America Sick

There are very few mornings where I wake up and long for America. I love my country and, like Lee Greenwood, I am proud to be an American, but it’s rare that I miss it. I miss my family and my friends. I miss chick-fil-a and driving a car, but overall, I don’t really miss living in the states too often. I don’t miss the hurried business that permeates everything. I don’t miss the entitlement and materialism that sits like a fog over Dallas. I don’t miss the television and commercials and stuff. 

However, for the last few days I have been really missing some of the American “comforts” that I took for granted. Never wondering if you will have electricity that night. Being able to walk out to a car and go wherever you want. Being able to flush a toilet...any toilet. Eating something without washing it several times. 

Normally these things don’t bother me too much. I’ve gotten used to the “different” style of life here (I don’t want to use the word “difficult” because my life is candy, puppies, and rainbows compared to most of the world). But this past week I’ve really missed the normalcy and predictability that comes with life in America. 

Last Friday I was walking with some friends on the street and fell and got a pretty gross scrape on my leg. No big deal really, I fall often. The scrape healed within the week, but I noticed a few days ago I had about 25-30 bumps on my leg that looked like bug bites and itched like crazy. We first thought it was bed bugs and that grossed me out completely. I wanted to throw away my mattress, sheets, blanket, and pillow all at once and just sleep on the floor. This day was after yet another night of no electricity in our apartment (there have been more nights without electricity than with this semester) which means lots of street noise and lots of bugs and not a lot of sleep.  

I didn’t completely freak out and throw all of my stuff into a fire to get rid of the bugs. After internet research and help from my friend Jill we determined it was an infection sort of like staph. I am now taking antibiotics and it is getting better, but the idea that there were bedbugs (along with mice, cockroaches, spiders, and the ever-present mosquitoes) freaked me out….a lot. 

Saying all this makes me really feel like a spoiled brat, but what else is a blog for but sharing your thoughts and feelings with the world.