work pretty nicely.

Finally, tonight I stayed in and cooked some chicken alfredo pasta and watched a movie with a friend. It was nice to just sit back and relax by staying in for the evening.

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt